\htmlinclude .FAQ.doc.toc
-\section faq_installation Installing the SimGrid library
+\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 section \ref faq_tracing.
+
+\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_cmake Installing the SimGrid library with Cmake (since V3.4)
+
+\subsection faq_intro Some generalitty
+
+\subsubsection faq_intro1 What is Cmake?
+
+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 plateforms. 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_cmakeoption1 Liste of options
+
+\verbatim
+"cmake -D[name]=[value] ... ./"
+
+[name] enable_gtnets [value] ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_java ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_lua ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_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_smpi ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_maintainer_mode ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_supernovae ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_tracing ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_coverage ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_memcheck ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_model-checking ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ enable_doc ON/OFF or TRUE/FALSE or 1/0
+ gtnets_path <path_to_gtnets_directory>
+ prefix <path_to_install_directory>
+ BIBTEX2HTML <path_to_bibtex2html>
+ with_context auto/ucontext/pthread/window
+ pipol_user <pipol_username>
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakeoption2 Options explaination
+
+ \li enable_gtnets : set to true implie that user wants to use gtnets.
+
+ \li enable_java : set to true implie that user wants to add java langage into simgrid compilation.
+
+ \li enable_lua : set to true implie that user wants to add lua langage into simgrid compilation.
+
+ \li enable_ruby : set to true implie that user wants to add ruby langage into simgrid compilation.
+
+ \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_smpi : Set to true if you want to use smpi lib. Actually on simgrid v3.4.1 Mac doesn't support lib smpi.
+
+ \li enable_maintainer_mode : set to true it remakes some files.
+
+ \li enable_supernovae : set to true make one file for each lib and compile with those generated files.
+
+ \li enable_tracing : To enable the generation of simulation traces for visualization
+
+ \li enable_coverage : When set to true this option enable code coverage by setting -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage flags.
+
+ \li enable_memcheck : When set to true this option enable tests for memcheck.
+
+ \li enable_model-checking : Enable the model checking when set to true.
+
+ \li enable_doc : Generate the documentation for simgrid with make command. (You can also make the doc manually with command : make html)
+
+ \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 BIBTEX2HTML : Path where is installed bibtex2html.
+
+ \li with context : specify which context the user wants to use.
+
+ \li pipol_user : specify your pipol username if you want to use the pipol-remote command.
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakeoption3 Initialisation
+
+Those options are initialized the first time you launch "cmake ." whithout specified option.
+
+\verbatim
+enable_gtnets on
+enable_lua on
+enable_ruby on
+enable_java off
+enable_compile_optimizations off
+enable_compile_warnings off
+enable_smpi on
+enable_maintainer_mode off
+enable_supernovae off
+enable_tracing off
+enable_coverage off
+enable_memcheck off
+enable_model-checking off
+enable_doc off
+
+gtnets_path null
+prefix null
+BIBTEX2HTML null
+with_context auto
+pipol_user null
+\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
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakecompilation2 With ccmake tool.
+
+\verbatim
+"ccmake ./"
+\endverbatim
+Then follow instructions.
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakecompilation2bis Build out of source.
+
+As cmake generate many files used for compilation, we recommand to make a build directory.
+For examples you can make :
+
+\verbatim
+"navarrop@caraja:~/Developments$ cd simgrid/"
+"navarrop@caraja:~/Developments/simgrid$ mkdir build_directory"
+"navarrop@caraja:~/Developments/simgrid$ cd build_directory/"
+"navarrop@caraja:~/Developments/simgrid/build_directory$ cmake ../"
+"navarrop@caraja:~/Developments/simgrid/build_directory$ make"
+\endverbatim
+
+Or complety out of sources :
+
+\verbatim
+"navarrop@caraja:~/Developments$ mkdir build_dir"
+"navarrop@caraja:~/Developments$ cd build_dir/"
+"navarrop@caraja:~/Developments/build_dir$ cmake ../simgrid/"
+"navarrop@caraja:~/Developments/build_dir$ make"
+\endverbatim
+
+Those two kind of compilation permit to delete files created by compilation easier.
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakecompilation3 Resume of command line
+
+ \li CMake
+\verbatim
+cmake <path> configure the project
+make build all targets
+make VERBOSE=1 build all targets and print build command lines
+make check test all targets and summarize
+make dist make the distrib
+make distcheck check the dist (make + make dist + make check)
+make install install the project (doc/ lib/ include/)
+make uninstall uninstall the project (doc/ lib/ include/)
+make clean clean all targets
+make java-clean clean files created by java option
+make doc-clean clean files created for making doc
+make supernovae-clean clean supernovae files
+make maintainer-clean clean maintainer files
+make all-clean execute the 5 upper clean command
+make html Create simgrid documentation
+\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
+
+If you want to test before make a commit you can simply make "ctest -D Experimental" and then you can visualize results submitted into Cdash. <a href="http://cdash.inria.fr/CDash/index.php?project=Simgrid">(Go to Cdash site)</a>.
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakecompilation5 Examples for different mode.
+
+\li Mode maintainer
+
+cmake -Denable_maintainer_mode=on ./
+\verbatim
+-- lookign for config.h
+with_context auto change to ucontext
+GIT_DATE : 2010-05-04~09-59-15
+GIT_VERSION : 53ec816
+GIT_SVN_VERSION : 7669
+
+Configuration of package `simgrid' (revision 7669) on arch (=4):
+ BUILDNAME : UCONTEXT
+ SITE : Linux_2.6.31-21-generic_x86_64
+ Release : simgrid-3.4~rev7669
+
+ Compiler: c++ : /usr/bin/c++
+ version: c++ (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+ Compiler: c : /usr/bin/gcc
+ version: gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+
+ CFlags : -I/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/x86_64-linux -I/usr/include/lua5.1 -g3
+ CPPFlags:
+ LDFlags : -L/usr/lib/
+
+ Context backend: ucontext
+ Compile Gtnets : 0
+ Gtnets path :
+ Compile Java : 0
+ Compile Lua : 1
+ Compile Ruby : 1
+
+ Compile Smpi : ON
+ Maintainer mode: ON
+ Supernovae mode: OFF
+ Tracing mode : OFF
+
+ Simgrid dependencies: -lm -lruby1.8 -module -ldl -llua5.1 -lrt
+ Gras dependencies : -lm -lpthread -lrt
+ Smpi dependencies :
+
+ INSTALL_PREFIX: /usr/local
+
+-- Configuring done
+-- Generating done
+-- Build files have been written to: /home/navarrop/Developments/simgrid
+\endverbatim
+
+\li Mode supernovae
+
+cmake -Dsupernovae=on ./
+\verbatim
+-- lookign for config.h
+with_context auto change to ucontext
+GIT_DATE : 2010-05-04~09-59-15
+GIT_VERSION : 53ec816
+GIT_SVN_VERSION : 7669
+
+Configuration of package `simgrid' (revision 7669) on arch (=4):
+ BUILDNAME : SUPERNOVAE
+ SITE : Linux_2.6.31-21-generic_x86_64
+ Release : simgrid-3.4~rev7669
+
+ Compiler: c++ : /usr/bin/c++
+ version: c++ (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+ Compiler: 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 -I/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/x86_64-linux -I/usr/include/lua5.1 -g3
+ CPPFlags:
+ LDFlags : -L/usr/lib/
+
+ Context backend: ucontext
