\htmlinclude .FAQ.doc.toc
+\section faq_simgrid I'm new to SimGrid. I have some questions. Where should I start?
+
+You are at the right place... Having a look to these
+<a href="http://www.loria.fr/~quinson/articles/simgrid-tutorial.pdf">the tutorial slides</a>
+(or to these <a href="http://graal.ens-lyon.fr/~alegrand/articles/slides_g5k_simul.pdf">old slides</a>,
+or to these
+<a href="http://graal.ens-lyon.fr/~alegrand/articles/Simgrid-Introduction.pdf">"obsolete" slides</a>)
+may give you some insights on what SimGrid can help you to do and what
+are its limitations. Then you definitely should read the \ref
+MSG_examples. The \ref GRAS_tut can also help you.
+
+If you are stuck at any point and if this FAQ cannot help you, please drop us a
+mail to the user mailing list: <simgrid-user@lists.gforge.inria.fr>.
+
+\subsection faq_interfaces What is the difference between MSG, SimDag, and GRAS? Do they serve the same purpose?
+
+It depend on how you define "purpose", I guess ;)
+
+They all allow you to build a prototype of application which you can run
+within the simulator afterward. They all share the same simulation kernel,
+which is the core of the SimGrid project. They differ by the way you express
+your application.
+
+With SimDag, you express your code as a collection of interdependent
+parallel tasks. So, in this model, applications can be seen as a DAG of
+tasks. This is the interface of choice for people wanting to port old
+code designed for SimGrid v1 or v2 to the framework current version.
+
+With both GRAS and MSG, your application is seen as a set of communicating
+processes, exchanging data by the way of messages and performing computation
+on their own.
+
+The difference between both is that MSG is somehow easier to use, but GRAS
+is not limited to the simulator. Once you're done writing your GRAS code,
+you can run your code both in the simulator or on a real platform. For this,
+there is two implementations of the GRAS interface, one for simulation, one
+for real execution. So, you just have to relink your code to chose one of
+both world.
+
+\subsection faq_generic First steps with SimGrid
+
+If you decide to go for the MSG interface, please read carefully the
+\ref MSG_examples. You'll find in \ref MSG_ex_master_slave a very
+simple consisting of a master (that owns a bunch of tasks and
+distributes them) , some slaves (that process tasks whenever they
+receive one) and some forwarder agents (that simply pass the tasks
+they receive to some slaves).
+
+If you decide to go for the GRAS interface, you should definitively
+read the \ref GRAS_tut. The first section constitutes an introduction
+to the tool and presents the model we use. The second section
+constitutes a complete step-by-step tutorial building a distributed
+application from the beginning and exemplifying most of the GRAS
+features in the process. The last section groups some HOWTOS
+highlighting a given feature of the framework in a more concise way.
+
+If you decide to go for another interface, I'm afraid your only sources
+of information will be the source code and the mailing lists...
+
+\subsection faq_visualization Visualizing and analyzing the results
+
+It is sometime convenient to "see" how the agents are behaving. If you
+like colors, you can use <tt>tools/MSG_visualization/colorize.pl </tt>
+as a filter to your MSG outputs. It works directly with INFO. Beware,
+INFO() prints on stderr. Do not forget to redirect if you want to
+filter (e.g. with bash):
+\verbatim
+./msg_test small_platform.xml small_deployment.xml 2>&1 | ../../tools/MSG_visualization/colorize.pl
+\endverbatim
+
+We also have a more graphical output. Have a look at MSG_paje_output(). It
+generates an input to <a href="http://www-id.imag.fr/Logiciels/paje/">Paje</a>.
+<center>
+\htmlonly
+ <a href="Paje_MSG_screenshot.jpg"><img src="Paje_MSG_screenshot_thn.jpg"></a>
+\endhtmlonly
+</center>
+
+Visualization with Paje can be seen as a kind of postmortem
+analysis. However, as soon as you start playing with big simulations,
+you'll realize that processing such output is kind of tricky. There is
+so much generic information that it is hard to find the information
+you are looking for.
+
+As a matter of fact, logging really depends on simulations (e.g. what
+kind of events is important...). That is why we do not propose a big
+dump of your whole simulation (it would slow everything down) but give
+you neat tools to structure you logs. Have a look at \ref XBT_log. In
+fact, rather than a post-mortem analysis, you may want to do it on the
+fly. The process you are running can do whatever you want. Have you
+thought about adding a global structure where you directly compute the
+information that are really important rather than writing everything
+down and then processing huge files?
+
+\subsection faq_C Argh! Do I really have to code in C?
+
+Up until now, there is no binding for other languages. If you use C++,
+you should be able to use the SimGrid library as a standard C library
+and everything should work fine (simply <i>link</i> against this
+library; recompiling SimGrid with a C++ compiler won't work and it
+wouldn't help if you could).
+
+In fact, we are currently working on Java bindings of MSG to allow
+all the undergrad students of the world to use this tool. This is a
+little more tricky than I would have expected, but the work is moving
+fast forward [2006/05/13]. More languages are evaluated, but for now,
+we do not feel a real demand for any other language. Please speak up!
+
\section faq_installation Installing the SimGrid library
Many people have been asking me questions on how to use SimGrid. Quite
instructions and still have some troubles, drop an e-mail to
<simgrid-user@lists.gforge.inria.fr>.
-\subsection faq_compiling Compiling SimGrid from an archive
+\subsection faq_compiling Compiling SimGrid from a stable archive
First of all, you need to download the latest version of SimGrid from
<a href="http://gforge.inria.fr/frs/?group_id=12">here</a>.
directory. Change your directory to
<tt>/home/joe/tmp/simgrid-3.0.1</tt> and type
-\verbatim./configure --prefix=$HOME
+\verbatim
+./configure --prefix=$HOME
make
make install
\endverbatim
-If at some point, something fails, check the section "\ref
-faq_compil_trouble". If it does not help, you can report this problem to the
+If at some point, something fails, check the section \ref faq_trouble_compil .
+If it does not help, you can report this problem to the
list but, please, avoid sending a laconic mail like "There is a problem. Is it
okay?". Send the config.log file which is automatically generated by
configure. Try to capture both the standard output and the error output of the
\verbatim export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/lib/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
\endverbatim
-
-\subsection faq_compiling_cvs Compiling SimGrid from the CVS
-
-The project development takes place in the cvs, where all changes are
-commited when they happen. Then every once in a while, we make sure that the
+\subsection faq_compiling_java Java bindings don't get compiled
+
+The configure script detects automatically whether you have the
+softwares needed to use the Java bindings or not. At the end of the
+configure, you can see the configuration picked by the script, which
+should look similar to
+\verbatim Configuration of package simgrid' (version 3.3.4-svn) on
+little64 (=4):
+
+ Compiler: gcc (version: )
+
+ CFlags: -O3 -finline-functions -funroll-loops -fno-strict-aliasing -Wall -Wunused -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -Wpointer-arith -Wchar-subscripts -Wcomment -Wformat -Wwrite-strings -Wno-unused-function -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-strict-aliasing -Wno-format-nonliteral -Werror -g3
+ CPPFlags:
+ LDFlags:
+
+ Context backend: ucontext
+ Compile Java: no
+
+ Maintainer mode: no
+ Supernovae mode: yes
+\endverbatim
+
+In this example, Java backends won't be compiled.
+
+On Debian-like systems (which includes ubuntu), you need the following
+packages: sun-java6-jdk libgcj10-dev. If you cannot find the
+libgcj10-dev, try another version, like libgcj9-dev (on Ubuntu before
+9.10) or libgcj11-dev (not released yet, but certainly one day).
+Please note that you need to activate the contrib and non-free
+repositories in Debian, and the universe ones in Ubuntu. Java comes at
+this price...
+
+\subsection faq_compiling_snapshoot SimGrid development snapshots
+
+We have very high standards on software quality, and we are reluctant releasing
+a stable release as long as there is still some known bug in the code base. In
+addition, we added quite an extensive test base, making sure that we correctly
+test the most important parts of the tool.
+
+As an unfortunate conclusion, there may be some time between the stable
+releases. If you want to benefit from the most recent features we introduced,
+but don't want to take the risk of an untested version from the SVN, then
+development snapshots are done for you.
+
+These are pre-releases of SimGrid that still fail some tests about features
+that almost nobody use, or on platforms not being in our core target (which is
+Linux, Mac, other Unixes and Windows, from the most important to the less
+one). That means that using this development releases should be safe for most
+users.
+
+These archives can be found on
+<a href="http://www.loria.fr/~quinson/simgrid.html">this web page</a>. Once you
+got the lastest archive, you can compile it just like any archive (see above).
+
+\subsection faq_compiling_svn Compiling SimGrid from the SVN
+
+The project development takes place in the SVN, where all changes are
+committed when they happen. Then every once in a while, we make sure that the
code quality meets our standard and release an archive from the code in the
-CVS. We afterward go back to the development in the CVS. So, if you need a
+SVN. We afterward go back to the development in the SVN. So, if you need a
recently added feature and can afford some little problem with the stability
-of the lastest features, you may want to use the CVS version instead of a
+of the lastest features, you may want to use the SVN version instead of a
released one.
For that, you first need to get the "simgrid" module from
instructions of Section \ref faq_compiling.
We insist on the fact that you really need the latest versions of
-autoconf and automake. Doing this step on exotic architectures/systems
+autoconf, automake and libtool. Doing this step on exotic architectures/systems
(i.e. anything different from a recent linux distribution) may be
-... uncertain. If you want to use the CVS version on another
-architecture/system, you should do the previous steps on a perfectly
-standard box, then do a <tt>make dist</tt> that will build you a
-perfectly portable SimGrid archive.
+... uncertain. If you need to compile the SVN version on a machine where all these
+dependencies are not met, the easiest is to do <tt>make dist</tt> in the SVN
+directory of another machine where all dependencies are met. It will create an
+archive you may deploy on other sites just as a regular stable release.
-In summary, the following commands will checkout the CVS, regenerate the
-configure script and friends, configure SimGrid and build an archive you can
-use on another machine afterward.
+In summary, the following commands will checkout the SVN, regenerate the
+configure script and friends, configure SimGrid and build it.
-\verbatim cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@scm.gforge.inria.fr:/cvsroot/simgrid login
-cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@scm.gforge.inria.fr:/cvsroot/simgrid checkout simgrid
+\verbatim svn checkout svn://scm.gforge.inria.fr/svn/simgrid/simgrid/trunk simgrid
cd simgrid
./bootstrap
-./configure --enable-maintainer-mode
-make dist \endverbatim
+./configure --enable-maintainer-mode --prefix=<where to install SimGrid>
+make \endverbatim
+
+Then, if you want to install SimGrid on the current box, just do:
+\verbatim make install \endverbatim
+
+If you want to build an snapshot of the SVN to deploy it on another box (for
+example because the other machine don't have the autotools), do:
+\verbatim make dist \endverbatim
-\subsection faq_setting Setting up your own code
+Moreover, you should never call the autotools manually since you must run
+them in a specific order with specific arguments. Most of the times, the
+makefiles will automatically call the tools for you. When it's not possible
+(such as the first time you checkout the SVN), use the ./bootstrap command
+to call them explicitly.
+
+
+\subsection faq_setting_MSG Setting up your own MSG code
Do not build your simulator by modifying the SimGrid examples. Go
outside the SimGrid source tree and create your own working directory
previous example should be enough for a first try but you may want to
perform some more complex compilations...
-\section faq_simgrid I'm new to SimGrid. I have some questions. Where should I start?
