[Paraview] Paraview 3.6.x connection definition files
Scott, W Alan
wascott at sandia.gov
Thu Nov 5 12:56:45 EST 2009
Seems to me that we really want ParaView to do the following:
* Read server connection information from a system level file.
* Read server connection information from a user level file. This information shall not override anything read in from the system level file. (Do we even need this file?)
* Read in the user's default connection information from a user level file.
* Allow the user to edit the server information. (Do we even need this step?)
* When ParaView finishes, write out the current server information (from the system level and the user level) into a user level file. (Do we even need this?)
* Write preferences into a preferences file.
Thoughts?
Alan
________________________________
From: Moreland, Kenneth
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:02 AM
To: Rick Angelini; Scott, W Alan
Cc: ParaView
Subject: Re: [Paraview] Paraview 3.6.x connection definition files
It sounds like the major problem is that ParaView is taking the server connection configurations from the system files and writing them in the servers.pvsc configuration file the first time it encounters them, where they forever override any changes to the system files. I believe this behavior was introduced to save the user's last entries for the parameters as the default for the next invocation (bug #5487).
This is an important feature, but perhaps this is not the best way to implement it. Perhaps ParaView should be saving the server connection argument parameters in the regular settings key/value file. That way you could leave the system server settings in the system files and nothing would override them. Does that sound like the right thing?
-Ken
On 11/5/09 6:00 AM, "Rick Angelini" <angel at arl.army.mil> wrote:
Alan, yes, you've demonstrated the problem I found with the pvsc
files. It's a difficult problem:
Ideally, we want to provide
1. Global server connection definitions
2. User-defined server connection definitions
3. the ability save persistent information (username, remote shell
executable, ProjectID, etc, etc) as defined by the pvsc definition
4. Update the global connection definition and have it override any
previous definition
I think that it's a slightly larger issue than just managing variables
that may exist between the user copy of the definition and the global
copy - we need to provide the capability to drop in a totally new global
pvsc file and have it override anything that may have been saved
locally. For instance, we just switched our queuing system from LSF to
PBS and the entire pvsc file changed. Ideally, when the new global
server definition was dropped into the place, the user copy for that
server would be totally replaced by the new definition.
Scott, W Alan wrote:
>
> Rick,
> It sure looks wrong to me. I did as you said -
> * Deleted my local .config/ParaView/servers.pvsc file.
> * Ran ParaView, connected to a remote server, then closed ParaView.
> - This read in my default_servers.pvsc file
> - Wrote out a new local .config/ParaView/servers.pvsc file.
> * I then changed one of the options to be wrong in the users
> servers.pvsc file. (I used max NODES, which should obviously be from
> the system default_servers.pvsc). This information was still correct
> in the default_server.pvsc file.
> * Upon rerunning ParaView, the wrong information was picked up from
> the servers.pvsc file.
>
>
> What would be the correct behavior? We want to always use the default
> value from the user's servers.pvsc file, but we want to use all of the
> other variables from the default_servers.pvsc file. Right?
>
> Alan
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rick Angelini [mailto:angel at arl.army.mil]
> > Sent: Monday, November 02, 2009 8:36 AM
> > To: Scott, W Alan
> > Cc: ParaView; Moreland, Kenneth
> > Subject: Re: [Paraview] Paraview 3.6.x connection definition files
> >
> > You're correct, the FIRST place it looks is for the system default.
> > However, the SECOND place it looks is the user's area, which
> > OVERRIDES
> > the systems default, as best as I can tell. If HostA is defined in
> > the default_servers.pvsc, the first time it gets loaded it is then
> > saved into the user's local servers.pvsc file. I need to do more
> > testing, but it looks like even if the default.pvsc file is
> > updated, the original definition that was saved off in the
> > users area is used.
> >
> >
> > Scott, W Alan wrote:
> > > Rick,
> > > To be honest, I didn't even realize that there was a
> > servers.pvsc in
> > > the home directory. The first place that ParaView looks for GUI
> > > connection information is in your Paraview install area.
> > On our LANS,
> > > this is .../3.6.2/Linux-x86_64/lib/paraview-3.6 (which is really
> > > wherever_paraviews_root_is/lib/paraview-3.6) I have a
> > > default_servers.pvsc in there.