+ Compile Gtnets : 0
+ Gtnets path :
+ Compile Java : 0
+ Compile Lua : 1
+ Compile Ruby : 1
+
+ Compile Smpi : ON
+ Maintainer mode: OFF
+ Supernovae mode: OFF
+ Tracing mode : OFF
+
+ Simgrid dependencies: -lm -lruby1.8 -module -ldl -llua5.1 -lrt
+ Gras dependencies : -lm -lpthread -lrt
+ Smpi dependencies :
+
+ INSTALL_PREFIX: /usr/local
+
+-- Configuring done
+-- Generating done
+-- Build files have been written to: /home/navarrop/Developments/simgrid
+
+\endverbatim
+
+\li Mode GTnetS
+
+cmake -Dgtnets_path=/home/navarrop/Bureau/usr/ ./
+\verbatim
+-- lookign for config.h
+with_context auto change to ucontext
+GIT_DATE : 2010-05-04~09-59-15
+GIT_VERSION : 53ec816
+GIT_SVN_VERSION : 7669
+
+Configuration of package `simgrid' (revision 7669) on arch (=4):
+ BUILDNAME : GTNETS
+ SITE : Linux_2.6.31-21-generic_x86_64
+ Release : simgrid-3.4~rev7669
+
+ Compiler: c++ : /usr/bin/c++
+ version: c++ (Ubuntu 4.4.1-4ubuntu9) 4.4.1
+ Compiler: 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 -I/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/x86_64-linux -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include/gtnets -I/usr/include/lua5.1 -g3
+ CPPFlags: -L/usr/lib -I/usr/include/gtnets
+ LDFlags : -L/usr/lib/
+
+ Context backend: ucontext
+ Compile Gtnets : 1
+ Gtnets path : /usr
+ Compile Java : 0
+ Compile Lua : 1
+ Compile Ruby : 1
+
+ Compile Smpi : ON
+ Maintainer mode: OFF
+ Supernovae mode: OFF
+ Tracing mode : OFF
+
+ Simgrid dependencies: -lm -lruby1.8 -module -ldl -llua5.1 -lgtnets -lrt
+ Gras dependencies : -lm -lpthread -lrt
+ Smpi dependencies :
+
+ INSTALL_PREFIX: /usr/local
+
+-- Configuring done
+-- Generating done
+-- Build files have been written to: /home/navarrop/Developments/simgrid
+
+\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
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakeinstall2 From a distrib
+
+\verbatim
+For version 3.4.1 and 3.4
+ cmake -Dprefix=/home/navarrop/Bureau/install_simgrid ./
+ make
+ make install-simgrid
+Since version 3.5
+ cmake -Dprefix=/home/navarrop/Bureau/install_simgrid ./
+ make
+ make install
+\endverbatim
+
+\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 "${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/lib")
+
+add_executable(get_sender get_sender.c) #add_executable(<name_of_target> <src list>)
+
+### Add definitions for compile
+target_link_libraries(get_sender simgrid m pthread -fprofile-arcs) #target_link_libraries(<name_of_targe> <dependencies>)
+\endverbatim
+
+Then you have to modified <project/directory>/buildtools/Cmake/MakeExeLib.cmake and add
+this line :
+\verbatim
+add_subdirectory(${PROJECT_DIRECTORY}/<path_where_is_CMakeList.txt>)
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_cmakehowto2 Delete/add sources to lib.
+
+If you want modified, add or delete source files from a library you have to edit <project/directory>/buildtools/Cmake/DefinePackages.cmake
+
+\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/AddTests.cmake
+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_PIPOL Pipol-remote
+
+Now we offer the possibility to test your local sources on pipol platforms before a commit. Of course you have to be user of pipol <a href="https://pipol.inria.fr/users/">(Account request)</a> cause you need to give your pipol_username to cmake. Here is a list of available systems :
+\verbatim
+ amd64_kvm-linux-debian-lenny
+ amd64_kvm-linux-debian-testing
+ amd64_kvm-windows-7
+ amd64-linux-centos-5.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-debian-etch.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-debian-lenny.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-debian-testing.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-fedora-core10.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-fedora-core11.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-fedora-core12.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-fedora-core13.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-fedora-core7.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-fedora-core8.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-fedora-core9.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-mandriva-2007_springs_powerpack.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-mandriva-2009_powerpack.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-opensuse-11.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-redhatEL-5.0.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-suse-LES10.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-ubuntu-feisty.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-ubuntu-hardy.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-ubuntu-intrepid.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-ubuntu-jaunty.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-ubuntu-karmic.dd.gz
+ amd64-linux-ubuntu-lucid.dd.gz
+ amd64-unix-freebsd-7.dd.gz
+ amd64-windows-server-2003-64bits.dd.gz
+ amd64-windows-server-2008-64bits.dd.gz
+ i386_kvm-linux-debian-lenny
+ i386_kvm-linux-debian-testing
+ i386_kvm-linux-fedora-core13
+ i386_kvm-windows-xp-pro-sp3
+ i386-linux-centos-5.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-debian-etch.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-debian-lenny.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-debian-testing.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-fedora-core10.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-fedora-core11.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-fedora-core12.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-fedora-core13.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-fedora-core7.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-fedora-core8.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-fedora-core9.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-mandriva-2007_springs_powerpack.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-mandriva-2009_powerpack.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-opensuse-11.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-redhatEL-5.0.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-suse-LES10.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-ubuntu-feisty.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-ubuntu-hardy.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-ubuntu-intrepid.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-ubuntu-jaunty.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-ubuntu-karmic.dd.gz
+ i386-linux-ubuntu-lucid.dd.gz
+ i386_mac-mac-osx-server-leopard.dd.gz
+ i386-unix-freebsd-7.dd.gz
+ i386-unix-opensolaris-10.dd.gz
+ i386-unix-opensolaris-11.dd.gz
+ i386-unix-solaris-10.dd.gz
+ ia64-linux-debian-lenny.dd
+ ia64-linux-fedora-core9.dd
+ ia64-linux-redhatEL-5.0.dd
+ x86_64_mac-mac-osx-server-snow-leopard.dd.gz
+ x86_mac-mac-osx-server-snow-leopard.dd.gz
+\endverbatim
+
+Two kind of uses are possible :
+\verbatim
+This command copy your source and execute a configure then a build and finish with tests.
+ bob@caraja:~/Developments/simgrid/tmp_build$ make <name_of_image>
+
+This command copy your source and execute a \"ctest -D Experimental\" and submit the result to cdash.
+ bob@caraja:~/Developments/simgrid/tmp_build$ make <name_of_image>_experimental
+\endverbatim
+All commands are resumed with :
+\verbatim
+bob@caraja:~/Developments/simgrid/tmp_build$ make pipol_experimental_list_images
+bob@caraja:~/Developments/simgrid/tmp_build$ make pipol_test_list_images
+\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 CompleteInFiles.cmake
+
+Complete all .in files and define Variables for h files
+
+\li GenerateDoc.cmake
+
+This file make the html documentation.
+
+\li MakeExeLib.cmake
+
+Here are callled all "CMakeLists.txt" for make executables and libraries.
+
+\li PrintArgs.cmake
+
+This file is called at the end of the build for summarize environment variables.