+\subsection faq_setting_GRAS Setting up your own GRAS code
-You are at the right place... Having a look to these
-<a href="http://graal.ens-lyon.fr/~alegrand/articles/slides_g5k_simul.pdf">slides</a>
-(or to these
-<a href="http://graal.ens-lyon.fr/~alegrand/articles/Simgrid-Introduction.pdf">"obsolete" slides</a>)
-may give you some insights on what SimGrid can help you to do and what
-are its limitations. Then you definitely should read the \ref
-MSG_examples. There is also a mailing list: <simgrid-user@lists.gforge.inria.fr>.
+If you use the GRAS interface instead of the MSG one, then previous section
+is not the better source of information. Instead, you should check the GRAS
+tutorial in general, and the \ref GRAS_tut_tour_setup in particular.
-\subsection faq_generic Building a generic simulator
+\section faq_cmake CMAKE
-Please read carefully the \ref MSG_examples. You'll find in \ref
-MSG_ex_master_slave a very simple consisting of a master (that owns a bunch of
-tasks and distributes them) , some slaves (that process tasks whenever
-they receive one) and some forwarder agents (that simply pass the
-tasks they receive to some slaves).
+\subsection faq_intro Some generalitty
-\subsection faq_visualization Visualizing the schedule
+\subsubsection faq_intro1 What is Cmake?
-It is sometime convenient to "see" how the agents are behaving. If you
-like colors, you can use <tt>tools/MSG_visualization/colorize.pl </tt>
-as a filter to your MSG outputs. It works directly with INFO. Beware,
-INFO() prints on stderr. Do not forget to redirect if you want to
-filter (e.g. with bash):
-\verbatim
-./msg_test small_platform.xml small_deployment.xml 2>&1 | ../../tools/MSG_visualization/colorize.pl
+CMake is a family of tools designed to build, test and package software. CMake is used to control the software compilation process using simple platform and compiler independent configuration files. CMake generates native makefiles and workspaces that can be used in the compiler environment of your choice. For more information see official web site <a href="http://www.cmake.org/">here</a>.
+
+\subsubsection faq_intro2 Why cmake?
+
+CMake permits to developers to compil projects on different plateform. Then many tools are embedded like ctest for making test, a link to cdash for vizualise results but also test coverage and bug reports.
+
+\subsubsection faq_intro3 What cmake need?
+
+CMake needs some prerequists like :
+ \li make
+ \li c, c++ and java compiler regards to developers
+ \li ccmake for graphical used of CMake
+ \li cmake <a href="http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html">(download page)</a>
+
+\subsubsection faq_intro4 Cmake vs Autotools...
+
+
+
+\subsection faq_cmakeoption Cmake options
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakeoption1 Liste of options
+
+\verbatim
+"cmake -D[name]=[value] ... ./"
+
+[name] disable_gtnets [value] ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ disable_java ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ disable_lua ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ disable_ruby ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+
+ enable_compile_optimizations ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_compile_warnings ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_maintainer_mode ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+
+ supernovae ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+
+ gtnets_path <path_to_gtnets_directory>
+ prefix <path_to_install_directory>
+ with_context auto/ucontext/pthread/window
\endverbatim
-We also have a more graphical output. Have a look at MSG_paje_output(). It
-generates an input to <a href="http://www-id.imag.fr/Logiciels/paje/">Paje</a>.
-<center>
-\htmlonly
- <a href="Paje_MSG_screenshot.jpg"><img src="Paje_MSG_screenshot_thn.jpg"></a>
-\endhtmlonly
-</center>
+\subsubsection faq_cmakeoption2 Options explaination
-\subsection faq_postmortem_analysis Online/postmortem analysis
+ \li disable_gtnets : set to true implie that user doesn't want to use gtnets.
-Vizualization with Paje can be seen as a kind of postmortem
-analysis. However, as soon as you start playing with big simulations,
-you'll realize that processing such output is kind of tricky. There is
-so much generic informations that it is hard to find the information
-you are looking for.
+ \li disable_java : set to true implie that user doesn't want to add java langage into simgrid compilation.
-As a matter of fact, loging really depends on simulations (e.g. what
-kind of events is important...). That is why we do not propose a big
-dump of your whole simulation (it would slow everything down) but give
-you neat tools to structure you logs. Have a look at \ref XBT_log. In
-fact, rather than a post-mortem analysis, you may want to do it on the
-fly. The process you are running can do whatever you want. Have you
-thought about adding a global structure where you directly compute the
-informations that are really important rather than writing everything
-down and then processing huge files ?
+ \li disable_lua : set to true implie that user doesn't want to add lua langage into simgrid compilation.
-\subsection faq_C Argh! Do I really have to code in C ?
+ \li disable_ruby : set to true implie that user doesn't want to add ruby langage into simgrid compilation.
-Up until now, there is no binding for other languages. If you use C++,
-you should be able to use the SimGrid library as a standard C library
-and everything should work fine (simply <i>link</i> against this
-library; recompiling SimGrid with a C++ compiler won't work and it
-wouldn't help if you could).
+ \li enable_compile_optimizations : add flags "-O3 -finline-functions -funroll-loops -fno-strict-aliasing"
+
+ \li enable_compile_warnings : add flags "-Wall -Wunused -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -Wpointer-arith -Wchar-subscripts -Wcomment -Wformat -Wwrite-strings -Wno-unused-function -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-strict-aliasing -Wno-format-nonliteral -Werror"
+
+ \li enable_maintainer_mode : set to true make doc and remake files with flex flexml.
+\verbatim
+/doc/html
+/src/gras/DataDesc/ddt_parse.yy.c
+/src/surf/simgrid_dtd.c
+/src/xbt/graphxml.c
+/src/simdag/dax_dtd.c
+/include/surf/simgrid_dtd.h
+/include/xbt/graphxml.h
+/src/simdag/dax_dtd.h
+\endverbatim
+ \li supernovae : set to true make one file for each lib and compile with those generated files.
+\verbatim
+/src/supernovae_sg.c
+/src/supernovae_gras.c
+/src/supernovae_smpi.c
+\endverbatim
+ \li gtnets_path : Path to gtnets install directory (ex /usr)
+
+ \li prefix : Path where are installed lib/ doc/ and include/ directories (ex /usr/local)
+
+ \li with context : specify which context the user wants to use.
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakeoption3 Initialisation
+
+Those options are initialized the first time you launch \"cmake ./\" whithout specified option.
+
+\verbatim
+with_context auto
+enable_maintainer_mode off
+supernovae off
+disable_java off
+disable_lua off
+enable_compile_warnings off
+enable_compile_optimizations off
+disable_gtnets off
+disable_ruby on
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakeoption4 Option's cache and how to reset?
+
+When options have been set they are keep into a cache file named \"CMakeCache.txt\". So if you want
+reset values you just delete this file located to the project directory.
+
+\subsection faq_cmakecompilation Cmake compilation
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakecompilation1 With command line.
+
+\verbatim
+cmake -D[name]=[value] ... ./
+make
+\endverbatim
-In fact, the bindings needed to allow one to use SimGrid from Perl,
-Python, Java, etc. are double-layered. The first layer would allow
-you to call for example the MSG_task_get_name(task) function while
-what you really want is a proper object wrapping allowing you to call
-task->name(). That's the purpose of the second layer. The first one
-is granted with C++ but can be done with tools like
-<a href="www.swig.org/">swig</a> for other languages like Perl, Ruby,
-Python, CAML. None of us really need the second one (which is a bit
-more demanding and cannot be automatically generated) yet and there is
-no real point in doing the first one without the second. :)
+\subsubsection faq_cmakecompilation2 With ccmake tool.
-As usual, you're welcome to participate.
+\verbatim
+"ccmake ./"
+\endverbatim
+Then follow instructions.
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakecompilation3 Resume of command line
+
+ \li CMake
+\verbatim
+cmake ./ configure the project
+make build all tagets
+make test test all targets and summarize
+make package make the distrib
+make install-simgrid install the project (doc/ lib/ include/)
+make clean" clean all targets
+\endverbatim
+
+When the project have been succesfully compiling and build you can make tests.
+
+ \li CTest
+\verbatim
+ctest launch only tests
+ctest -D Continuous
+ctest -D Continuous(Start|Update|Configure|Build)
+ctest -D Continuous(Test|Coverage|MemCheck|Submit)
+ctest -D Experimental
+ctest -D Experimental(Start|Update|Configure|Build)
+ctest -D Experimental(Test|Coverage|MemCheck|Submit)
+ctest -D Nightly
+ctest -D Nightly(Start|Update|Configure|Build)
+ctest -D Nightly(Test|Coverage|MemCheck|Submit)
+ctest -D NightlyMemoryCheck
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakecompilation4 Examples for different mode.
+
+\li Mode maintainer
+
+cmake -Denable_maintainer_mode=on ./
+\verbatim GTnetS doesn't works : set -Ddisable_gtnets=on
+with_context auto change to ucontext
+(skaddr)
+(sksize)
+Make : src/simgrid.jar with : /usr/bin/javac
+Make examples/java with : /usr/bin/javac
+
+Configuration of package `simgrid' (revision 7228M) on arch (=4):
+ BUILDNAME : UCONTEXT
+ SITE : Linux_Ubuntu 9.10_x86_64
+
+ Compiler: c++ : /usr/bin/c++
+ version: c++ (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+ c : /usr/bin/gcc
+ version: gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+
+ CFlags: -g3
+ CPPFlags:
+ LDFlags:
+
+ Context backend: ucontext
+ Compile Gtnets: 0
+ path:
+ Compile Java: 1
+ Compile Lua: 1
+ Compile Ruby: 0
+
+ Maintainer mode: on
+ Supernovae mode: off
+
+ Simgrid dependencies: dl -llua5.1
+ Gras dependencies: pthread
+ Ruby dependencies:
+ Smpi dependencies:
+
+ USER_PREFIX: /usr/local
+ INSTALL_PREFIX: /usr/local
+
+-- Configuring done
+-- Generating done
+-- Build files have been written to: /home/navarrop/Bureau/simgrid-trunk
+\endverbatim
+
+\li Mode supernovae
+
+cmake -Dsupernovae=on ./
+\verbatim GTnetS doesn't works : set -Ddisable_gtnets=on
+with_context auto change to ucontext
+(skaddr)
+(sksize)
+Make : src/simgrid.jar with : /usr/bin/javac
+Make examples/java with : /usr/bin/javac
+
+Configuration of package `simgrid' (revision 7228M) on arch (=4):
+ BUILDNAME : SUPERNOVAE
+ SITE : Linux_Ubuntu 9.10_x86_64
+
+ Compiler: c++ : /usr/bin/c++
+ version: c++ (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+ c : /usr/bin/gcc
+ version: gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+
+ CFlags: -O3 -finline-functions -funroll-loops -fno-strict-aliasing -Wall -Wunused -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -Wpointer-arith -Wchar-subscripts -Wcomment -Wformat -Wwrite-strings -Wno-unused-function -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-strict-aliasing -Wno-format-nonliteral -Werror -g3
+ CPPFlags:
+ LDFlags:
+
+ Context backend: ucontext
+ Compile Gtnets: 0
+ path:
+ Compile Java: 1
+ Compile Lua: 1
+ Compile Ruby: 0
+
+ Maintainer mode: off
+ Supernovae mode: on
+
+ Simgrid dependencies: dl -llua5.1
+ Gras dependencies: pthread
+ Ruby dependencies:
+ Smpi dependencies:
+
+ USER_PREFIX: /usr/local
+ INSTALL_PREFIX: /usr/local
+
+-- Configuring done
+-- Generating done
+-- Build files have been written to: /home/navarrop/Bureau/simgrid-trunk
+\endverbatim
+
+\li Mode GTnetS
+
+cmake -Dgtnets_path=/home/navarrop/Bureau/usr/ ./
+\verbatim with_context auto change to ucontext
+(skaddr)
+(sksize)
+Make : src/simgrid.jar with : /usr/bin/javac
+Make examples/java with : /usr/bin/javac
+
+Configuration of package `simgrid' (revision 7228M) on arch (=4):
+ BUILDNAME : GTNETS
+ SITE : Linux_Ubuntu 9.10_x86_64
+
+ Compiler: c++ : /usr/bin/c++
+ version: c++ (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+ c : /usr/bin/gcc
+ version: gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+
+ CFlags: -L/home/navarrop/Bureau/usr/lib -I/home/navarrop/Bureau/usr/include/gtnets -g3
+ CPPFlags: -L/home/navarrop/Bureau/usr/lib -I/home/navarrop/Bureau/usr/include/gtnets
+ LDFlags:
+
+ Context backend: ucontext
+ Compile Gtnets: 1
+ path: /home/navarrop/Bureau/usr
+ Compile Java: 1
+ Compile Lua: 1
+ Compile Ruby: 0
+
+ Maintainer mode: off
+ Supernovae mode: off
+
+ Simgrid dependencies: dl -llua5.1 -lgtnets
+ Gras dependencies: pthread
+ Ruby dependencies:
+ Smpi dependencies:
+
+ USER_PREFIX: /usr/local
+ INSTALL_PREFIX: /usr/local
+
+INFO -->> Take care to have export LD_LIBRARY_PATH before run make command for make examples with gtnets
+copy and paste : export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/navarrop/Bureau/usr/lib/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+
+
+-- Configuring done
+-- Generating done
+-- Build files have been written to: /home/navarrop/Bureau/simgrid-trunk
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsection faq_cmakeinstall How to install with cmake?