> > >
> > > For standalone Linux installs, I put this
> > default_servers.pvsc in the
> > > same place .../local_paraview_base/lib/paraview-3.6.
> > >
> > > In XP it goes in the ParaView install directory - c:/Program
> > > Files/ParaView 3.6.2/bin.
> > >
> > > Give me a call if you want to discuss.
> > >
> > > Alan
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ------ Forwarded Message
> > > *From: *Rick Angelini <angel at arl.army.mil>
> > > *Date: *Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:55:10 -0600
> > > *To: *<ParaView at paraview.org>
> > > *Subject: *[Paraview] Paraview 3.6.x connection definition files
> > >
> > > I have questions regarding the use of connection
> > definition files.
> > >
> > > I have created numerous connection definition files for various
> > > clusters
> > > and compute systems that we have here. Up until
> > now, I've been
> > > distributing those pvsc files through a common
> > directory that all
> > > of my
> > > users have access to. They manually load the pvsc
> > files into their
> > > session, and those server definitions get automatically
> > saved into
> > > $HOME/.config/ParaView/servers.pvsc. The
> > connection definition
> > > files work great and are a huge time saver for Paraview users -
> > > particularly in an environment where we need to
> > establish SSH tunnels,
> > > modify ports and connection IDs, etc.
> > >
> > > The problem lies in what happens when I want to change
> > one or more of
> > > those pvsc files (presumably to incorporate a change
> > that will improve
> > > functionality, performance, etc 8-) I update the
> > pvsc file in the
> > > common directory, and then I need to notify all of my
> > Paraview users
> > > that there's an update to the PVSC files and that they need to
> > > delete/replace their existing definition with a new one. This
> > > scenario
> > > is awkward and requires some effort on the users' part
> > - it would be
> > > nice if there were a more automatic solution.
> > >
> > > So, I've been looking at using a default_servers.pvsc
> > file which in
> > > theory is a great idea. All users would have access
> > to a common pvsc
> > > file that I can control and update as necessary, with no updates
> > > required by the user. Well, unfortunately, it doesn't
> > seem to really
> > > work that way. The default_servers.pvsc file is read
> > in the first
> > > time ParaView is loaded, and then those server
> > definitions are saved
> > > back to the $HOME/.config/ParaView directory. The servers are
> > > presumably saved off to preserve some of the
> > information as defined in
> > > the PVSC file - I have numerous fields (UserID, ProjectID, SSH
> > > executable labeled with "save=true" so that that information is
> > > carried
> > > over between sessions.
> > >
> > > This is where we start to run into problems.
> > According to the
> > > WIKI,
> > > the last server definition loaded take precedence, so if I make
> > > changes
> > > to the "default_servers.pvsc" file, it gets loaded prior to
> > > "$HOME/.config/ParaView/servers.pvsc". Unless I'm missing
> > > something,
> > > once the server definitions are initialized the first
> > time they are
> > > recognized and saved off to the user's .config
> > directory, the default
> > > servers will never have precedence, even if I change/update the
> > > contents. Unless the ServerName is changed for each
> > subsequent update
> > > of a particular server, any updated server in the
> > default servers file
> > > won't be loaded. Am I on the right track here - have
> > I missed or
> > > assumed something that I shouldn't have? It looks
> > like all of the
> > > hooks are *almost* there to manage the server definitions .....
> > >
> > > Also, using 3.6.1, I went through the process of created a
> > > default_servers.pvsc, having those servers
> > automatically loaded in my
> > > ParaView session, and then have them saved off into a local
> > > servers.pvsc
> > > file. However, during the next Paraview session, the
> > definitions
> > > don't
> > > work properly - it seems as those the only the last item in an
> > > enumerated list are available through the GUI, and in
> > general it just
> > > doesn't work correctly. If those same server
> > definitions are loaded
> > > manually by the user and saved locally, they work
> > fine. So, there's
> > > apparently an issue related to the use of the
> > default_servers.pvsc and
> > > how those definitions are saved out to the user's
> > server.pvsc file.
> > >
> > >
> > >
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> > >
> > > ------ End of Forwarded Message
> > >
> >
> >
>
**** Kenneth Moreland
*** Sandia National Laboratories
***********
*** *** *** email: kmorel at sandia.gov
** *** ** phone: (505) 844-8919
*** web: http://www.cs.unm.edu/~kmorel
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