+
+\li DefinePackages.cmake
+
+Here is defined sources packages for compiling libs.
+
+\li Flags.cmake
+
+Defined flags which are used for compiling sources.
+
+\li Supernovae.cmake
+
+Here are made files for the supernovae mode.
+
+\li Distrib.cmake
+
+Here is defined packages for install simgrid and make a distribution.
+
+\li MaintainerMode.cmake
+
+Part where are generated source files for maintainer mode.
+
+\li Option.cmake
+
+Here are defined options and initialized values.
+
+\li AddTests.cmake
+
+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:
+ ./doc/CMakeLists.txt
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/AddTests.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/CompleteInFiles.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/CTestConfig.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/DefinePackages.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/Distrib.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/Flags.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/GenerateDocs.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/MaintainerMode.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/MakeExeLib.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/MakeExeLibWin.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/MakeJava.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/Option.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/PrintArgs.cmake
+ ./buildtools/Cmake/Supernovae.cmake
+
+CMakeLists for each binaries or examples:
+ ./CMakeLists.txt
+ ./src/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_installation Installing the SimGrid library with Autotools (valid until V3.3.4)
Many people have been asking me questions on how to use SimGrid. Quite
often, the questions were not really about SimGrid but on the
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
+
+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
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_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 CVS version as time of writting).
+\section faq_howto Feature related questions
-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.
+\subsection faq_MIA "Could you please add (your favorite feature here) to SimGrid?"
-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 CVS) 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.
+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 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
+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
+implementation of this feature (task duplication, RPC, thread
+synchronization, ...), you should send it to us and we will be glad to
+add it to the distribution. Thus, other people will take advantage of
+it (and we don't have to answer this question again and again ;).
-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.
+You'll find in this section a few "Missing In Action" features. Many
+people have asked about it and we have given hints on how to simply do
+it with MSG. Feel free to contribute...
-It is possible that this VPATH build thing breaks from time to time in the
-CVS since it's quite fragile, but it's granted to work in any released
-version. If you experience problems, drop us a mail.
+\subsection faq_MIA_MSG MSG features
-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
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_examples I want some more complex MSG examples!
-The DLL is builded in src/.libs, and installed in the <prefix>/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
-
-echo "LIBRARY mingwm10.dll" > mingwm10.def
-echo EXPORTS >> mingwm10.def
-nm mingwm10.dll | grep ' T _' | sed 's/.* T _//' >> mingwm10.def
-\endverbatim
-
-To create the import .lib files, use the <tt>lib</tt> windows tool the
-following way to produce simgrid.lib and mingwm10.lib
-\verbatim lib /def:simgrid.def
-lib /def:mingwm10.def
-\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.
-
-\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://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>.
-
-\subsection faq_generic Building a generic simulator
-
-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_visualization Visualizing the schedule
-
-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>
-
-\subsection faq_postmortem_analysis Online/postmortem analysis
-
-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.
-
-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 ?
-
-\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, 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. :)
-
-As usual, you're welcome to participate.
-
-\section faq_MIA How to ....? Is there a function in the API to simply ....?
-
-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
-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
-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
-implementation of this feature (task duplication, RPC, thread
-synchronization, ...), you should send it to us and we will be glad to
-add it to the distribution. Thus, other people will take advantage of
-it (and we don't have to answer this question again and again ;).
-
-You'll find in this section a few "Missing In Action" features. Many
-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!
-
-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
-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
+examples.
Of course they have often been needing more complex functions like
MSG_process_suspend(), MSG_process_resume() and
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
-whatever you want... I've written a queue module to help implementing
-some asynchronous communications at low cost (creating thousands of
-process only to handle communications may be problematic in term of
-performance at some point). I'll add it in the distribution asap.
+In the past (version <= 3.4), there was no function to perform asynchronous communications.
+It could easily be implemented by creating new process when needed though. Since version 3.5,
+we have introduced the following functions:
+ - MSG_task_isend()
+ - MSG_task_irecv()
+ - MSG_comm_test()
+ - MSG_comm_wait()
+ - MSG_comm_waitall()
+ - MSG_comm_waitany()
+ - MSG_comm_destroy()
-\subsection faq_MIA_thread_synchronization I need to synchronize my MSG processes
+We refer you to the description of these functions for more details on their usage as well
+as to the exemple section on \ref MSG_ex_asynchronous_communications.
-You obviously cannot use pthread_mutexes of pthread_conds. The best
-thing would be to propose similar structures. Unfortunately, we
-haven't found time to do it yet. However you can try to play with
-MSG_process_suspend() and MSG_process_resume(). You can even do some
-synchronization with fake communications (using MSG_task_get(),
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_thread_synchronization I need to synchronize my MSG processes
+
+You obviously cannot use pthread_mutexes of pthread_conds since we handle every
+scheduling related decision within SimGrid.
+
+In the past (version <=3.3.4) you could do it by playing with
+MSG_process_suspend() and MSG_process_resume() or 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?
+Since version 3.4, you can use classical synchronization structures. See page \ref XBT_synchro or simply check in
+include/xbt/synchro_core.h.
+
+\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_communication_time How can I get the *real* communication time ?
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_communication_time How can I get the *real* communication time?
Communications are synchronous and thus if you simply get the time
before and after a communication, you'll only get the transmission
}
\endverbatim
-\subsection faq_MIA_batch_scheduler Is there a native support for batch schedulers in SimGrid ?
+\subsection faq_MIA_SimDag SimDag related questions
+
+\subsubsection faq_SG_comm Implementing communication delays between tasks.
+
+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:
+
+\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].
+
+\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
+am missing something). You have to encode your DAGs in term of
+communicating process to make the whole scheduling process
+distributed. Here is an example of how you could do that. Assume T1
+has to be done before T2.
+
+\verbatim
+ int your_agent(int argc, char *argv[] {
+ ...
+ T1 = MSG_task_create(...);
+ T2 = MSG_task_create(...);
+ ...
+ while(1) {
+ ...
+ if(cond) MSG_task_execute(T1);
+ ...
+ if((MSG_task_get_remaining_computation(T1)=0.0) && (you_re_in_a_good_mood))
+ MSG_task_execute(T2)
+ else {
+ /* do something else */
+ }
+ }
+ }
+\endverbatim
+
+If you decide that the distributed part is not that much important and that
+DAG is really the level of abstraction you want to work with, then you should
+give a try to \ref SD_API.
+
+\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?
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.
+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.
-\subsection faq_MIA_checkpointing I need a checkpointing thing
+\subsubsection faq_MIA_checkpointing I need a checkpointing thing
Actually, it depends on whether you want to checkpoint the simulation, or to
simulate checkpoints.
MSG_task_get_remaining_computation()), or fragment the task in smaller
subtasks.
-\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.
+\subsection faq_platform Platform building and Dynamic resources
-Distributed is somehow "contagious". If you start making distributed
-decisions, there is no way to handle DAGs directly anymore (unless I
-am missing something). You have to encode your DAGs in term of
-communicating process to make the whole scheduling process
-distributed. Here is an example of how you could do that. Assume T1
-has to be done before T2.
+\subsubsection faq_platform_example Where can I find SimGrid platform files?
-\verbatim
- int your_agent(int argc, char *argv[] {
- ...
- T1 = MSG_task_create(...);
- T2 = MSG_task_create(...);
- ...