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakeinstall1 From svn.
+
+\verbatim
+cmake -Denable_maintainer_mode=on -Dprefix=/home/navarrop/Bureau/install_simgrid ./
+make
+make install-simgrid
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakeinstall2 From a distrib
+
+\verbatim
+cmake -Dprefix=/home/navarrop/Bureau/install_simgrid ./
+make
+make install-simgrid
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsection faq_screenshot Screenshot
+
+\verbatim
+navarrop@caraja:~$ cd Bureau/simgrid-trunk/
+navarrop@caraja:~/Bureau/simgrid-trunk$ cmake ./
+
+GTnetS doesn't works : set -Ddisable_gtnets=on <-|some warnings are printed
+with_context auto change to ucontext <-|
+(skaddr) <--info (needed)
+(sksize) <--info (needed)
+Make : src/simgrid.jar with : /usr/bin/javac <--info (if java)
+Make examples/java with : /usr/bin/javac <--info (if java)
+
+Configuration of package `simgrid' (revision 7209M) on arch (=4):
+ BUILDNAME : UCONTEXT <-- name of the compilation regarding to cdash
+ SITE : Linux_Ubuntu 9.10_x86_64 <-- distribution of the local machine regarding to cdash
+
+ Compiler: c++ : /usr/bin/c++
+ version: c++ (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+ c : /usr/bin/gcc
+ version: gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+
+ CFlags: -g3
+ CPPFlags:
+ LDFlags:
+
+ Context backend: ucontext
+ Compile Gtnets: 0
+ path:
+ Compile Java: 1
+ Compile Lua: 1
+ Compile Ruby: 0
+
+ Maintainer mode: OFF
+ Supernovae mode: OFF
+
+ Simgrid dependencies: -ldl -llua5.1
+ Gras dependencies: pthread
+ Ruby dependencies:
+ Smpi dependencies:
+
+ USER_PREFIX: /usr/local
+ INSTALL_PREFIX: /usr/local
+
+-- Configuring done
+-- Generating done
+-- Build files have been written to: /home/navarrop/Bureau/simgrid-trunk
+\endverbatim
+Here all options are checked and printed. If it doesn't match with your configuration
+it is probably due to a wrong configuration.
+
+\subsection faq_cmakehowto How to modified sources files for developers
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakehowto1 Add an executable or examples.
+
+If you want make an executable you have to create a CMakeList.txt to the src directory.
+You must specified where to create the executable, source list, dependencies and the name of the binary.
+
+\verbatim
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.6)
+
+set(EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH "./")
+set(LIBRARY_OUTPUT_PATH "${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/lib")
+
+add_executable(get_sender get_sender.c) #add_executable(<name_of_target> <src list>)
+
+### Add definitions for compile
+target_link_libraries(get_sender simgrid m pthread -fprofile-arcs) #target_link_libraries(<name_of_targe> <dependencies>)
+\endverbatim
+
+Then you have to modified <project/directory>/buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeMakeExeLib.txt and add
+this line :
+\verbatim
+add_subdirectory(${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/<path_where_is_CMakeList.txt>)
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakehowto2 Delete/add sources to lib.
-\section faq_MIA How to ....? Is there a function in the API to simply ....?
+If you want modified, add or delete source files from a library you have to edit <project/directory>/buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeDefinePackages.txt
+
+\verbatim
+set(JMSG_JAVA_SRC
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/MsgException.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/JniException.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/NativeException.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/HostNotFoundException.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/ProcessNotFoundException.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/Msg.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/Process.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/Host.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/Task.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/MsgNative.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/ApplicationHandler.java
+ ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/src/java/simgrid/msg/Sem.java
+)
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakehowto3 Add test
+
+If you want modified, add or delete tests you have to edit <project/directory>/buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeTest.txt
+with this function : ADD_TEST(<name> <bin> <ARGS>)
+
+\verbatim
+add_test(test-simdag-1 ${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/testsuite/simdag/sd_test --cfg=path:${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/testsuite/simdag small_platform_variable.xml)
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsection faq_cmakeExplain Explaination of sources files for cmake
+
+\li CMakeLists.txt
+
+Those files are the "main parts". One located at the project directory call all the cmake sources files. The others
+are little projects called by the first for make examples.
+
+\li CMakeCompleteInFiles.txt
+
+Complete all .in files and define Variables for h files
+
+\li CMakeDocs.txt
+
+This file make the html documentation.
+
+\li CMakeMakeExeLib.txt
+
+Here are callled all "CMakeLists.txt" for make executables and libraries.
+
+\li CMakePrintArgs.txt
+
+This file is called at the end of the build for summarize environment variables.
+
+\li CMakeDefinePackages.txt
+
+Here is defined sources packages for compiling libs.
+
+\li CMakeFlags.txt
+
+Defined flags which are used for compiling sources.
+
+\li CMakeSupernovae.txt
+
+Here are made files for the supernovae mode.
+
+\li CMakeDistrib.txt
+
+Here is defined packages for install simgrid and make a distribution.
+
+\li CMakeFLEXml.txt
+
+Part for generated sources from flex and flexml.
+
+\li CMakeOption.txt
+
+Here are defined options and initialized values.
+
+\li CMakeTest.txt
+
+All tests are listed.
+
+\li CTestConfig.cmake
+
+Properties which link tests with dashboard.
+
+\subsection faq_cmakeList List of files added for cmake
+
+Here is a list of files involved into cmake build (relative to project directory path) :
+\verbatim
+
+Cmake sources:
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeCompleteInFiles.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeDocs.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeMakeExeLib.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakePrintArgs.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeDefinePackages.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeFlags.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeSupernovae.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeDistrib.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeFLEXml.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeOption.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CMakeTest.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/src/CTestConfig.cmake
+
+Test files for define properties :
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_GRAS_ARCH.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_max_size.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_sem_init.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_stackgrowth.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_vsnprintf.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_AC_CHECK_MCSC.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_GRAS_CHECK_STRUCT_COMPACTION.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_mutex_timedlock.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_sem_timedwait.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_stacksetup.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_getline.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_gtnets.cpp
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_printf_null.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_snprintf.c
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/prog_test/prog_va_copy.c
+
+CMakeLists for each binaries or examples:
+ ./CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/gras/empty_main/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/gras/small_sleep/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/gras/datadesc/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/gras/msg_handle/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/simdag/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/simdag/partask/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/simdag/platforms/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/simdag/network/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/simdag/network/mxn/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/simdag/network/p2p/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/xbt/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./teshsuite/msg/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./tools/gras/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./tools/tesh/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./testsuite/simdag/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./testsuite/xbt/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./testsuite/surf/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/properties/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/ping/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/pmm/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/mmrpc/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/synchro/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/timer/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/mutual_exclusion/simple_token/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/spawn/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/chrono/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/rpc/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/gras/all2all/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/simdag/properties/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/simdag/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/simdag/metaxml/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/simdag/dax/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/smpi/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/amok/bandwidth/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/amok/saturate/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/priority/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/properties/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/migration/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/gtnets/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/parallel_task/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/trace/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/suspend/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/masterslave/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/actions/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./examples/msg/sendrecv/CMakeLists.txt
+\endverbatim
+
+\section faq_howto Feature related questions
+
+\subsection faq_MIA "Could you please add (your favorite feature here) to SimGrid?"
Here is the deal. The whole SimGrid project (MSG, SURF, GRAS, ...) is
meant to be kept as simple and generic as possible. We cannot add
-functions for everybody's need when these functions can easily be
+functions for everybody's needs when these functions can easily be
built from the ones already in the API. Most of the time, it is
possible and when it was not possible we always have upgraded the API
-accordingly. When somebody asks us a question like "How to do that ?
-Is there a function in the API to simply do this ?", we're always glad
+accordingly. When somebody asks us a question like "How to do that?
+Is there a function in the API to simply do this?", we're always glad
to answer and help. However if we don't need this code for our own
need, there is no chance we're going to write it... it's your job! :)
The counterpart to our answers is that once you come up with a neat
people have asked about it and we have given hints on how to simply do
it with MSG. Feel free to contribute...
-\subsection faq_MIA_examples I want some more complex examples!
+\subsection faq_MIA_MSG MSG features
+
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_examples I want some more complex MSG examples!
Many people have come to ask me a more complex example and each time,
they have realized afterward that the basics were in the previous three
We know. We should add some more examples, but not really some more
complex ones... We should add some examples that illustrate some other
-functionalities (like how to simply encode asynchronous
+functionalists (like how to simply encode asynchronous
communications, RPC, process migrations, thread synchronization, ...)
and we will do it when we will have a little bit more time. We have
tried to document the examples so that they are understandable. Tell
us if something is not clear and once again feel free to participate!
:)
-\subsection faq_MIA_taskdup Missing in action: Task duplication/replication
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_taskdup Missing in action: MSG Task duplication/replication
There is no task duplication in MSG. When you create a task, you can
process it or send it somewhere else. As soon as a process has sent
MSG_task_get_remaining_computation(), MSG_task_get_data_size(),
and MSG_task_get_data().
-You could use a dictionnary (#xbt_dict_t) of dynars (#xbt_dynar_t). If
+You could use a dictionary (#xbt_dict_t) of dynars (#xbt_dynar_t). If
you still don't see how to do it, please come back to us...
-\subsection faq_MIA_asynchronous I want to do asynchronous communications in MSG
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_asynchronous I want to do asynchronous communications in MSG
Up until now, there is no asynchronous communications in MSG. However,
you can create as many process as you want so you should be able to do
process only to handle communications may be problematic in term of
performance at some point). I'll add it in the distribution asap.
-\subsection faq_MIA_thread_synchronization I need to synchronize my MSG processes
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_thread_synchronization I need to synchronize my MSG processes
You obviously cannot use pthread_mutexes of pthread_conds. The best
thing would be to propose similar structures. Unfortunately, we
synchronization with fake communications (using MSG_task_get(),
MSG_task_put() and MSG_task_Iprobe()).
