Inciter command line parameters

This page documents the command line parameters of Inciter.

List of all command line parameters

         -b, --benchmark            Select benchmark mode
           -c, --control     string Specify the control file name [REQUIRED]
       -d, --diagnostics     string Specify the diagnostics file name
          -f, --feedback            Enable on-screen feedback
              -h, --help            Display one-liner help on all command-line arguments
           -C, --helpctr            Display one-liner help on all control file keywords
            -H, --helpkw     string Display verbose help on a single keyword
             -i, --input     string Specify the input file
            -l, --lbfreq        int Set load-balancing frequency during time stepping
           -L, --license            Show license information
       -n, --nonblocking            Select non-blocking migration
            -o, --output     string Specify the output file
        -q, --quiescence            Enable quiescence detection
           -R, --restart     string Specify the directory for restart files
            -r, --rsfreq        int Set checkpoint/restart frequency during time stepping
            -O, --screen     string Specify the screen output file
             -S, --state            Enable verbose chare state screen output
             -t, --trace            Disable call and stack trace
           -v, --verbose            Select verbose screen output
           -V, --version            Show version information
    -u, --virtualization       real Set degree of virtualization

Detailed description of command line parameters

Keyword -b, --benchmark

Select benchmark mode

This keyword is used to select benchmark mode. In benchmark mode no large file output is performed, overriding the configuration in the control file.

Keyword -c, --control

Specify the control file name [REQUIRED]

This keyword is used to specify the name of the control file from which detailed user input is parsed.

Expected type: string

Keyword -d, --diagnostics

Specify the diagnostics file name

This option is used to define the diagnostics file name.

Expected type: string

Keyword -f, --feedback

Enable on-screen feedback

This keyword is used to enable more detailed on-screen feedback on particular tasks and sub-tasks as they happen. This is useful for large problems and debugging.

Keyword -h, --help

Display one-liner help on all command-line arguments

Get a short one-liner help on all command-line arguments from an executable. It also triggers the help from the Charm++ runtime system and in addition to that of the executable, it also lists command-line arguments from Converse Machine, Tracing, Load Balancer, Record/Replay, and Charm++ command-line parameters.

Keyword -C, --helpctr

Display one-liner help on all control file keywords

This keyword can be used to get a short one-liner help on all control file keywords from an executable.

Keyword -H, --helpkw

Display verbose help on a single keyword

This keyword can be used to get a verbose help on a single command-line argument or control-file keyword (i.e., help on keyword) from an executable.

Expected type: string

Keyword -i, --input

Specify the input file

This option is used to define the name of input file.

Expected type: string

Keyword -l, --lbfreq

Set load-balancing frequency during time stepping

This keyword is used to set the frequency of load-balancing during time stepping. The default is 1, which means that load balancing is initiated every time step. Note, however, that this does not necessarily mean that load balancing will be performed by the runtime system every time step, only that the Charm++ load-balancer is initiated. For more information, see the Charm++ manual.

Expected type: int

Lower bound: 1

Upper bound: 18446744073709551614

Expected valid choices: integer between [1...18446744073709551614] (both inclusive)

Keyword -L, --license

Show license information

This keyword is used to display license information for the executable/tool on the standard output and exit successfully.

Keyword -n, --nonblocking

Select non-blocking migration

This keyword is used to select non-blocking, instead of the default blocking, migration. WARNING: This feature is experimental, not well tested, and may not always work as expected.

Keyword -o, --output

Specify the output file

This option is used to define the output file name. In MeshConv, this is used to specify the output mesh file name. In Inciter this is used to specify the output base filename. The base filename is appended by ".e-s.\<meshid\>.\<numchares\>.\<chareid\>", where 'e-s' probably stands for ExodusII sequence (the output file format), <meshid> counts the number of new meshes (this is incremented whenever the mesh is new compared to the previous iteration, due to, e.g., mesh refinement), <numchares> is the total number of mesh partitions, and <chareid> is the work unit (or mesh partition) id.

Expected type: string

Keyword -q, --quiescence

Enable quiescence detection

This keyword is used to enable the quiescence detection feature of Charm++, used to catch logic errors in the asynchronous control flow, resulting in deadlocks. This is useful for automated testing and debugging and does have some overhead, so it is off by default.

Keyword -R, --restart

Specify the directory for restart files

This option is used to specify the directory name in which to save checkpoint/restart files.

Expected type: string

Keyword -r, --rsfreq

Set checkpoint/restart frequency during time stepping

This keyword is used to set the frequency of dumping checkpoint/restart files during time stepping. The default is 1000, which means that checkpoint/restart files are dumped at every 1000th time step.

Expected type: int

Lower bound: 1

Upper bound: 18446744073709551614

Expected valid choices: integer between [1...18446744073709551614] (both inclusive)

Keyword -O, --screen

Specify the screen output file

This option is used to set the screen output file name. The default is "\<executable\>_screen.log".

Expected type: string

Keyword -S, --state

Enable verbose chare state screen output

This keyword is used to enable verbose Charm++ chare state collection and screen output. The chare state is displayed after a run is finished and the data collected is grouped by chare id (thisIndex), and within groups data is ordered by the time-stamp when a given chare member function is called. See src/Base/ChareState.hpp for details on what is collected. Note that to collect chare state, the given chare must be instrumented. Note that if quescence detection is enabled, chare state collection is also automatically enabled, but the chare state is only output if quiescence is detected (which also triggers an error).

Keyword -t, --trace

Disable call and stack trace

This keyword can be used to disable the on-screen call trace and stack trace after an exception is thrown. Trace output is on by default and in some cases, the call and stack trace can be huge and not very helpful, hence this command line option.

Keyword -v, --verbose

Select verbose screen output

This keyword is used to select verbose screen-output as opposed to the default quiet output. With quiet output only the most important messages are echoed to screen.

Keyword -V, --version

Show version information

This keyword is used to display version information for the executable/tool on the standard output and exit successfully.

Keyword -u, --virtualization

Set degree of virtualization

This option is used to set the degree of virtualization (over-decomposition). The virtualization parameter is a real number between 0.0 and 1.0, inclusive, which controls the degree of virtualization or over-decomposition. Independent of the value of virtualization the work is approximately evenly distributed among the available processing elements. For zero virtualization (no over-decomposition), the work is simply decomposed into total_work/numPEs, which yields the smallest number of Charm++ chares and the largest chunks of work units. The other extreme is unity virtualization, which decomposes the total work into the smallest size work units possible, yielding the largest number of Charm++ chares. Obviously, the optimum will be between 0.0 and 1.0, depending on the problem.

Expected type: real

Lower bound: 0.000000

Upper bound: 1.000000

Expected valid choices: real between [0.000000...1.000000] (both inclusive)