- while(1) {
- ...
- if(cond) MSG_task_execute(T1);
- ...
- if((MSG_task_get_remaining_computation(T1)=0.0) && (you_re_in_a_good_mood))
- MSG_task_execute(T2)
- else {
- /* do something else */
- }
- }
- }
-\endverbatim
-
-If you decide that the distributed part is not that much important and that
-DAG is really the level of abstraction you want to work with, then you should
-give a try to \ref SD_API.
+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?
-\section faq_dynamic Dynamic resources and platform building
+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.
-\subsection faq_platform Building a realistic platform
+\subsubsection faq_platform_synthetic Generating synthetic but realistic platforms
-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 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_multicore Modeling multi-core resources
+
+There is currently no native support for multi-core or SMP machines in
+SimGrid. We are currently working on it, but coming up with the right
+model is very hard: Cores share caches and bus to access memory and
+thus interfere with each others. Memory contention is a crucial
+component of multi-core modeling.
+
+In the meanwhile, some user-level tricks can reveal sufficient for
+you. For example, you may model each core by a CPU and add some very
+high speed links between them. This complicates a bit the user code
+since you have to remember that when you assign something to a (real)
+host, it can be any of the (fake) hosts representing the cores of a
+given machine. For that, you can use the prop tag of the XML files as
+follows. Your code should then look at the ‘machine’ property
+associated with each workstation, and run parallel tasks over all
+cores of the machine.
+
+\verbatim
+ <host id="machine0/core0" power="91500E6">
+ <prop id="machine" value="machine0"/>
+ <prop id="core" value="0"/>
+ </host>
+ <host id="machine0/core1" power="91500E6">
+ <prop id="machine" value="machine0"/>
+ <prop id="core" value="1"/>
+</host>
+
+
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_SURF_dynamic Modeling dynamic resource availability
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
-\subsection faq_flexml_bypassing How can I have some C functions do what the platform file does?
+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).
-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.
+\subsubsection faq_flexml_bypassing Bypassing the XML parser with your own C functions
+
+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 "route" with ...
- - end "route"
- - end "platform_description"
+ - 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 "host" with attributes id="host1" power="1.0"
+
+let the parser do something roughly equivalent to:
+\verbatim
+ 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. 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
+ /* Adding callback functions */
+ surf_parse_reset_parser();
+ 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);
+ 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:
+ - 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_environment;
+ MSG_create_environment(NULL);
+ surf_parse = surf_parse_bypass_application;
+ MSG_launch_application(NULL);
+\endverbatim
+
+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_fullduplex Using Fullduplex
+
+Experimental fullduplex support is now available on the svn branch. In order to fullduple to work your platform must have two links for each pair
+of interconnected hosts, see an example here:
+\verbatim
+ simgrid_svn_sources/exemples/msg/gtnets/fullduplex-p.xml
+\endverbatim
+
+Using fullduplex support ongoing and incoming communication flows are
+treated independently for most models. The exception is the LV08 model which
+adds 0.05 of usage on the opposite direction for each new created flow. This
+can be useful to simulate some important TCP phenomena such as ack compression.
+
+Running a fullduplex example:
+\verbatim
+ cd simgrid_svn_sources/exemples/msg/gtnets
+ ./gtnets fullduplex-p.xml fullduplex-d.xml --cfg=fullduplex:1
+\endverbatim
+
+
+
+
+
+\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
+
+
+ - <b>Use the following commands to unzip and patch GTNetS package to work within SimGrid.</b>
+
+ \verbatim
+ unzip gtnets-current.zip
+ tar zxvf gtnets-current-patch.tgz
+ cd gtnets-current
+ cat ../00*.patch | patch -p1
+ \endverbatim
+
+ - <b>OPTIONALLY</b> you can use a patch for itanium 64bit processor family.
+
+ \verbatim
+ cat ../AMD64-FATAL-Removed-DUL_SIZE_DIFF-Added-fPIC-compillin.patch | patch -p1
+ \endverbatim
+
+ - <b>Compile GTNetS</b>
+
+ 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.
+
+
+ \verbatim
+ ln -sf Makefile.linux Makefile
+ make depend
+ make debug
+ \endverbatim
+
+
+ - <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.
+
+
+ - <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>
+
+In order to enable gtnets with simgrid you have to give where is gtnets. (path to <gtnets_path>/lib and <gtnets_path>/include)
+
+ \verbatim
+ Since v3.4 (with cmake)
+ cmake . -Dgtnets_path=/<userhome>/usr
+
+ Until v3.4 (with autotools)
+ ./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
+ Since v3.4 (with cmake)
+ cd simgrid
+ make
+ ctest -R gtnets
+
+ Until v3.4 (with autotools)
+ 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... To know the
+list of the currently implemented models, you should use the
+--help-models command line option.
+
+\verbatim
+./masterslave_forwarder ../small_platform.xml deployment_masterslave.xml --help-models
+Long description of the workstation models accepted by this simulator:
+ CLM03: Default workstation model, using LV08 and CM02 as network and CPU
+ compound: Workstation model allowing you to use other network and CPU models
+ ptask_L07: Workstation model with better parallel task modeling
+Long description of the CPU models accepted by this simulator:
+ Cas01_fullupdate: CPU classical model time=size/power
+ Cas01: Variation of Cas01_fullupdate with partial invalidation optimization of lmm system. Should produce the same values, only faster
+ CpuTI: Variation of Cas01 with also trace integration. Should produce the same values, only faster if you use availability traces
+Long description of the network models accepted by this simulator:
+ Constant: Simplistic network model where all communication take a constant time (one second)
+ CM02: Realistic network model with lmm_solve and no correction factors
+ LV08: Realistic network model with lmm_solve and these correction factors: latency*=10.4, bandwidth*=.92, S=8775
+ Reno: Model using lagrange_solve instead of lmm_solve (experts only)
+ Reno2: Model using lagrange_solve instead of lmm_solve (experts only)
+ Vegas: Model using lagrange_solve instead of lmm_solve (experts only)
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsection faq_tracing Tracing Simulations for Visualization
+
+The trace visualization is widely used to observe and understand the behavior
+of parallel applications and distributed algorithms. Usually, this is done in a
+two-step fashion: the user instruments the application and the traces are
+analyzed after the end of the execution. The visualization itself can highlights
+unexpected behaviors, bottlenecks and sometimes can be used to correct
+distributed algorithms. The SimGrid team is currently instrumenting the library
+in order to let users trace their simulations and analyze them. This part of the
+user manual explains how the tracing-related features can be enabled and used
+during the development of simulators using the SimGrid library.
+
+\subsubsection faq_tracing_howitworks How it works
+
+For now, the SimGrid library is instrumented so users can trace the <b>platform
+utilization</b> using the MSG interface. This means that the tracing will
+register how much power is used for each host and how much bandwidth is used for
+each link of the platform. The idea with this type of tracing is to observe the
+overall view of resources utilization in the first place, especially the
+identification of bottlenecks, load-balancing among hosts, and so on.
+
+The idea of the instrumentation is to classify the MSG tasks by category,
+and trace
+the platform utilization (hosts and links) for each of the categories. For that,
+the tracing interface enables the declaration of categories and a function to
+mark a task with a previously declared category. <em>The tasks that are not
+classified according to a category are not traced</em>.