-\subsection faq_MIA_host_load Where is the get_host_load function hidden in MSG?
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_host_load Where is the get_host_load function hidden in MSG?
There is no such thing because its semantic wouldn't be really
clear. Of course, it is something about the amount of host throughput,
communications have an influence on computational power. Should it be taken
into account too?
-So, we decided not to include such a function into MSG and let people do it
-thereselves so that they get the value matching exactly what they mean. One
-possibility is to run active measurement as in next code snippet. It is very
-close from what you would have to do out of the simulator, and thus gives
-you information that you could also get in real settings to not hinder the
-realism of your simulation.
+First of all, it's near to impossible to predict the load beforehands in the
+simulator since it depends on too much parameters (background load
+variation, bandwidth sharing algorithmic complexity) some of them even being
+not known beforehands (other task starting at the same time). So, getting
+this information is really hard (just like in real life). It's not just that
+we want MSG to be as painful as real life. But as it is in some way
+realistic, we face some of the same problems as we would face in real life.
+
+How would you do it for real? The most common option is to use something
+like NWS that performs active probes. The best solution is probably to do
+the same within MSG, as in next code snippet. It is very close from what you
+would have to do out of the simulator, and thus gives you information that
+you could also get in real settings to not hinder the realism of your
+simulation.
\verbatim
double get_host_load() {
case, please detail what you mean on the mailing list, and we will extend
this FAQ section to fit your taste if possible.
-\subsection faq_MIA_batch_scheduler Is there a native support for batch schedulers in SimGrid ?
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_communication_time How can I get the *real* communication time?
-No, there is no native support for batch schedulers and none is
-planned because this is a very specific need (and doing it in a
-generic way is thus very hard). However some people have implemented
-their own batch schedulers. Vincent Garonne wrote one during his PhD
-and put his code in the contrib directory of our CVS so that other can
-keep working on it. You may find inspinring ideas in it.
+Communications are synchronous and thus if you simply get the time
+before and after a communication, you'll only get the transmission
+time and the time spent to really communicate (it will also take into
+account the time spent waiting for the other party to be
+ready). However, getting the *real* communication time is not really
+hard either. The following solution is a good starting point.
-\subsection faq_MIA_checkpointing I need a checkpointing thing
+\verbatim
+int sender()
+{
+ m_task_t task = MSG_task_create("Task", task_comp_size, task_comm_size,
+ calloc(1,sizeof(double)));
+ *((double*) task->data) = MSG_get_clock();
+ MSG_task_put(task, slaves[i % slaves_count], PORT_22);
+ INFO0("Send completed");
+ return 0;
+}
+int receiver()
+{
+ m_task_t task = NULL;
+ double time1,time2;
+
+ time1 = MSG_get_clock();
+ a = MSG_task_get(&(task), PORT_22);
+ time2 = MSG_get_clock();
+ if(time1<*((double *)task->data))
+ time1 = *((double *) task->data);
+ INFO1("Communication time : \"%f\" ", time2-time1);
+ free(task->data);
+ MSG_task_destroy(task);
+ return 0;
+}
+\endverbatim
-Actually, it depends on whether you want to checkpoint the simulation, or to
-simulate checkpoints.
+\subsection faq_MIA_SimDag SimDag related questions
-The first one could help if your simulation is a long standing process you
-want to keep running even on hardware issues. It could also help to
-<i>rewind</i> the simulation by jumping sometimes on an old checkpoint to
-cancel recent calculations.\n
-Unfortunately, such thing will probably never exist in SG. One would have to
-duplicate all data structures because doing a rewind at the simulator level
-is very very hard (not talking about the malloc free operations that might
-have been done in between). Instead, you may be interested in the Libckpt
-library (http://www.cs.utk.edu/~plank/plank/www/libckpt.html). This is the
-checkpointing solution used in the condor project, for example. It makes it
-easy to create checkpoints (at the OS level, creating something like core
-files), and rerunning them on need.
+\subsubsection faq_SG_comm Implementing communication delays between tasks.
-If you want to simulate checkpoints instead, it means that you want the
-state of an executing task (in particular, the progress made towards
-completion) to be saved somewhere. So if a host (and the task executing on
-it) fails (cf. #MSG_HOST_FAILURE), then the task can be restarted
-from the last checkpoint.\n
+A classic question of SimDag newcomers is about how to express a
+communication delay between tasks. The thing is that in SimDag, both
+computation and communication are seen as tasks. So, if you want to
+model a data dependency between two DAG tasks t1 and t2, you have to
+create 3 SD_tasks: t1, t2 and c and add dependencies in the following
+way:
-Actually, such a thing does not exists in SimGrid either, but it's just
-because we don't think it is fundamental and it may be done in the user code
-at relatively low cost. You could for example use a watcher that
-periodically get the remaining amount of things to do (using
-MSG_task_get_remaining_computation()), or fragment the task in smaller
-subtasks.
+\verbatim
+SD_task_dependency_add(NULL, NULL, t1, c);
+SD_task_dependency_add(NULL, NULL, c, t2);
+\endverbatim
+
+This way task t2 cannot start before the termination of communication c
+which in turn cannot start before t1 ends.
+
+When creating task c, you have to associate an amount of data (in bytes)
+corresponding to what has to be sent by t1 to t2.
+
+Finally to schedule the communication task c, you have to build a list
+comprising the workstations on which t1 and t2 are scheduled (w1 and w2
+for example) and build a communication matrix that should look like
+[0;amount ; 0; 0].
-\section faq_SG Where has SG disappeared?!?
-
-OK, it's time to explain what's happening to the SimGrid project. Let's
-start with a little bit of history.
-
-* Historically, SimGrid was a low-level toolkit for scheduling with
-classical models such as DAGs. That was SimGrid v.1.* aka SG, written
-by Henri Casanova. I (Arnaud) had been using it in its earliest
-versions during an internship at UCSD.
-
-Then we have realized that encoding distributed algorithm in SG was a
-real pain.
-
-* So we have built MSG on top of SG and have released SimGrid v.2.*. MSG
-offered a very basic API to encode a distributed application easily.
-However encoding MSG on top of SG was not really convenient and did not
-use the DAG part since the control of the task synchronization was done
-on top of MSG and no more in SG. We have been playing a little bit with
-MSG. We have realized that:
-
- \li 1) the platform modeling was quite flexible and could be "almost"
- automated (e.g. using random generator and post-annotations);
-
- \li 2) SG was the bottleneck because of the way we were using
- it. We needed to simulate concurrent transfers, complex load
- sharing mechanisms. Many optimizations (e.g. trace integration)
- were totally inefficient when combined with MSG and made extending SG
- to implement new sharing policies, parallel tasks models, or failures
- (many people were asking for these kind of features) a real pain;
-
- \li 3) the application modeling was not really easy. Even though the
- application modeling depends on people's applications, we thought
- we could improve things here. One of our target here was realistic
-distributed applications ranging from computer sensor networks like
-the NWS to peer-to-peer applications;
-
-* So we have been planning mainly two things for SimGrid 3:
-
- \li 1) I have proposed to get rid of SG and to re-implement a new kernel
- that would be faster and more flexible. That is what I did in the
-end of 2004: SURF. SURF is based on a fast max-min linear solver
-using O(1) data-structures. I have quickly replaced SG by SURF in
-MSG and the result has been that on the MSG example, the new
-version was more than 10 times faster while we had gain a lot of
-flexibility. I think I could still easily make MSG faster but I
-have to work on MSG now (e.g. using some of the O(1)
-data-structures I've been using to build SURF) since it has become
-the bottleneck. Some MSG functions have been removed from the API
-but they were mainly intended to build the platform by hand (they
-had appeared in the earliest versions of MSG) and were therefore
-not useful anymore since we are providing a complete mechanism to
-automatically build the platform and deploy the agents on it.;
-
- \li 2) GRAS is a new project Martin and I have come up with. The idea is
-to have a programming environment that let you program real
-distributed applications while letting you the ability to run it in
-the simulator without having to change the slightest line of your
-code. From the simulation point of view, GRAS performs the
-application modeling automatically... Up until now, GRAS works on
-top MSG for historical reasons but I'm going to make it work
-directly on top of SURF so that it can use all the flex and the
-speed provided by SURF.
-
-Those two things are working, but we want to make everything as clean as
-possible before releasing SimGrid v.3.
-
-So what about those nice DAGs we used to have in SimGrid v.1.? They're
-not anymore in SimGrid v.3. At least not in their original form... Let
-me recall you the way SimGrid 3 is organized:
-
-\verbatim
-________________
-| User code |
-|______________|
-| | MSG | GRAS |
-| -------------|
-| | SURF |
-| -------------|
-| XBT |
-----------------
-\endverbatim
-
-XBT is our tool box and now, you should have an idea of what the other
-ones are. As you can see, the primitive SG is not here
-anymore. However we have written a brand new and cleaner API for this
-purpose: \ref SD_API. It is built directly on top of SURF and provides
-an API rather close to the old SG:
-
-\verbatim
-______________________
-| User code |
-|____________________|
-| | MSG | GRAS | SD |
-| -------------------|
-| | SURF |
-| -------------------|
-| XBT |
-----------------------
-\endverbatim
-
-The nice thing is that, as it is writen on top of SURF, it seamlessly
-support DAG of parallel tasks as well as complex communications
-patterns. Some old codes using SG are currently under rewrite using
-\ref SD_API to check that all needful functions are provided.
-
-\subsection faq_SG_DAG How to implement a distributed dynamic scheduler of DAGs.
+\subsubsection faq_SG_DAG How to implement a distributed dynamic scheduler of DAGs.
Distributed is somehow "contagious". If you start making distributed
decisions, there is no way to handle DAGs directly anymore (unless I
DAG is really the level of abstraction you want to work with, then you should
give a try to \ref SD_API.
-\section faq_dynamic Dynamic resources and platform building
+\subsection faq_MIA_generic Generic features
+
+\subsubsection faq_more_processes Increasing the amount of simulated processes
+
+Here are a few tricks you can apply if you want to increase the amount
+of processes in your simulations.
+
+ - <b>A few thousands of simulated processes</b> (soft tricks)\n
+ SimGrid can use either pthreads library or the UNIX98 contextes. On
+ most systems, the number of pthreads is limited and then your
+ simulation may be limited for a stupid reason. This is especially
+ true with the current linux pthreads, and I cannot get more than
+ 2000 simulated processes with pthreads on my box. The UNIX98
+ contexts allow me to raise the limit to 25,000 simulated processes
+ on my laptop.\n\n
+ The <tt>--with-context</tt> option of the <tt>./configure</tt>
+ script allows you to choose between UNIX98 contextes
+ (<tt>--with-context=ucontext</tt>) and the pthread version
+ (<tt>--with-context=pthread</tt>). The default value is ucontext
+ when the script detect a working UNIX98 context implementation. On
+ Windows boxes, the provided value is discarded and an adapted
+ version is picked up.\n\n
+ We experienced some issues with contextes on some rare systems
+ (solaris 8 and lower or old alpha linuxes comes to mind). The main
+ problem is that the configure script detect the contextes as being
+ functional when it's not true. If you happen to use such a system,
+ switch manually to the pthread version, and provide us with a good
+ patch for the configure script so that it is done automatically ;)
+
+ - <b>Hundred thousands of simulated processes</b> (hard-core tricks)\n
+ As explained above, SimGrid can use UNIX98 contextes to represent
+ and handle the simulated processes. Thanks to this, the main
+ limitation to the number of simulated processes becomes the
+ available memory.\n\n
+ Here are some tricks I had to use in order to run a token ring
+ between 25,000 processes on my laptop (1Gb memory, 1.5Gb swap).\n
+ - First of all, make sure your code runs for a few hundreds
+ processes before trying to push the limit. Make sure it's
+ valgrind-clean, ie that valgrind does not report neither memory
+ error nor memory leaks. Indeed, numerous simulated processes
+ result in *fat* simulation hindering debugging.
