I've just been reminded of another reason why this would be helpful. Not every project's scheduler/feeder allocates tasks in monotonic order of ResultID. Consider
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/results.php?hostid=4124638 >From page 1 alone, I can see that tasks were allocated at 7:19:40 7:20:54 7:22:00 7:23:05 7:24:12 and the pattern continues on subsequent pages: having the column sortable would help to identify the pattern. Not unnaturally, the excessive work fetch prompted a report by the user on the project's message board: http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/forum_thread.php?id=10566 - in this case, an experienced user has posted a calm and reasonable question, but in other similar cases, there have been accusatory posts blaming the project for "pushing" an unreasonable volume of work. Unfairly, IMHO. My preliminary assessment is that this is another manifestation of the problem I reported on the boinc_alpha mailing list in May last year, under the title "v7.0.64 - repeated and excessive work fetch": it's the client which initiates the work fetch, again and again and again, despite the volume of work being downloaded being substantially in excess of the maximum cache requested. We had a lengthy discussion about this bug, and I supplied logs from when I observed the behaviour on my own machine, but I don't recall any changeset declaring the problem fixed (though Jacob Klein did send me a copy of a private reply he'd received from David, suggesting that GPU exclusion code was being used when inappropriate). Unfortunately, the present reporter is using an old version of BOINC (v6.10.60), so his experience doesn't answer the question about a fix - but the column sort on the result pages (to get back on topic) would help with diagnosis. >________________________________ > From: Nicolás Alvarez <[email protected]> >To: William Stilte <[email protected]> >Cc: BOINC Developers Mailing List <[email protected]> >Sent: Sunday, 16 February 2014, 22:37 >Subject: Re: [boinc_dev] new GUI RPC for getting completed /reported tasks > > >If you want to sort by time then sort by time (once that is made >possible), not by ID. > >In my opinion the numeric IDs shouldn't even be exposed on the website >(of course it's too late for that now). > >2014-02-14 8:25 GMT-03:00 William Stilte <[email protected]>: >> For sake of completeness, I wrote the following back in Spetember: >> >> >> While sorting by task name is useful at times, if you're trying to find a >> particular task, in general you'd want to see the tasks in order of task id >> - which amount to ordering by send time/date. >> Would it be possible to get custom column sorting instead (e.g. by clicking >> on the column head)? That would also make it possible to sort by device, >> i.e. find CPU/GPU tasks quickly, something that is sadly missing atm. >> The search function is useful, but would profit from allowing wildcards. >> >> 2014-02-14 11:39 GMT+01:00 Richard Haselgrove <[email protected]> >> : >> >>> Having had a few months' experience with this, I wonder if we could >>> fine-tune it, especially for SETI Beta. >>> >>> The search box is wonderful, and ideal for the purpose. >>> >>> But unconditionally sorting tasks by name when names are displayed can >>> actually be a hindrance. >>> >>> SETI Beta deliberately keeps tasks in the database, unpurged, for months >>> or sometimes years. At the same time, like any active Beta project, most >>> attention is focused on recently-modified application versions. >>> >>> This morning, I was trying to assess whether a particular failure mode >>> might be associated with a particular task type (those with ".vlar" in the >>> name) - and I found I couldn't combine "show name" with "recent". >>> >>> The ideal solution would be to have sort links in the column headers, >>> independent of display format - as, I believe, was suggested to you >>> privately at the time. >>> >>> >>> >>> >________________________________ >>> > From: David Anderson <[email protected]> >>> >To: Richard Haselgrove <[email protected]> >>> >Cc: BOINC Developers Mailing List <[email protected]> >>> >Sent: Monday, 9 September 2013, 3:22 >>> >Subject: Re: [boinc_dev] new GUI RPC for getting completed /reported tasks >>> > >>> > >>> >Good idea! I made the following changes to the web code: >>> > >>> >- if you click "show name" in the task list, tasks are sorted >>> > by name instead of ID >>> > >>> >- you can search for tasks by name. >>> > >>> >This is deployed on SETI@home and SETI@home beta. >>> > >>> >-- David >>> > >>> >On 08-Sep-2013 1:22 PM, Richard Haselgrove wrote: >>> >> This looks very useful, both for application developers/testers, and >>> when >>> >> helping volunteers diagnose faults via a project message board. >>> >> >>> >> But either process is slowed down and made harder by a missing link in >>> the chain. >>> >> >>> >> The local client knows a task only by its name, as in the list below. >>> >> The project website default display (except at Einstein) displays Task >>> IDs for >>> >> results - and always displays tasks in order of ID #, even when >>> displaying names. >>> >> >>> >> It would be most helpful to be able to associate names and Task IDs - >>> either by >>> >> passing the Task ID # to the client in the <result> block when >>> allocating the >>> >> task, or by adding a task name search facility to the task listing >>> pages on >>> >> project websites. >>> >> >>> >> >>> >>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >> *From:* David Anderson <[email protected]> >>> >> *To:* BOINC Developers Mailing List <[email protected]> >>> >> *Sent:* Sunday, 8 September 2013, 20:54 >>> >> *Subject:* [boinc_dev] new GUI RPC for getting completed /reported >>> tasks >>> >> >>> >> Fred (developer of BoincTasks) pointed out that it's hard for GUIs >>> >> to learn the outcome of completed tasks, >>> >> since the interval from when the task completes to when it's >>> reported >>> >> can be just a few seconds, >>> >> and after this the client forgets about the task. >>> >> >>> >> To address this problem, I did the following: >>> >> >>> >> - the client keeps an in-memory list of tasks that have been >>> reported >>> >> in the last hour. >>> >> For each tasks it stores >>> >> - the project URL >>> >> - the result name >>> >> - the app name >>> >> - the final elapsed time >>> >> - the exit status >>> >> - the time when the task completed >>> >> - the time when the task was reported >>> >> >>> >> - There's a new GUI RPC, get_old_tasks(), which fetches this list. >>> >> >>> >> This feature will be in the next client release. >>> >> >>> >> -- David >>> >> _______________________________________________ >>> >> boinc_dev mailing list >>> >> [email protected] <mailto:[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. >>> >> >>> >> >>> > >>> > >_______________________________________________ >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. > > > _______________________________________________ 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.