+
+\subsubsection faq_tracing_enabling Enabling using CMake
+
+With the sources of SimGrid, it is possible to enable the tracing
+using the parameter <b>-Dtracing=on</b> when the cmake is executed.
+The section \ref faq_tracing_functions describes all the functions available
+when this Cmake options is activated. These functions will have no effect
+if SimGrid is configured without this option (they are wiped-out by the
+C-preprocessor).
+
+\verbatim
+$ cmake -Dtracing=on .
+$ make
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_tracing_functions Tracing Functions
+
+\subsubsubsection Mandatory Functions
+
+\li <b>\c TRACE_start ()</b>: This is the first function to
+be called. It returns 0 if everything was properly initialized, 1 otherwise.
+All trace functions called before TRACE_start do nothing.
+
+\li <b>\c TRACE_category (const char *category)</b>: This function should be used
+to define a user category. The category can be used to differentiate the tasks
+that are created during the simulation (for example, tasks from server1,
+server2, or request tasks, computation tasks, communication tasks).
+All resource utilization (host power and link bandwidth) will be
+classified according to the task category. Tasks that do not belong to a
+category are not traced.
+
+\li <b>\c TRACE_msg_set_task_category (m_task_t task, const char *category)</b>:
+This function should be called after the creation of a task, to define the
+category of that task. The first parameter \c task must contain a task that was
+created with the function \c MSG_task_create. The second parameter
+\c category must contain a category that was previously defined by the function
+\c TRACE_category.
+
+\li <b>\c TRACE_end ()</b>: This is the last function to be called. It closes
+the trace file and stops the tracing of the simulation. All tracing will be
+completely disabled after the calling this function. Although we recommend
+the use of this function somewhere in the end of program, it can be used
+anywhere in the code. This function returns 0 if everything is ok, 1 otherwise.
+
+\subsubsubsection Optional Functions
+
+\li <b>\c TRACE_host_variable_declare (const char *variable)</b>:
+Declare a user variable that will be associated to hosts. A variable can
+be used to trace user variables such as the number of tasks in a server,
+the number of clients in an application, and so on.
+
+\li <b>\c TRACE_host_variable_[set|add|sub] (const char *variable, double
+value)</b>:
+Set the value of a given user variable. It is important to remind that
+the value of this variable is always associated to the host. The host
+that will be used when these functions are called is the one returned by
+the function \c MSG_host_self().
+
+\subsubsection faq_tracing_options Tracing configuration Options
+
+These are the options accepted by the tracing system of SimGrid:
+
+\li <b>\c tracing/filename</b>: use this to specify the name of the trace file
+that will be created during the simulation. For example, after the binary
+of your simulator, you can pass as parameter this:
+\verbatim
+--cfg=tracing/filename:mytracefile.trace
+\endverbatim
+in order to trace the behavior of the simulation in a file with the name
+mytracefile.trace.
+
+\li <b>\c tracing/platform</b>: use this to activate the tracing of the
+platform. For example, you can pass as parameter to your simulator:
+\verbatim
+--cfg=tracing/platform:1
+\endverbatim
+to trace the platform utilization by the categories you declared in your
+simulator. By default, this options is set to 0.
+
+\subsubsection faq_tracing_example Example of Instrumentation
+
+A simplified example using the tracing mandatory functions.
+
+\verbatim
+int main (int argc, char **argv)
+{
+ MSG_global_init (&argc, &argv);
+
+ //note that TRACE_start must be called after MSG_global_init
+ TRACE_start ();
+ TRACE_category ("request");
+ TRACE_category ("computation");
+ TRACE_category ("finalize");
+
+ //(... after deployment ...)
+
+ m_task_t req1 = MSG_task_create("1st_request_task", 10, 10, NULL);
+ m_task_t req2 = MSG_task_create("2nd_request_task", 10, 10, NULL);
+ m_task_t req3 = MSG_task_create("3rd_request_task", 10, 10, NULL);
+ m_task_t req4 = MSG_task_create("4th_request_task", 10, 10, NULL);
+ TRACE_msg_set_task_category (req1, "request");
+ TRACE_msg_set_task_category (req2, "request");
+ TRACE_msg_set_task_category (req3, "request");
+ TRACE_msg_set_task_category (req4, "request");
+
+ m_task_t comp = MSG_task_create ("comp_task", 100, 100, NULL);
+ TRACE_msg_set_task_category (comp, "computation");
+
+ m_task_t finalize = MSG_task_create ("finalize", 0, 0, NULL);
+ TRACE_msg_set_task_category (finalize, "finalize");
+
+ //(...)
+
+ MSG_clean();
+
+ TRACE_end();
+ return 0;
+}
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsubsection faq_tracing_analyzing Analyzing the SimGrid Traces
+
+The SimGrid library, during an instrumented simulation, creates a trace file in
+the Paje file format that contains the platform utilization for the simulation
+that was executed. The visualization analysis of this file is performed with the
+visualization tool <a href="http://triva.gforge.inria.fr">Triva</a>, with
+special configurations tunned to SimGrid needs. This part of the documentation
+explains how to configure and use Triva to analyse a SimGrid trace file.
+
+- <b>Installing Triva</b>: the tool is available in the INRIAGforge,
+at <a href="http://triva.gforge.inria.fr">http://triva.gforge.inria.fr</a>.
+Use the following command to get the sources, and then check the file
+<i>INSTALL.simplified</i>. This file contains instructions to install
+the tool's dependencies in a Ubuntu/Debian Linux.
+\verbatim
+$ svn checkout svn://scm.gforge.inria.fr/svn/triva
+$ cd triva
+$ cat INSTALL.simplified
+\endverbatim
+
+- <b>Executing Triva</b>: a binary called <i>Triva</i> is available after the
+ installation (you can execute it passing <em>--help</em> to check its
+options). If the triva binary is not available after following the
+installation instructions, you may want to execute the following command to
+initialize the GNUstep environment variables (note that the location of the
+<i>GNUstep.sh</i> file may vary depending on your GNUstep installation - the
+command is known to work in Ubuntu and Debian Linux):
+\verbatim
+$ source /usr/share/GNUstep/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh
+\endverbatim
+You should be able to see this output after the installation of triva:
+\verbatim
+$ ./Triva.app/Triva --help
+Usage: Triva [OPTION...] TRACEFILE
+Trace Analysis through Visualization
+
+ You need to use one of the following options:
+ -g, --graph Graph Analysis
+ -t, --treemap Treemap Analysis
+
+ Other auxiliary options to check the trace file:
+ -c, --check Check the integrity of trace file
+ -h, --hierarchy Export the trace type hierarchy
+ -l, --list List entity types
+
+ -?, --help Give this help list
+ --usage Give a short usage message
+\endverbatim
+Triva expects that the user choose one of the available options
+(currently <em>--graph</em> or <em>--treemap</em> for a visualization analysis)
+and the trace file from the simulation.
+
+- <b>Understanding Triva - time-slice</b>: the analysis of a trace file using
+ the tool always takes into account the concept of the <em>time-slice</em>.
+This concept means that what is being visualized in the screen is always
+calculated considering a specific time frame, with its beggining and end
+timestamp. The time-slice is configured by the user and can be changed
+dynamically through the window called <em>Time Interval</em> that is opened
+whenever a trace file is being analyzed. The next figure depicts the time-slice
+configuration window.