+ - It was really boring to write 25,000 entries in the deployment
+ file, so I wrote a little script
+ <tt>examples/gras/mutual_exclusion/simple_token/make_deployment.pl</tt>, which you may
+ want to adapt to your case. You could also think about hijacking
+ the SURFXML parser (have look at \ref faq_flexml_bypassing).
+ - The deployment file became quite big, so I had to do what is in
+ the FAQ entry \ref faq_flexml_limit
+ - Each UNIX98 context has its own stack entry. As debugging this is
+ quite hairly, the default value is a bit overestimated so that
+ user don't get into trouble about this. You want to tune this
+ size to increse the number of processes. This is the
+ <tt>STACK_SIZE</tt> define in
+ <tt>src/xbt/xbt_context_sysv.c</tt>, which is 128kb by default.
+ Reduce this as much as you can, but be warned that if this value
+ is too low, you'll get a segfault. The token ring example, which
+ is quite simple, runs with 40kb stacks.
+ - You may tweak the logs to reduce the stack size further. When
+ logging something, we try to build the string to display in a
+ char array on the stack. The size of this array is constant (and
+ equal to XBT_LOG_BUFF_SIZE, defined in include/xbt/log/h). If the
+ string is too large to fit this buffer, we move to a dynamically
+ sized buffer. In which case, we have to traverse one time the log
+ event arguments to compute the size we need for the buffer,
+ malloc it, and traverse the argument list again to do the actual
+ job.\n
+ The idea here is to move XBT_LOG_BUFF_SIZE to 1, forcing the logs
+ to use a dynamic array each time. This allows us to lower further
+ the stack size at the price of some performance loss...\n
+ This allowed me to run the reduce the stack size to ... 4k. Ie,
+ on my 1Gb laptop, I can run more than 250,000 processes!
+
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_batch_scheduler Is there a native support for batch schedulers in SimGrid?
-\subsection faq_platform Building a realistic platform
+No, there is no native support for batch schedulers and none is
+planned because this is a very specific need (and doing it in a
+generic way is thus very hard). However some people have implemented
+their own batch schedulers. Vincent Garonne wrote one during his PhD
+and put his code in the contrib directory of our SVN so that other can
+keep working on it. You may find inspiring ideas in it.
+
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_checkpointing I need a checkpointing thing
+
+Actually, it depends on whether you want to checkpoint the simulation, or to
+simulate checkpoints.
-We can speak more than an hour on this subject and we still do not have
-the right answer, just some ideas. You can read the following
+The first one could help if your simulation is a long standing process you
+want to keep running even on hardware issues. It could also help to
+<i>rewind</i> the simulation by jumping sometimes on an old checkpoint to
+cancel recent calculations.\n
+Unfortunately, such thing will probably never exist in SG. One would have to
+duplicate all data structures because doing a rewind at the simulator level
+is very very hard (not talking about the malloc free operations that might
+have been done in between). Instead, you may be interested in the Libckpt
+library (http://www.cs.utk.edu/~plank/plank/www/libckpt.html). This is the
+checkpointing solution used in the condor project, for example. It makes it
+easy to create checkpoints (at the OS level, creating something like core
+files), and rerunning them on need.
+
+If you want to simulate checkpoints instead, it means that you want the
+state of an executing task (in particular, the progress made towards
+completion) to be saved somewhere. So if a host (and the task executing on
+it) fails (cf. #MSG_HOST_FAILURE), then the task can be restarted
+from the last checkpoint.\n
+
+Actually, such a thing does not exists in SimGrid either, but it's just
+because we don't think it is fundamental and it may be done in the user code
+at relatively low cost. You could for example use a watcher that
+periodically get the remaining amount of things to do (using
+MSG_task_get_remaining_computation()), or fragment the task in smaller
+subtasks.
+
+\subsection faq_platform Platform building and Dynamic resources
+
+\subsubsection faq_platform_example Where can I find SimGrid platform files?
+
+There is several little examples in the archive, in the examples/msg
+directory. From time to time, we are asked for other files, but we
+don't have much at hand right now.
+
+You should refer to the Platform Description Archive
+(http://pda.gforge.inria.fr) project to see the other platform file we
+have available, as well as the Simulacrum simulator, meant to generate
+SimGrid platforms using all classical generation algorithms.
+
+\subsubsection faq_platform_alnem How can I automatically map an existing platform?
+
+We are working on a project called ALNeM (Application-Level Network
+Mapper) which goal is to automatically discover the topology of an
+existing network. Its output will be a platform description file
+following the SimGrid syntax, so everybody will get the ability to map
+their own lab network (and contribute them to the catalog project).
+This tool is not ready yet, but it move quite fast forward. Just stay
+tuned.
+
+\subsubsection faq_platform_synthetic Generating synthetic but realistic platforms
+
+The third possibility to get a platform file (after manual or
+automatic mapping of real platforms) is to generate synthetic
+platforms. Getting a realistic result is not a trivial task, and
+moreover, nobody is really able to define what "realistic" means when
+speaking of topology files. You can find some more thoughts on this
+topic in these
<a href="http://graal.ens-lyon.fr/~alegrand/articles/Simgrid-Introduction.pdf">slides</a>.
-It may give you some hints. You can also have a look at the
-<tt>tools/platform_generation/</tt> directory. There is a perl-script
-we use to annotate a Tiers generated platform.
-\subsection faq_SURF_dynamic How can I have variable resource availability?
+If you are looking for an actual tool, there we have a little tool to
+annotate Tiers-generated topologies. This perl-script is in
+<tt>tools/platform_generation/</tt> directory of the SVN. Dinda et Al.
+released a very comparable tool, and called it GridG.
+
+\subsubsection faq_SURF_dynamic Expressing dynamic resource availability in platform files
A nice feature of SimGrid is that it enables you to seamlessly have
resources whose availability change over time. When you build a
-platform, you generally declare CPUs like that:
+platform, you generally declare hosts like that:
\verbatim
- <cpu name="Cpu A" power="100.00"/>
+ <host id="host A" power="100.00"/>
\endverbatim
-If you want the availability of "CPU A" to change over time, the only
+If you want the availability of "host A" to change over time, the only
thing you have to do is change this definition like that:
\verbatim
- <cpu name="Cpu A" power="100.00" availability_file="trace_A.txt" state_file="trace_A_failure.txt"/>
+ <host id="host A" power="100.00" availability_file="trace_A.txt" state_file="trace_A_failure.txt"/>
\endverbatim
-For CPUs, availability files are expressed in fraction of available
+For hosts, availability files are expressed in fraction of available
power. Let's have a look at what "trace_A.txt" may look like:
\verbatim
20.0 0.9
\endverbatim
-At time 0, our CPU will deliver 100 Mflop/s. At time 11.0, it will
-deliver only 50 Mflop/s until time 20.0 where it will will start
-delivering 90 Mflop/s. Last at time 21.0 (20.0 plus the periodicity
-1.0), we'll be back to the beginning and it will deliver 100Mflop/s.
+At time 0, our host will deliver 100 flop/s. At time 11.0, it will
+deliver only 50 flop/s until time 20.0 where it will will start
+delivering 90 flop/s. Last at time 21.0 (20.0 plus the periodicity
+1.0), we'll be back to the beginning and it will deliver 100 flop/s.
Now let's look at the state file:
\verbatim
\endverbatim
A negative value means "off" while a positive one means "on". At time
-1.0, the CPU is on. At time 1.0, it is turned off and at time 2.0, it
+1.0, the host is on. At time 1.0, it is turned off and at time 2.0, it
is turned on again until time 12 (2.0 plus the periodicity 10.0). It
will be turned on again at time 13.0 until time 23.0, and so on.
links. A usual declaration looks like:
\verbatim
- <network_link name="LinkA" bandwidth="10.0" latency="0.2"/>
+ <link id="LinkA" bandwidth="10.0" latency="0.2"/>
\endverbatim
You have at your disposal the following options: bandwidth_file,
-latency_file and state_file. The only difference with CPUs is that
+latency_file and state_file. The only difference with hosts is that
bandwidth_file and latency_file do not express fraction of available
-power but are expressed directly in Mb/s and seconds.
+power but are expressed directly in bytes per seconds and seconds.
+
+\subsubsection faq_platform_multipath How to express multipath routing in platform files?
+
+It is unfortunately impossible to express the fact that there is more
+than one routing path between two given hosts. Let's consider the
+following platform file:
+
+\verbatim
+<route src="A" dst="B">
+ <link:ctn id="1"/>
+</route>
+<route src="B" dst="C">
+ <link:ctn id="2"/>
+</route>
+<route src="A" dst="C">
+ <link:ctn id="3"/>
+</route>
+\endverbatim
+
+Although it is perfectly valid, it does not mean that data traveling
+from A to C can either go directly (using link 3) or through B (using
+links 1 and 2). It simply means that the routing on the graph is not
+trivial, and that data do not following the shortest path in number of
+hops on this graph. Another way to say it is that there is no implicit
+in these routing descriptions. The system will only use the routes you
+declare (such as <route src="A" dst="C"><link:ctn
+id="3"/></route>), without trying to build new routes by aggregating
+the provided ones.
+
+You are also free to declare platform where the routing is not
+symmetric. For example, add the following to the previous file:
+
+\verbatim
+<route src="C" dst="A">
+ <link:ctn id="2"/>
+ <link:ctn id="1"/>
+</route>
+\endverbatim
+
+This makes sure that data from C to A go through B where data from A
+to C go directly. Don't worry about realism of such settings since
+we've seen ways more weird situation in real settings (in fact, that's
+the realism of very regular platforms which is questionable, but
+that's another story).
-\subsection faq_flexml_bypassing How can I have some C functions do what the platform file does?
+\subsubsection faq_flexml_bypassing Bypassing the XML parser with your own C functions
-So you want to bypass the XML files parser, uh? Maybe doin some parameter
-sweep experiments on your simulations or so? This is possible, but it's not
-really easy. Here is how it goes.
+So you want to bypass the XML files parser, uh? Maybe doing some parameter
+sweep experiments on your simulations or so? This is possible, and
+it's not even really difficult (well. Such a brutal idea could be
+harder to implement). Here is how it goes.
For this, you have to first remember that the XML parsing in SimGrid is done
using a tool called FleXML. Given a DTD, this gives a flex-based parser. If
well-formed SimGrid platform XML file might result in the following
"events":
- - start "platform_description"
- - start "cpu" with attributes name="host1" power="1.0"
- - end "cpu"
- - start "cpu" with attributes name="host2" power="2.0"
- - end "cpu"
- - start "network_link" with ...
- - end "network_link"
- - start "route" with ...
- - end "route"
+ - start "platform_description" with attribute version="2"
+ - start "host" with attributes id="host1" power="1.0"
+ - end "host"
+ - start "host" with attributes id="host2" power="2.0"
+ - end "host"
+ - start "link" with ...
+ - end "link"
- start "route" with ...
+ - start "link:ctn" with ...
