On 14 Feb 2002, at 15:36, Alexander Kruppa wrote:

> Maybe we could have another option, "InterimKeep=x" or such, that only
> the last x files are kept?
> 
> Does Prime95 delete the interim files after successfully completing an
> exponent? 

InterimFiles was originally introduced to facilitate parallel testing & 
double checking for QA work, when there is a good chance that 
partial backtracking to the last agreed point will be required. That's 
why the interval is in terms of iterations rather than time. 
InterimFiles also logs the low 64 bits of the residue to results.txt at 
the same time (in fact it also logs the residue for the next two 
iterations, to cope with the fact that other LL testers count 
iterations differently).

For QA work it is absurd to suggest that the interim files are ever 
deleted automatically, so please don't make that the default option!

> If not, that might be enabled with another option, or by some
> logic that cleans up files in excess of InterimKeep even if they are of
> a previous exponent.

Easy to do, with a trivial bit of scripting.

Get a directory listing of the interim files - p???????.0?? will match 
interim files written by Prime95 or mprime & is not likely to match 
any other files in the working directory (unless you have _very_ 
sloppy working practises!)

Sort it into ascending date order & cut off the bottom N lines.

Any files left in the listing are the ones which should be deleted.
> 
> This should keep disk space usage unter control while allowing a good
> chance of backtracking to a good residue in case of an error.

So will a normal daily incremental backup regime.

Regards
Brian Beesley
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