+In the top of the window, in the space named <i>Trace Time</i>,
+the two fields show the beggining of the trace (which usually starts in 0) and
+the end (that depends on the time simulated by SimGrid). The middle of the
+window, in the square named <i>Time Slice Configuration</i>, contains the
+aspects related to the time-slice, including its <i>start</i> and its
+<i>size</i>. The gray rectangle in the bottom of this part indicates the
+<i>current time-slice</i> that is considered for the drawings. If the checkbox
+<i>Update Drawings on Sliders Change</i> is not selected, the button
+<i>Apply</i> must be clicked in order to inform triva that the
+new time-slice must be considered. The bottom part of the window, in the space
+indicated by the square <i>Time Slice Animation</i> can be used to advance
+the time-frame automatically. The user configures the amount of time that the
+time-frame will forward and how frequent this update will happen. Once this is
+configured, the user clicks the <i>Play</i> button in order to see the dynamic
+changes on the drawings.
+<center>
+\htmlonly
+<a href="triva-time_interval.png" border=0><img src="triva-time_interval.png" width="50%" border=0></a>
+\endhtmlonly
+</center>
+<b>Remarks:</b> when the trace has too many hosts or links, the computation to
+take into account a new time-slice can be expensive. When this happens, the
+<i>Frequency</i> parameter, but also updates caused by change on configurations
+when the checkbox <i>Update Drawings on Sliders
+Change</i> is selected will not be followed.
+
+- <b>Understanding Triva - graph</b>: this part of the documention explains how
+ to analyze the traces using the graph view of Triva, when the user executes
+the tool passing <em>--graph</em> as parameter. Triva opens three windows when
+this parameter is used: the <i>Time Interval</i> window (previously described),
+the <i>Graph Representation</i> window, and the <em>Graph Configuration</em>
+window. The Graph Representation is the window where drawings take place.
+Initially, it is completely white waiting for a proper graph configuration input
+by the user. We start the description of this type of analysis by describing the
+<i>Graph Configuration</i> window (depicted below). By using a particular
+configuration, triva
+can be used to customize the graph drawing according to
+the SimGrid trace that was created with user-specific categories. Before delving
+into the details of this customization, let us first explain the major parts of
+the graph configuration window. The buttons located in the top-right corner can
+be used to delete, copy and create a new configuration. The checkbox in the
+top-middle part of the window indicates if the configuration typed in the
+textfield is syntactically correct (we are using the non-XML
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_list">Property List Format</a> to
+describe the configuration). The pop-up button located on the top-left corner
+indicates the selected configuration (the user can have multiple graph
+configurations). The bottom-left text field contains the name of the current
+configuration (updates on this field must be followed by typing enter on the
+keyboard to take into account the name change). The bottom-right <em>Apply</em>
+button activates the current configuration, resulting on an update on the graph
+drawings.
+<center>
+\htmlonly
+<a href="triva-graph_configuration.png" border=0><img src="triva-graph_configuration.png" width="50%" border=0></a>
+\endhtmlonly
+</center>
+<b>Basic SimGrid Configuration</b>: The figure shows in the big textfield the
+basic configuration that should be used during the analysis of a SimGrid trace
+file. The basic logic of the configuration is as follows:
+\verbatim
+{
+ node = (HOST);
+ edge = (LINK);
+\endverbatim
+The nodes of the graph will be created based on the <i>node</i> parameter, which
+in this case is the different <em>"HOST"</em>s of the platform
+used to simulate. The <i>edge</i> parameter indicates that the edges of the
+graph will be created based on the <em>"LINK"</em>s of the platform. After the
+definition of these two parameters, the configuration must detail how
+<em>HOST</em>s and <em>LINK</em>s should be drawn. For that, the configuration
+must have an entry for each of the types used. For <em>HOST</em>, as basic
+configuration, we have:
+\verbatim
+ HOST = {
+ size = power;
+ scale = global;
+ };
+\endverbatim
+The parameter <em>size</em> indicates which variable from the trace file will be
+used to define the size of the node HOST in the visualization. If the simulation
+was executed with availability traces, the size of the nodes will be changed
+according to these traces. The parameter <em>scale</em> indicates if the value
+of the variable is <em>global</em> or <em>local</em>. If it is global, the value
+will be relative to the power of all other hosts, if it is local, the value will
+be relative locally.
+For <em>LINK</em> we have:
+\verbatim
+ LINK = {
+ src = source;
+ dst = destination;
+
+ size = bandwidth;
+ scale = global;
+ };
+\endverbatim
+For the types specified in the <em>edge</em> parameter (such as <em>LINK</em>),
+the configuration must contain two additional parameters: <em>src</em> and
+<em>dst</em> that are used to properly identify which nodes this edge is
+connecting. The values <em>source</em> and <em>destination</em> are always present
+in the SimGrid trace file and should not be changed in the configuration. The
+parameter <em>size</em> for the LINK, in this case, is configured as the
+variable <em>bandwidth</em>, with a <em>global</em> scale. The scale meaning
+here is exactly the same used for nodes. The last parameter is the GraphViz
+algorithm used to calculate the position of the nodes in the graph
+representation.
+\verbatim
+ graphviz-algorithm = neato;
+}
+\endverbatim
+<b>Customizing the Graph Representation</b>: triva is capable to handle
+a customized graph representation based on the variables present in the trace
+file. In the case of SimGrid, every time a category is created for tasks, two
+variables in the trace file are defined: one to indicate node utilization (how
+much power was used by that task category), and another to indicate link
+utilization (how much bandwidth was used by that category). For instance, if the
+user declares a category named <i>request</i>, there will be variables named
+<b>p</b><i>request</i> and a <b>b</b><i>request</i> (<b>p</b> for power and
+<b>b</b> for bandwidth). It is important to notice that the variable
+<i>prequest</i> in this case is only available for HOST, and
+<i>brequest</i> is only available for LINK. <b>Example</b>: suppose there are
+two categories for tasks: request and compute. To create a customized graph
+representation with a proportional separation of host and link utilization, use
+as configuration for HOST and LINK this:
+\verbatim
+ HOST = {
+ size = power;
+ scale = global;
+
+ sep_host = {
+ type = separation;
+ size = power;
+ values = (prequest, pcomputation);
+ };
+ };
+
+ LINK = {
+ src = source;
+ dst = destination;
+ size = bandwidth;
+ scale = global;
+
+ sep_link = {
+ type = separation;
+ size = bandwidth;
+ values = (brequest, bcomputation);
+ };
+ };
+\endverbatim
+Where <i>sep_host</i> contains a composition of type <i>separation</i> where
+its max size is the <i>power</i> of the host and the variables <i>prequest</i>
+and <i>pcomputation</i> are drawn proportionally to the size of the HOST. And
+<i>sep_link</i> is also a separation where max is defined as the
+<i>bandwidth</i> of the link, and the variables <i>brequest</i> and
+<i>bcomputation</i> are drawn proportionally within a LINK.