+ - end "link:ctn"
- end "route"
- end "platform_description"
The communication from the parser to the SURF code uses two means:
Attributes get copied into some global variables, and a surf-provided
function gets called by the parser for each event. For example, the event
- - start "cpu" with attributes name="host1" power="1.0"
+ - start "host" with attributes id="host1" power="1.0"
-let the parser do the equivalent of:
+let the parser do something roughly equivalent to:
\verbatim
- strcpy("host1",A_cpu_name);
- A_cpu_power = 1.0;
- (*STag_cpu_fun)();
+ strcpy(A_host_id,"host1");
+ A_host_power = 1.0;
+ STag_host();
\endverbatim
In SURF, we attach callbacks to the different events by initializing the
-pointer functions to some the right surf functions. Example in
-workstation_KCCFLN05.c (surf_parse_open() ends up calling surf_parse()):
+pointer functions to some the right surf functions. Since there can be
+more than one callback attached to the same event (if more than one
+model is in use, for example), they are stored in a dynar. Example in
+workstation_ptask_L07.c:
\verbatim
- // Building the routes
+ /* Adding callback functions */
surf_parse_reset_parser();
- STag_route_fun=parse_route_set_endpoints;
- ETag_route_element_fun=parse_route_elem;
- ETag_route_fun=parse_route_set_route;
+ surfxml_add_callback(STag_surfxml_host_cb_list, &parse_cpu_init);
+ surfxml_add_callback(STag_surfxml_prop_cb_list, &parse_properties);
+ surfxml_add_callback(STag_surfxml_link_cb_list, &parse_link_init);
+ surfxml_add_callback(STag_surfxml_route_cb_list, &parse_route_set_endpoints);
+ surfxml_add_callback(ETag_surfxml_link_c_ctn_cb_list, &parse_route_elem);
+ surfxml_add_callback(ETag_surfxml_route_cb_list, &parse_route_set_route);
+
+ /* Parse the file */
surf_parse_open(file);
- xbt_assert1((!surf_parse()),"Parse error in %s",file);
+ xbt_assert1((!surf_parse()), "Parse error in %s", file);
surf_parse_close();
\endverbatim
So, to bypass the FleXML parser, you need to write your own version of the
surf_parse function, which should do the following:
- - Call the corresponding STag_<tag>_fun function to simulate tag start
- Fill the A_<tag>_<attribute> variables with the wanted values
+ - Call the corresponding STag_<tag>_fun function to simulate tag start
- Call the corresponding ETag_<tag>_fun function to simulate tag end
- (do the same for the next set of values, and loop)
Then, tell SimGrid that you want to use your own "parser" instead of the stock one:
\verbatim
- surf_parse = surf_parse_bypass;
+ surf_parse = surf_parse_bypass_environment;
MSG_create_environment(NULL);
+ surf_parse = surf_parse_bypass_application;
+ MSG_launch_application(NULL);
\endverbatim
-An example of this trick is distributed in the file examples/msg/msg_test_surfxml_bypassed.c
+A set of macros are provided at the end of
+include/surf/surfxml_parse.h to ease the writing of the bypass
+functions. An example of this trick is distributed in the file
+examples/msg/masterslave/masterslave_bypass.c
+
+\subsection faq_simgrid_configuration Changing SimGrid's behavior
+
+A number of options can be given at runtime to change the default
+SimGrid behavior. In particular, you can change the default cpu and
+network models...
+
+\subsubsection faq_simgrid_configuration_gtnets Using GTNetS
+
+It is possible to use a packet-level network simulator
+instead of the default flow-based simulation. You may want to use such
+an approach if you have doubts about the validity of the default model
+or if you want to perform some validation experiments. At the moment,
+we support the GTNetS simulator (it is still rather experimental
+though, so leave us a message if you play with it).
+
+
+<i>
+To enable GTNetS model inside SimGrid it is needed to patch the GTNetS simulator source code
+and build/install it from scratch
+</i>
+
+ - <b>Download and enter the recent downloaded GTNetS directory</b>
+
+ \verbatim
+ svn checkout svn://scm.gforge.inria.fr/svn/simgrid/contrib/trunk/GTNetS/
+ cd GTNetS
+ \endverbatim
-\section faq_limits Pushing the limits
-\subsection faq_context_1000 I want thousands of simulated processes
+ - <b>Use the following commands to unzip and patch GTNetS package to work within SimGrid.</b>
-SimGrid can use either pthreads library or the UNIX98 contextes. On most
-systems, the number of pthreads is limited and then your simulation may be
-limited for a stupid reason. This is especially true with the current linux
-pthreads, and I cannot get more than 2000 simulated processes with pthreads
-on my box. The UNIX98 contexts allow me to raise the limit to 25,000
-simulated processes on my laptop.
+ \verbatim
+ unzip gtnets-current.zip
+ tar zxvf gtnets-current-patch.tgz
+ cd gtnets-current
+ cat ../00*.patch | patch -p1
+ \endverbatim
-The <tt>--with-context</tt> option of the <tt>./configure</tt> script allows
-you to choose between UNIX98 contextes (<tt>--with-context=ucontext</tt>)
-and the pthread version ( (<tt>--with-context=pthread</tt>). The default
-value is ucontext when the script detect a working UNIX98 context
-implementation. On Windows boxes, the provided value is discarded and an
-adapted version is picked up.
+ - <b>OPTIONALLY</b> you can use a patch for itanium 64bit processor family.
-We experienced some issues with contextes on some rare systems (solaris 8
-and lower or old alpha linuxes comes to mind). The main problem is that the
-configure script detect the contextes as being functional when it's not
-true. If you happen to use such a system, switch manually to the pthread
-version, and provide us with a good patch for the configure script so that
-it is done automatically ;)
+ \verbatim
+ cat ../AMD64-FATAL-Removed-DUL_SIZE_DIFF-Added-fPIC-compillin.patch | patch -p1
+ \endverbatim
-\subsection faq_context_10000 I want hundred thousands of simulated processes
+ - <b>Compile GTNetS</b>
-As explained above, SimGrid can use UNIX98 contextes to represent and handle
-the simulated processes. Thanks to this, the main limitation to the number
-of simulated processes becomes the available memory.
+ Due to portability issues it is possible that GTNetS does not compile in your architecture. The patches furnished in SimGrid SVN repository are intended for use in Linux architecture only. Unfortunately, we do not have the time, the money, neither the manpower to guarantee GTNetS portability. We advice you to use one of GTNetS communication channel to get more help in compiling GTNetS.
-Here are some tricks I had to use in order to run a token ring between
-25,000 processes on my laptop (1Gb memory, 1.5Gb swap).
- - First of all, make sure your code runs for a few hundreds processes
- before trying to push the limit. Make sure it's valgrind-clean, ie that
- valgrind does not report neither memory error nor memory leaks. Indeed,
- numerous simulated processes result in *fat* simulation hindering debugging.
+ \verbatim
+ ln -sf Makefile.linux Makefile
+ make depend
+ make debug
+ \endverbatim
- - It was really boring to write 25,000 entries in the deployment file, so I wrote
- a little script <tt>examples/gras/tokenS/make_deployment.pl</tt>, which you may
- want to adapt to your case. You could also think about hijacking
- the SURFXML parser (have look at \ref faq_flexml_bypassing).
- - The deployment file became quite big, so I had to do what is in the FAQ
- entry \ref faq_flexml_limit
+ - <b>NOTE</b> A lot of warnings are expected but the application should compile
+ just fine. If the makefile insists in compiling some QT libraries
+ please try a make clean before asking for help.
- - Each UNIX98 context has its own stack entry. As debugging this is quite
- hairly, the default value is a bit overestimated so that user don't get
- into trouble about this. You want to tune this size to increse the number
- of processes. This is the <tt>STACK_SIZE</tt> define in
- <tt>src/xbt/context_private.h</tt>, which is 128kb by default.
- Reduce this as much as you can, but be warned that if this value is too
- low, you'll get a segfault. The token ring example, which is quite simple,
- runs with 40kb stacks.
+
+ - <b>To compile optimized version</b>
+
+ \verbatim
+ make opt
+ \endverbatim
+
+
+ - <b>Installing GTNetS</b>
+
+ It is important to put the full path of your libgtsim-xxxx.so file when creating the symbolic link. Replace < userhome > by some path you have write access to.
+
+ \verbatim
+ ln -sf /<absolute_path>/gtnets_current/libgtsim-debug.so /<userhome>/usr/lib/libgtnets.so
+ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/<userhome>/usr/lib/libgtnets.so
+ mkdir /<userhome>/usr/include/gtnets
+ cp -fr SRC/*.h /<userhome>/usr/include/gtnets
+ \endverbatim
+
+
+ - <b>Enable GTNetS support in SimGrid</b>
+
+ \verbatim
+ ./configure --with-gtnets=/<userhome>/usr
+ \endverbatim
+
+ - <b>Once you have followed all the instructions for compiling and
+ installing successfully you can activate this feature at
+ runntime with the following options:</b>
+
+ \verbatim
+ cd simgrid/example/msg/
+ make
+ make check
+ \endverbatim
+
+
+ - <b>Or try the GTNetS model dogbone example with</b>
+
+ \verbatim
+ gtnets/gtnets gtnets/onelink-p.xml gtnets/onelink-d.xml --cfg=network_model:GTNets
+ \endverbatim
+
+
+ A long version of this <a href="http://gforge.inria.fr/docman/view.php/12/6283/GTNetS HowTo.html">HowTo</a> it is available
+
+
+ More about GTNetS simulator at <a href="http://www.ece.gatech.edu/research/labs/MANIACS/GTNetS/index.html">GTNetS Website</a>
+
+
+ - <b>DISCLAIMER</b>
+ The patches provided by us worked successfully with GTNetS found
+ <a href="http://www.ece.gatech.edu/research/labs/MANIACS/GTNetS/software/gtnets-current.zip">here</a>,
+ dated from 12th June 2008. Due to the discontinuing development of
+ GTNetS it is impossible to precise a version number. We STRONGLY recommend you
+ to download and install the GTNetS version found in SimGrid repository as explained above.
+
+
+
+
+\subsubsection faq_simgrid_configuration_alternate_network Using alternative flow models
+
+The default simgrid network model uses a max-min based approach as
+explained in the research report
+<a href="ftp://ftp.ens-lyon.fr/pub/LIP/Rapports/RR/RR2002/RR2002-40.ps.gz">A Network Model for Simulation of Grid Application</a>.
+Other models have been proposed and implemented since then (see for example
+<a href="http://mescal.imag.fr/membres/arnaud.legrand/articles/simutools09.pdf">Accuracy Study and Improvement of Network Simulation in the SimGrid Framework</a>)
+and can be activated at runtime. For example:
+\verbatim
+./mycode platform.xml deployment.xml --cfg=workstation_model:compound --cfg=network_model:LV08 -cfg=cpu_model:Cas01
+\endverbatim
+
+Possible models for the network are currently "Constant", "CM02",
+"LegrandVelho", "GTNets", Reno", "Reno2", "Vegas". Others will
+probably be added in the future and many of the previous ones are
+experimental and are likely to disappear without notice...
\section faq_troubleshooting Troubleshooting
-\subsection faq_compil_trouble ./configure fails!
+\subsection faq_trouble_lib_compil SimGrid compilation and installation problems
-We now only one reason for the configure to fail:
+\subsubsection faq_trouble_lib_config ./configure fails!
- - <b>You are using a borken build environment</b>\n
+We know only one reason for the configure to fail:
+
+ - <b>You are using a broken build environment</b>\n
If symptom is that configure complains about gcc not being able to build
executables, you are probably missing the libc6-dev package. Damn Ubuntu.
If you experience other kind of issue, please get in touch with us. We are
always interested in improving our portability to new systems.
-\subsection faq_distcheck_fails Dude! "make check" fails on my machine!
+\subsubsection faq_trouble_distcheck Dude! "make check" fails on my machine!
