The 'Client detached' designation of tasks is rather a nuisance. It is seen on CPDN where a user has restored a BOINC Data directory backup containing a long-running climate model. This process generates a new host ID and restored tasks are relabelled 'Client detached'. The problem is that the user may assume that Boinc thinks they have detached from CPDN then reattached; as this is not true the user may then assume that the restored tasks did not restore successfully, will not produce useful results and should be aborted.
'Client detached' can apparently also be generated by merging computer records. We have had many periods of DB overload on CPDN. If this were a cause of the 'Client detached' designation we would definitely know about it; it is not. An inconvenience of this designation is that it causes the web pages of continued and even completed tasks not to be updated in certain respects. For example here http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/results.php?hostid=949378 there are two completed tasks still classified as New and lacking the usual stderr out messages. I do not know whether this inconvenient Boinc behaviour can be prevented. The supposedly detached tasks can in fact still be found; they are not lost forever and can successfully send in trickles and files, receive their credit and generate complete climate graphs. I do not think that detaching from a project can cause tasks to be designated as detached, so the phrase 'Client detached' is, from the point of view of ordinary users, a misnomer. In the context of Boinc detach means to detach from a project. That's what it means in Boinc Manager. That's the meaning users expect. This designation is quite commonly described on forums as 'mysterious'. Would it be possible to change it to something more accurate? Perhaps 'Host ID changed' or 'New host ID' (if that is is indeed the cause). Mo _______________________________________________ boinc_dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_dev To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and (near bottom of page) enter your email address.