+<i>This configuration enables the analysis of resource utilization by MSG tasks,
+and the identification of load-balancing issues, network bottlenecks, for
+instance.</i> \n
+<b>Other compositions</b>: besides <i>separation</i>, it is possible to use
+other types of compositions, such as gradients, and colors, like this:
+\verbatim
+ gra_host = {
+ type = gradient;
+ scale = global;
+ values = (numberOfTasks);
+ };
+ color_host = {
+ type = color;
+ values = (is_server);
+ };
+\endverbatim
+Where <i>gra_host</i> creates a gradient within a node of the graph, using a
+global scale and using as value a variable called <i>numberOfTasks</i>, that
+could be declared by the user using the optional tracing functions of SimGrid.
+If scale is global, the max and min value for the gradient will be equal to the
+max and min numberOfTasks among all hosts, and if scale is local, the max and
+min value based on the value of numberOfTasks locally in each host.
+And <i>color_host</i> composition draws a square based on a positive value of
+the variable <i>is_server</i>, that could also be defined by the user using the
+SimGrid tracing functions. \n
+<b>The Graph Visualization</b>: The next figure shows a graph visualization of a
+given time-slice of the masterslave_forwarder example (present in the SimGrid
+sources). The red color indicates tasks from the <i>compute</i> category. This
+visualization was generated with the following configuration:
+\verbatim
+{
+ node = (HOST);
+ edge = (LINK);
+
+ HOST = {
+ size = power;
+ scale = global;
+
+ sep_host = {
+ type = separation;
+ size = power;
+ values = (pcompute, pfinalize);
+ };
+ };
+ LINK = {
+ src = source;
+ dst = destination;
+ size = bandwidth;
+ scale = global;
+
+ sep_link = {
+ type = separation;
+ size = bandwidth;
+ values = (bcompute, bfinalize);
+ };
+ };
+ graphviz-algorithm = neato;
+}
+\endverbatim
+<center>
+\htmlonly
+<a href="triva-graph_visualization.png" border=0><img src="triva-graph_visualization.png" width="50%" border=0></a>
+\endhtmlonly
+</center>
+
+- <b>Understading Triva - colors</b>: An important issue when using Triva is how
+ to define colors. To do that, we have to know which variables are defined in
+the trace file generated by the SimGrid library. The parameter <em>--list</em>
+lists the variables for a given trace file:
+\verbatim
+$ Triva -l masterslave_forwarder.trace
+iFile
+c platform
+c HOST
+v power
+v is_slave
+v is_master
+v task_creation
+v task_computation
+v pcompute
+v pfinalize
+c LINK
+v bandwidth
+v latency
+v bcompute
+v bfinalize
+c user_type
+\endverbatim
+We can see that HOST has seven variables (from power to pfinalize) and LINK has
+four (from bandwidth to bfinalize). To define a red color for the
+<i>pcompute</i> and <i>bcompute</i> (which are defined based on user category
+<i>compute</i>), execute:
+\verbatim
+$ defaults write Triva 'pcompute Color' '1 0 0'
+$ defaults write Triva 'bcompute Color' '1 0 0'
+\endverbatim
+Where the three numbers in each line are the RGB color with values from 0 to 1.
+
+\subsection faq_modelchecking Model-Checking
+\subsubsection faq_modelchecking_howto How to use it
+To enable the experimental SimGrid model-checking support the program should
+be executed with the command line argument
+\verbatim
+--cfg=model-check:1
+\endverbatim
+Properties are expressed as assertions using the function
+\verbatim
+void MC_assert(int prop);
+\endverbatim
+
+\subsection faq_binding_lua Lua Binding
+Most of Simgrid modules require a good level in C programming, since simgrid is used to be as standard C library.
+ Sometime users prefer using some kind of « easy scripts » or a language easier to code with, for their works,
+ which avoid dealing with C errors, and sometime an important gain of time.
+Besides Java Binding, Lua and Ruby bindings are available since version 3.4 of Simgrid
+for MSG Module, and we are currenlty working on bindings for other modules.
+
+
+\subsubsection faq_binding_lua_about What is lua ?
+Lua is a lightweight, reflective, imperative and functional programming language,
+ designed as a scripting language with extensible semantics as a primary goal (see official web site <a href="http://www.lua.org">here</a>).
+\subsubsection faq_binding_lua_why Why lua ?
+Lua is a fast, portable and powerful script language, quite simple to use for developpers.
+it combines procedural features with powerful data description facilities,
+ by using a simple, yet powerful, mechanism of tables.
+Lua has a relatively simple C API compared to other scripting languages,
+and accordingly it provides a robust, easy to use it.
+\subsubsection faq_binding_lua_simgrid How to use lua in Simgrid ?
+Actually, the use of lua in Simgrid is quite simple, you have just to follow the same steps as coding with C in Simgird :
+ - Coding functions coresponding to each process
+ - loading the platforme/deployment XML file that describe the environment of simulation
+ - and … Running the Simulation.
+
+\dontinclude lua/master_slave.lua
+\subsubsection faq_binding_lua_example_master_slave Master/Slave Example
+
+ \li Master Code
+ \until end_of_master
+we mainly use simgrid.Task.new(task_name,computation_size,communication_size) to create our MSG Task,
+ then simgrid.Task.send(task,alias) to send it.
+we use also simgrid.Task.name(task), to get the task's name.
+
+\li Slave Code
+\until end_of_slave
+Here, we see the use of simgrid.Task.recv(alias) to receive a task with a specific alias,
+this function return directly the task recevied.
+
+\li Set Environmenet and run application
+\until simgrid.clean()
+
+\subsubsection faq_binding_lua_example_data Exchanging Data
+You can also exchange data between Process using lua. for that, you have to deal with lua task as a table,
+since lua is based itself on a mechanism of tables,
+so you can exchange any kind of data (tables, matrix, strings,…) between process via tasks.
+
+\li Sender process
+\verbatim
+ task = simgrid.Task.new("data_task",task_comp,task_comm);
+ task['matrix'] = my_matrix;
+ task['table'] = my_table;
+ task['message'] = "Hello from (Lua || Simgrid ) !! "
+ …
+ simgrid.Task.send(task,alias)
+\endverbatim
+ After creating task, we associate to it various kind of data with a specific key (string in this case)
+ to distinguish between data variables. The receiver will use this key to access easily to datas.
+
+
+\li Receiver processe
+\verbatim
+ task = simgrid.Task.recv(alias);
+ sender_matrix = task['matrix'];
+ sender_table = task['table'];
+ sender_message = task['message']
+ ...
+\endverbatim
+ Note that in lua, both sender and receiver share the same lua task.
+ So that the receiver could joint data directly on the received task without sending it back.
+ You can find a complet example (matrix multiplication case) in the file example/lua/mult_matrix.lua.
+
+
+\subsubsection faq_binding_lua_example_bypass Bypass XML
+ maybe you wonder if there is a way to bypass the XML files,
+ and describe your platform directly from the code, with lua bindings it's Possible !! how ?
+ We provide some additional (tricky?) functions in lua that allows you to set up your own platform without using the XML files
+ ( this can be useful for large platforms, so a simple for loop will avoid you to deal with an annoying XML File ;) )
+
+
+\li set Routing mode
+\verbatim
+ simgrid.AS.new{id="AS0",mode="Full"};
+\endverbatim
+
+\li set Hosts
+\verbatim
+ simgrid.Host.new{id="Tremblay",power=98095000};
+ simgrid.Host.new{id="Jupiter",power=76296000};
+ simgrid.Host.new{id="Fafard",power=76296000};
+ simgrid.Host.new{id="Ginette",power=48492000};
+ simgrid.Host.new{id="Bourassa",power=48492000};
+\endverbatim
+ we use simgrid.Host.new{id=id_host,power=power_host} to instanciate our hosts.