-Don't assume we never run this target, because we do. Really. Promise!
+Don't assume we never run this target, because we do. Check
+http://bob.loria.fr:8010 if you don't believe us.
There is several reasons which may cause the make check to fail on your
machine:
- - <b>You are using a borken libc (probably concerning the contextes)</b>.\n
+ - <b>You are using a broken libc (probably concerning the contextes)</b>.\n
The symptom is that the "make check" fails within the examples/msg directory.\n
By default, SimGrid uses something called ucontexts. This is part of the
libc, but it's quite undertested. For example, some (old) versions of the
glibc on alpha do not implement these functions, but provide the stubs
- (which return ENOSYS: not implemented). It fools our detection mecanism
- and leads to segfaults.\n
- On some x86_64, the pointer to function is stored into a integer, but int
- are 32bits only on this arch while pointers are 64bits. Our detection
- mecanism also fails to detect the problem, which leads to segfaults.\n
- In both cases, there is not much we can do to fix the bug. We are working
- on a workaround for x86_64 machines, but in the meanwhile, you can
- compile with --with-context=pthread to avoid ucontext completely. You'll
- be a bit more limitated in the number of simulated processes you can start
- concurently, but 5000 processes is still enough for most purposes, isn't
- it?\n
+ (which return ENOSYS: not implemented). It may fool our detection mechanism
+ and leads to segfaults. There is not much we can do to fix the bug.
+ A workaround is to compile with --with-context=pthread to avoid
+ ucontext completely. You'll be a bit more limited in the number
+ of simulated processes you can start concurrently, but 5000
+ processes is still enough for most purposes, isn't it?\n
This limitation is the reason why we insist on using this piece of ...
software even if it's so troublesome.\n
<b>=> use --with-pthread on AMD64 architecture that do not have an
- <b>There is a bug in SimGrid we aren't aware of</b>.\n
If none of the above apply, please drop us a mail on the mailing list so
- that we can check it out.
-
-\subsection faq_longjmp longjmp madness in valgrind
-
-This is when valgrind starts complaining about longjmp things, just like:
+ that we can check it out. Make sure to read \ref faq_bugrepport
+ before you do so.
-\verbatim ==21434== Conditional jump or move depends on uninitialised value(s)
-==21434== at 0x420DBE5: longjmp (longjmp.c:33)
-==21434==
-==21434== Use of uninitialised value of size 4
-==21434== at 0x420DC3A: __longjmp (__longjmp.S:48)
-\endverbatim
-
-or even when it reports scary things like:
-
-\verbatim ==24023== Warning: client switching stacks? SP change: 0xBE3FF618 --> 0xBE7FF710
-x86->IR: unhandled instruction bytes: 0xF4 0xC7 0x83 0xD0
-==24023== to suppress, use: --max-stackframe=4194552 or greater
-==24023== Your program just tried to execute an instruction that Valgrind
-==24023== did not recognise. There are two possible reasons for this.
-==24023== 1. Your program has a bug and erroneously jumped to a non-code
-==24023== location. If you are running Memcheck and you just saw a
-==24023== warning about a bad jump, it's probably your program's fault.
-==24023== 2. The instruction is legitimate but Valgrind doesn't handle it,
-==24023== i.e. it's Valgrind's fault. If you think this is the case or
-==24023== you are not sure, please let us know.
-==24023== Either way, Valgrind will now raise a SIGILL signal which will
-==24023== probably kill your program.
-==24023==
-==24023== Process terminating with default action of signal 4 (SIGILL)
-==24023== Illegal opcode at address 0x420D234
-==24023== at 0x420D234: abort (abort.c:124)
-\endverbatim
-
-This is the sign that you didn't used the exception mecanism well. Most
-probably, you have a <tt>return;</tt> somewhere within a <tt>TRY{}</tt>
-block. This is <b>evil</b>, and you must not do this. Did you read the section
-about \ref XBT_ex??
+\subsection faq_trouble_compil User code compilation problems
-\subsection faq_valgrind Valgrind spits tons of errors!
+\subsubsection faq_trouble_err_logcat "gcc: _simgrid_this_log_category_does_not_exist__??? undeclared (first use in this function)"
-It may happen that valgrind, the memory debugger beloved by any decent C
-programmer, spits tons of warnings like the following :
-\verbatim ==8414== Conditional jump or move depends on uninitialised value(s)
-==8414== at 0x400882D: (within /lib/ld-2.3.6.so)
-==8414== by 0x414EDE9: (within /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
-==8414== by 0x400B105: (within /lib/ld-2.3.6.so)
-==8414== by 0x414F937: _dl_open (in /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
-==8414== by 0x4150F4C: (within /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
-==8414== by 0x400B105: (within /lib/ld-2.3.6.so)
-==8414== by 0x415102D: __libc_dlopen_mode (in /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
-==8414== by 0x412D6B9: backtrace (in /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
-==8414== by 0x8076446: xbt_dictelm_get_ext (dict_elm.c:714)
-==8414== by 0x80764C1: xbt_dictelm_get (dict_elm.c:732)
-==8414== by 0x8079010: xbt_cfg_register (config.c:208)
-==8414== by 0x806821B: MSG_config (msg_config.c:42)
-\endverbatim
+This is because you are using the log mecanism, but you didn't created
+any default category in this file. You should refer to \ref XBT_log
+for all the details, but you simply forgot to call one of
+XBT_LOG_NEW_DEFAULT_CATEGORY() or XBT_LOG_NEW_DEFAULT_SUBCATEGORY().
-This problem is somewhere in the libc when using the backtraces and there is
-very few things we can do ourselves to fix it. Instead, here is how to tell
-valgrind to ignore the error. Add the following to your ~/.valgrind.supp (or
-create this file on need). Make sure to change the obj line according to
-your personnal mileage (change 2.3.6 to the actual version you are using,
-which you can retrieve with a simple "ls /lib/ld*.so").
+\subsubsection faq_trouble_pthreadstatic "gcc: undefined reference to pthread_key_create"
-\verbatim {
- name: Backtrace madness
- Memcheck:Cond
- obj:/lib/ld-2.3.6.so
- fun:dl_open_worker
- fun:_dl_open
- fun:do_dlopen
- fun:dlerror_run
- fun:__libc_dlopen_mode
-}\endverbatim
+This indicates that one of the library SimGrid depends on (libpthread
+here) was missing on the linking command line. Dependencies of
+libsimgrid are expressed directly in the dynamic library, so it's
+quite impossible that you see this message when doing dynamic linking.
-Then, you have to specify valgrind to use this suppression file by passing
-the <tt>--suppressions=$HOME/.valgrind.supp</tt> option on the command line.
-You can also add the following to your ~/.bashrc so that it gets passed
-automatically. Actually, it passes a bit more options to valgrind, and this
-happen to be my personnal settings. Check the valgrind documentation for
-more information.
+If you compile your code statically (and if you use a pthread version
+of SimGrid -- see \ref faq_more_processes), you must absolutely
+specify <tt>-lpthread</tt> on the linker command line. As usual, this should
+come after <tt>-lsimgrid</tt> on this command line.
-\verbatim export VALGRIND_OPTS="--leak-check=yes --leak-resolution=high --num-callers=40 --tool=memcheck --suppressions=$HOME/.valgrind.supp" \endverbatim
+\subsection faq_trouble_errors Runtime error messages
-\subsection faq_flexml_limit I get the message "surf_parse_lex: Assertion `next<limit' failed."
+\subsubsection faq_flexml_limit "surf_parse_lex: Assertion `next limit' failed."
This is because your platform file is too big for the parser.
Actually, the message comes directly from FleXML, the technology on top of
which the parser is built. FleXML has the bad idea of fetching the whole
document in memory before parsing it. And moreover, the memory buffer size
-must be determinded at compilation time.
+must be determined at compilation time.
We use a value which seems big enough for our need without bloating the
simulators footprints. But of course your mileage may vary. In this case,
Flex is recent enough (>= 2.5.31). If not the compilation process should
warn you.
-A while ago, we worked on FleXML to reduce a bit its memory consumtion, but
+A while ago, we worked on FleXML to reduce a bit its memory consumption, but
these issues remain. There is two things we should do:
- use a dynamic buffer instead of a static one so that the only limit
the development of FleXML, I can grant you that any patches would be really
welcome and quickly integrated.
-\subsection faq_gras_transport GRAS spits networking error messages
+<b>Update:</b> A new version of FleXML (1.7) was released. Most of the work
+was done by William Dowling, who use it in his own work. The good point is
+that it now use a dynamic buffer, and that the memory usage was greatly
+improved. The downside is that William also changed some things internally,
+and it breaks the hack we devised to bypass the parser, as explained in
+\ref faq_flexml_bypassing. Indeed, this is not a classical usage of the
+parser, and Will didn't imagine that we may have used (and even documented)
+such a crude usage of FleXML. So, we now have to repair the bypassing
+functionality to use the lastest FleXML version and fix the memory usage in
+SimGrid.
+
+\subsubsection faq_trouble_gras_transport GRAS spits networking error messages
Gras, on real platforms, naturally use regular sockets to communicate. They
-are deeply hiden in the gras abstraction, but when things go wrong, you may
+are deeply hidden in the gras abstraction, but when things go wrong, you may
get some weird error messages. Here are some example, with the probable
reason:
- <b>Socket closed by remote side</b>: if the remote process is not
supposed to close the socket at this point, it may be dead.
- - <b>Connection reset by peer</b>: I found this on internet about this
+ - <b>Connection reset by peer</b>: I found this on Internet about this
error. I think it's what's happening here, too:\n
<i>This basically means that a network error occurred while the client was
receiving data from the server. But what is really happening is that the
before the client get a chance to read them (use gras_os_sleep() to delay
the server), or the server died awfully before the client got the data.
-\subsection faq_deadlock There is a deadlock !!!
+\subsubsection faq_trouble_errors_big_fat_warning I'm told that my XML files are too old.
+
+The format of the XML platform description files is sometimes
+improved. For example, we decided to change the units used in SimGrid
+from MBytes, MFlops and seconds to Bytes, Flops and seconds to ease
+people exchanging small messages. We also reworked the route
+descriptions to allow more compact descriptions.
+
+That is why the XML files are versionned using the 'version' attribute
+of the root tag. Currently, it should read:
+\verbatim
+ <platform version="2">
+\endverbatim
+
+If your files are too old, you can use the simgrid_update_xml.pl
+script which can be found in the tools directory of the archive.
+
+\subsection faq_trouble_valgrind Valgrind-related and other debugger issues
+
+If you don't, you really should use valgrind to debug your code, it's
+almost magic.
+
+\subsubsection faq_trouble_vg_longjmp longjmp madness in valgrind
+
+This is when valgrind starts complaining about longjmp things, just like:
+
+\verbatim ==21434== Conditional jump or move depends on uninitialised value(s)
+==21434== at 0x420DBE5: longjmp (longjmp.c:33)
+==21434==
+==21434== Use of uninitialised value of size 4
+==21434== at 0x420DC3A: __longjmp (__longjmp.S:48)
+\endverbatim
+
+This is the sign that you didn't used the exception mecanism well. Most
+probably, you have a <tt>return;</tt> somewhere within a <tt>TRY{}</tt>
+block. This is <b>evil</b>, and you must not do this. Did you read the section
+about \ref XBT_ex??
+
+\subsubsection faq_trouble_vg_libc Valgrind spits tons of errors about backtraces!
