GridStuffer

A Cocoa application to submit multi-task jobs to Xgrid using a very simple format that resembles very much the xgrid command-line format.

GridStuffer version 0.4.9

Created by Charles Parnot. Copyright Charles Parnot 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. All rights reserved.

Contact by email: charles parnot at gmail com

Read more on the web: http://cmgm.stanford.edu/~cparnot/xgrid-stanford http://cmgm.stanford.edu/~cparnot/xgrid-stanford/html/goodies/goodies.html http://cmgm.stanford.edu/~cparnot/xgrid-stanford/html/goodies/GridStuffer-details.html

The GridStuffer source is released under the terms of the modified BSD License. Please read the text of the license included with the project for more details.

---

Change Log

version 0.4.9 (November 2008)

• The version number was not propely set on the bundle in version 0.4.8, now corrected

version 0.4.8 (June 2008)

• Updated to version 1.5 of the Sparkle framework
• Released GridStuffer under the modified BSD license, instead of GPL

version 0.4.7 (December 2007)

• Version 0.4.6 did not have the Sparkle framework included in the application package, and would thus crash at startup. Sorry about that!

version 0.4.6 (December 2007)

• Updated to version 0.4.6 of the GridEZ framework, that was necessary for Leopard compatibility:

version 0.4.5 (August 2007)

• Numerous bug fixes in the underlying GridEZ framework:
  • memory leaks fixed, in particular one that was directly related to the size of files created by the jobs and uploaded back to GridStuffer when jobs are completed. Many thanks to Bradley Lowekamp for reporting that one!
  • the database file stored on disk, in ~/Library/Application Support/GridStuffer (not the job results in the output folder) will remain small (it used to grow over time)
• Additional memory leaks fixed in GridStuffer code itself
• Additional size reduction of the database file stored in ~/Library/Application Support/GridStuffer
• Added a new test metajob to the "demos", that generates a large 20 MB file (thanks again to Bradley Lowekamp for an easy way to do this with /bin/dd), to test for potential memory leaks in the future and in general, test the behaviour with larger files when transfered by Xgrid.
• Added support for automatic updates using the Sparkle framework

version 0.4.4 (April 2007)

• Fixed a bug in the parser of the input file, that would consider that all parameters starting with a dash were a GridStuffer parameter, and would thus gobble up the command created by the user if it contained parameters with this format.

version 0.4.3 (March 2007)

• Updated to version 0.4.3 version of GridEZ.framework

version 0.4.2 (March 2007)

• Updated to version 0.4.2 version of GridEZ.framework
• Skipped version 0.4.1 to match GridEZ numbering

version 0.4.0 (February 2007)

• All the Xgrid core functionality moved to GridEZ.framework, including the scheduling part of MetaJobs
• Improved MetaJob scheduling implemented in GridEZ:
  • Simplified options
  • More dynamic submission process
  • Reduced risk of overloading a grid with submission
  • Submission to multiple grids in parallel
• Improved connection process and syncing to controllers, as implemented in GridEZ.framework
• Improved Controllers window, as implemented in GridEZ.framework
• New Xgrid Panel, implemented in GridEZ.framework
• Keychain support, as implemented in GridEZ.framework

version 0.2.4.1

• Autosave persistent store every minute instead of only doing it when quitting
• Remove some superflous messages to the console, leftover from caveman debugging
• Fixed a nasty memory leak, where the data of all the job results would never get realease. Really bad!! (big thanks to Espen for his patience in helping to crush that bug)

version 0.2.2.1

• Forgot to make the store compatible with version 0.2.0
• From now on, versions will be considered compatible within a subversion (e.g. 0.2.x are all compatible but not with 0.3.x, etc...)

version 0.2.2

• The DLog function was still defined, and its arguments evaluated, even though the function itself was empty in Deployement release; this caused at least one reported crash, probably because of large file sizes that used up all the memory

version 0.2.1

• Bug fix: path with the ~ were considered absolute paths when used in the command or argument strings, when they should have been considered relative and should not have been used as is if they corresponded to an existing file on the client. Now, these paths are properly modified and the corresponding files are uploaded to the agents when needed.

version 0.2

• use the SQLLite format for the persistent store
• Fixed deletion of jobs (problem: if not found on the xgrid, a job could be deleted from another program... or maybe not loaded yet) --> using some NSTimers
• the -si flag (stdin) is included in the inputFiles
• same thing with stdout, stderr and output files: now really honor -so and -se and -out
• allow the user to cancel the connection while trying to connect to a server
• bug fix: could not remove server from the GUI and the store
• when a task fail, save results in a special 'failures folder'
• use a hierachical structure for the results, so that one does not get 1000000 folders in one folder, but intermediray folders, e.g. '1-100'
• bug fix: the number of commands per job was one more that set in the GUI and metajob attribute
• cleaner GUI:
  • use the toolbar
  • add metajob status
  • fix metajob progress bar
  • add xgrid job table view
  • add metatask table view
  • the word 'MetaJob' is used consistently in the GUI

version 0.1.1

• first semi-public version
• uses xml format for the persistent store