-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"
+\li set Links
+\verbatim
+ for i=0,11 do
+ simgrid.Link.new{id=i,bandwidth=252750+ i*768,latency=0.000270544+i*0.087}; -- some crazy values ;)
+ end
+\endverbatim
+ we used simgrid.Link.new{id=link_id,bandwidth=bw,latency=lat} with a simple for loop to create all links we need (much easier than XML hein ?)
-let the parser do the equivalent of:
+\li set Routes
\verbatim
- strcpy("host1",A_cpu_name);
- A_cpu_power = 1.0;
- (*STag_cpu_fun)();
+-- simgrid.Route.new(src_id,des_id,links_nb,links_list)
+ simgrid.Route.new("Tremblay","Jupiter",1,{"1"});
+ simgrid.Route.new("Tremblay","Fafard",6,{"0","1","2","3","4","8"});
+ simgrid.Route.new("Tremblay","Ginette",3,{"3","4","5"});
+ simgrid.Route.new("Tremblay","Bourassa",7,{"0","1","3","2","4","6","7"});
+
+ simgrid.Route.new("Jupiter","Tremblay",1,{"1"});
+ simgrid.Route.new("Jupiter","Fafard",7,{"0","1","2","3","4","8","9"});
+ simgrid.Route.new("Jupiter","Ginette",4,{"3","4","5","9"});
+ simgrid.Route.new("Jupiter","Bourassa",8,{"0","1","2","3","4","6","7","9"});
+ ...
+\endverbatim
+ for each host you have to specify which route to choose to access to the rest of hosts connected in the grid.
+
+\li Save platform
+\verbatim
+ simgrid.register_platform();
\endverbatim
+Don't forget to register your platform, that SURF callbacks starts their work ;)
-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()):
+\li set application
\verbatim
- // Building the routes
- 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;
- surf_parse_open(file);
- xbt_assert1((!surf_parse()),"Parse error in %s",file);
- surf_parse_close();
+ simgrid.Host.setFunction("Tremblay","Master",4,{"20","550000000","1000000","4"});
+ simgrid.Host.setFunction("Bourassa","Slave",1,{"0"});
+ simgrid.Host.setFunction("Jupiter","Slave",1,{"1"});
+ simgrid.Host.setFunction("Fafard","Slave",1,{"2"});
+ simgrid.Host.setFunction("Ginette","Slave",1,{"3"});
\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 ETag_<tag>_fun function to simulate tag end
- - (do the same for the next set of values, and loop)
+ you don't need to use a deployment XML file, thanks to simgrid.Host.setFunction(host_id,function,args_number,args_list)
+ you can associate functions for each host with arguments if needed .
-Then, tell SimGrid that you want to use your own "parser" instead of the stock one:
+\li
\verbatim
- surf_parse = surf_parse_bypass;
- MSG_create_environment(NULL);
+ simgrid.register_application();
\endverbatim
+Yes, Here too you have to resgiter your application before running the simulation.
-An example of this trick is distributed in the file examples/msg/msg_test_surfxml_bypassed.c
+the full example is distributed in the file examples/lua/master_slave_bypass.lua
-\section faq_limits Pushing the limits
+\subsection faq_binding_ruby Ruby Binding
-\subsection faq_context_1000 I want thousands of simulated processes
-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.
+\subsubsection faq_binding_ruby_simgrid Use Ruby in Simgrid
+Since v3.4, the use of <a href="http://ruby-lang.org">ruby</a> in simgrid is available for the MSG Module.
+you can find almost all MSG functionalities in Ruby code, that allows you to set up your environment, manage tasks between hosts and run the simulation.
-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.
+\dontinclude ruby/MasterSlave.rb
+\subsubsection faq_binding_ruby_example Master/Slave Ruby Application
+for each process method(master and slave in this example), you have to associate a ruby class, that should inherit from <i>MSG::Process</i> ruby class,
+ with a 'main' function that describe the behaviour of the process during the simulation.
+\li required stuff
+\verbatim
+require 'simgrid'
+include MSG
+\endverbatim
-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 ;)
+\li Master code
+\until end_of_master
-\subsection faq_context_10000 I want hundred thousands of simulated processes
+the class MSG::Task contains methods that allows the management of the native MSG tasks.
+in master ruby code we used :
+ - <i>MSG::Task.new(task_name,compute_size,communication_size)</i> : to instanciate a new task.
+ - <i>MSG::Task.send(mailbox)</i> : to send the task via a mailbox alias.
+ - <i>MSG::Task.name</i> : to get the task's name.
-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.
+\li Slave code
+\until end_of_slave
+to receive a task, we use the method <i>MSG::Task.receive(mailbox)</i> that return a MSG:Task object (received task).
-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).
+\li Main chunk
+\until MSG.exit
- - 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.
+- <i>MSG.createEnvironment(platform_file)</i> : set up the environment
+- <i>MSG.deployApplication(deployment_file)</i> : load the deployment file description.
+- <i>MSG.run</i> : run the simulation
- - 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).
+\subsubsection faq_binding_ruby_data Exchanging data
+ruby bindings provides two ways to exchange data between ruby processes.
+\li MSG::Task.join & MSG::Task.data \br
- - The deployment file became quite big, so I had to do what is in the FAQ
- entry \ref faq_flexml_limit
+ the MSG::Task class contains 2 methods that allows a data exchange between 2 process.
+
+ -<i>MSG::Task.join</i> : makes possible to join any kind of ruby data within a task.
+ \verbatim
+ ...
+ myTable = Array.new
+ myTable <<1<<-2<<45<<67<<87<<76<<89<<56<<78<<3<<-4<<99
+ # Creates and send Task With the Table inside
+ task = MSG::Task.new("quicksort_task",taskComputeSize, taskCommunicationSize);
+ task.join(myTable);
+ ...
+ task.send(mailbox);
+ \endverbatim
+ -<i>MSG::Task.data</i> : to access to the data contained into the task.
+ \verbatim
+ ...
+ task = MSG::Task.receive(recv_mailbox.to_s)
+ table = task.data
+ quicksort(table,0,table.size-1)
+ ...
+ \endverbatim
+you can find a complet example illustrating the use of those methods in file /example/ruby/Quicksort.rb
- - 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.
+\li inheritence
+
+ another 'object-oriented' way to do it, is to make your own 'task' class that inherit from MSG::Task ,
+ and contains data you want to deal with, the only 'tricky' thing is that "the initializer" method has no effect !
+
+ the use of some getter/setter methods would be the simple way to manage your data :)
+ \verbatim
+class PingPongTask < MSG::Task
+ # The initialize method has no effect
+ @time
+ def setTime(t)
+ @time = t
+ end
+ def getTime()
+ return @time
+ end
+end
+ \endverbatim
+ you can find an example of use in file example/ruby/PingPong.rb
\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:
-
-\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:
+ that we can check it out. Make sure to read \ref faq_bugrepport
+ before you do so.
-\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.
-
-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">
-\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>.
-
\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
*/
+******************************************************************
+* 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.
+
+