+
+It may happen that valgrind, the memory debugger beloved by any decent C
+programmer, spits tons of warnings like the following :
+\verbatim ==8414== Conditional jump or move depends on uninitialised value(s)
+==8414== at 0x400882D: (within /lib/ld-2.3.6.so)
+==8414== by 0x414EDE9: (within /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
+==8414== by 0x400B105: (within /lib/ld-2.3.6.so)
+==8414== by 0x414F937: _dl_open (in /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
+==8414== by 0x4150F4C: (within /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
+==8414== by 0x400B105: (within /lib/ld-2.3.6.so)
+==8414== by 0x415102D: __libc_dlopen_mode (in /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
+==8414== by 0x412D6B9: backtrace (in /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.3.6.so)
+==8414== by 0x8076446: xbt_dictelm_get_ext (dict_elm.c:714)
+==8414== by 0x80764C1: xbt_dictelm_get (dict_elm.c:732)
+==8414== by 0x8079010: xbt_cfg_register (config.c:208)
+==8414== by 0x806821B: MSG_config (msg_config.c:42)
+\endverbatim
+
+This problem is somewhere in the libc when using the backtraces and there is
+very few things we can do ourselves to fix it. Instead, here is how to tell
+valgrind to ignore the error. Add the following to your ~/.valgrind.supp (or
+create this file on need). Make sure to change the obj line according to
+your personnal mileage (change 2.3.6 to the actual version you are using,
+which you can retrieve with a simple "ls /lib/ld*.so").
+
+\verbatim {
+ name: Backtrace madness
+ Memcheck:Cond
+ obj:/lib/ld-2.3.6.so
+ fun:dl_open_worker
+ fun:_dl_open
+ fun:do_dlopen
+ fun:dlerror_run
+ fun:__libc_dlopen_mode
+}\endverbatim
+
+Then, you have to specify valgrind to use this suppression file by passing
+the <tt>--suppressions=$HOME/.valgrind.supp</tt> option on the command line.
+You can also add the following to your ~/.bashrc so that it gets passed
+automatically. Actually, it passes a bit more options to valgrind, and this
+happen to be my personnal settings. Check the valgrind documentation for
+more information.
+
+\verbatim export VALGRIND_OPTS="--leak-check=yes --leak-resolution=high --num-callers=40 --tool=memcheck --suppressions=$HOME/.valgrind.supp" \endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_trouble_backtraces Truncated backtraces
+
+When debugging SimGrid, it's easier to pass the
+--disable-compiler-optimization flag to the configure if valgrind or
+gdb get fooled by the optimization done by the compiler. But you
+should remove these flag when everything works before going in
+production (before launching your 1252135 experiments), or everything
+will run only one half of the true SimGrid potential.
+
+\subsection faq_deadlock There is a deadlock in my code!!!
Unfortunately, we cannot debug every code written in SimGrid. We
furthermore believe that the framework provides ways enough
on your side... We have plenty of FAQ entries to redact and new
features to implement for the impenitents! ;)
-\subsection faq_big_fat_warning A BIG FAT WARNING is reported telling me that my platform and deployment files are too old.
+\subsection faq_surf_network_latency I get weird timings when I play with the latencies.
+
+OK, first of all, remember that units should be Bytes, Flops and
+Seconds. If you don't use such units, some SimGrid constants (e.g. the
+SG_TCP_CTE_GAMMA constant used in most network models) won't have the
+right unit and you'll end up with weird results.
+
+Here is what happens with a single transfer of size L on a link
+(bw,lat) when nothing else happens.
-We have decided to change the units in SimGrid. Now we use Bytes, Flops and
-seconds instead of MBytes, MFlops and seconds... Units should be updated
-accordingly and the version of platform_description should be set to a
-valuer greater than 1:
\verbatim
- <platform_description version="1">
+0-----lat--------------------------------------------------t
+|-----|**** real_bw =min(bw,SG_TCP_CTE_GAMMA/(2*lat)) *****|
\endverbatim
-You should try to use the surfxml_update.pl script that can be found
-<a href="http://gforge.inria.fr/plugins/scmcvs/cvsweb.php/contrib/platform_generation/?cvsroot=cvsroot%2Fsimgrid">here</a>.
-
+
+In more complex situations, this min is the solution of a complex
+max-min linear system. Have a look
+<a href="http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/pipermail/simgrid-devel/2006-April/thread.html">here</a>
+and read the two threads "Bug in SURF?" and "Surf bug not
+fixed?". You'll have a few other examples of such computations. You
+can also read "A Network Model for Simulation of Grid Application" by
+Henri Casanova and Loris Marchal to have all the details. The fact
+that the real_bw is smaller than bw is easy to understand. The fact
+that real_bw is smaller than SG_TCP_CTE_GAMMA/(2*lat) is due to the
+window-based congestion mechanism of TCP. With TCP, you can't exploit
+your huge network capacity if you don't have a good round-trip-time
+because of the acks...
+
+Anyway, what you get is t=lat + L/min(bw,SG_TCP_CTE_GAMMA/(2*lat)).
+
+ * if I you set (bw,lat)=(100 000 000, 0.00001), you get t = 1.00001 (you fully
+use your link)
+ * if I you set (bw,lat)=(100 000 000, 0.0001), you get t = 1.0001 (you're on the
+limit)
+ * if I you set (bw,lat)=(100 000 000, 0.001), you get t = 10.001 (ouch!)
+
+This bound on the effective bandwidth of a flow is not the only thing
+that may make your result be unexpected. For example, two flows
+competing on a saturated link receive an amount of bandwidth inversely
+proportional to their round trip time.
+
+\subsection faq_bugrepport So I've found a bug in SimGrid. How to report it?
+
+We do our best to make sure to hammer away any bugs of SimGrid, but this is
+still an academic project so please be patient if/when you find bugs in it.
+If you do, the best solution is to drop an email either on the simgrid-user
+or the simgrid-devel mailing list and explain us about the issue. You can
+also decide to open a formal bug report using the
+<a href="https://gforge.inria.fr/tracker/?atid=165&group_id=12&func=browse">relevant
+interface</a>. You need to login on the server to get the ability to submit
+bugs.
+
+We will do our best to solve any problem repported, but you need to help us
+finding the issue. Just telling "it segfault" isn't enough. Telling "It
+segfaults when running the attached simulator" doesn't really help either.
+You may find the following article interesting to see how to repport
+informative bug repports:
+http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html (it is not SimGrid
+specific at all, but it's full of good advices).
+
\author Arnaud Legrand (arnaud.legrand::imag.fr)
\author Martin Quinson (martin.quinson::loria.fr)
*/
+******************************************************************
+* OLD CRUFT NOT USED ANYMORE *
+******************************************************************
+
+
+\subsection faq_crosscompile Cross-compiling a Windows DLL of SimGrid from linux
+
+At the moment, we do not distribute Windows pre-compiled version of SimGrid
+because the support for this platform is still experimental. We know that
+some parts of the GRAS environment do not work, and we think that the others
+environments (MSG and SD) have good chances to work, but we didn't test
+ourselves. This section explains how we generate the SimGrid DLL so that you
+can build it for yourself. First of all, you need to have a version more
+recent than 3.1 (ie, a SVN version as time of writting).
+
+In order to cross-compile the package to windows from linux, you need to
+install mingw32 (minimalist gnu win32). On Debian, you can do so by
+installing the packages mingw32 (compiler), mingw32-binutils (linker and
+so), mingw32-runtime.
+
+You can use the VPATH support of configure to compile at the same time for
+linux and windows without dupplicating the source nor cleaning the tree
+between each. Just run bootstrap (if you use the SVN) to run the autotools.
+Then, create a linux and a win directories. Then, type:
+\verbatim cd linux; ../configure --srcdir=.. <usual configure flags>; make; cd ..
+cd win; ../configure --srcdir=.. --host=i586-mingw32msvc <flags>; make; cd ..
+\endverbatim
+The trick to VPATH builds is to call configure from another directory,
+passing it an extra --srcdir argument to tell it where all the sources are.
+It will understand you want to use VPATH. Then, the trick to cross-compile
+is simply to add a --host argument specifying the target you want to build
+for. The i586-mingw32msvc string is what you have to pass to use the mingw32
+environment as distributed in Debian.
+
+After that, you can run all make targets from both directories, and test
+easily that what you change for one arch does not break the other one.
+
+It is possible that this VPATH build thing breaks from time to time in the
+SVN since it's quite fragile, but it's granted to work in any released
+version. If you experience problems, drop us a mail.
+
+Another possible source of issue is that at the moment, building the
+examples request to use the gras_stub_generator tool, which is a compiled
+program, not a script. In cross-compilation, you need to cross-execute with
+wine for example, which is not really pleasant. We are working on this, but
+in the meanwhile, simply don't build the examples in cross-compilation
+(<tt>cd src</tt> before running make).
+
+Program (cross-)compiled with mingw32 do request an extra DLL at run-time to be
+usable. For example, if you want to test your build with wine, you should do
+the following to put this library where wine looks for DLLs.
+\verbatim
+cp /usr/share/doc/mingw32-runtime/mingwm10.dll.gz ~/.wine/c/windows/system/
+gunzip ~/.wine/c/windows/system/mingwm10.dll.gz
+\endverbatim
+
+The DLL is built in src/.libs, and installed in the <i>prefix</i>/bin directory
+when you run make install.
+
+If you want to use it in a native project on windows, you need to use
+simgrid.dll and mingwm10.dll. For each DLL, you need to build .def file
+under linux (listing the defined symbols), and convert it into a .lib file
+under windows (specifying this in a way that windows compilers like). To
+generate the def files, run (under linux):
+\verbatim echo "LIBRARY libsimgrid-0.dll" > simgrid.def
+echo EXPORTS >> simgrid.def
+nm libsimgrid-0.dll | grep ' T _' | sed 's/.* T _//' >> simgrid.def
+nm libsimgrid-0.dll | grep ' D _' | sed 's/.* D _//' | sed 's/$/ DATA/' >> simgrid.def
+
+echo "LIBRARY mingwm10.dll" > mingwm10.def
+echo EXPORTS >> mingwm10.def
+nm mingwm10.dll | grep ' T _' | sed 's/.* T _//' >> mingwm10.def
+nm mingwm10.dll | grep ' D _' | sed 's/.* D _//' | sed 's/$/ DATA/' >> mingwm10.def
+\endverbatim
+
+To create the import .lib files, use the <tt>lib</tt> windows tool (from
+MSVC) the following way to produce simgrid.lib and mingwm10.lib
+\verbatim lib /def:simgrid.def
+lib /def:mingwm10.def
+\endverbatim
+
+If you happen to use Borland C Builder, the right command line is the
+following (note that you don't need any file.def to get this working).
+\verbatim implib simgrid.lib libsimgrid-0.dll
+implib mingwm10.lib mingwm10.dll
+\endverbatim
+
+Then, set the following parameters in Visual C++ 2005:
+Linker -> Input -> Additional dependencies = simgrid.lib mingwm10.lib
+
+Just in case you wonder how to generate a DLL from libtool in another
+project, we added -no-undefined to any lib*_la_LDFLAGS variables so that
+libtool accepts to generate a dynamic library under windows. Then, to make
+it true, we pass any dependencies (such as -lws2 under windows or -lpthread
+on need) on the linking line. Passing such deps is a good idea anyway so
+that they get noted in the library itself, avoiding the users to know about
+our dependencies and put them manually on their compilation line. Then we
+added the AC_LIBTOOL_WIN32_DLL macro just before AC_PROG_LIBTOOL in the
+configure.ac. It means that we exported any symbols which need to be.
+Nowadays, functions get automatically exported, so we don't need to load our
+header files with tons of __declspec(dllexport) cruft. We only need to do so
+for data, but there is no public data in SimGrid so we are good.
+
