Hi together,

in the Seti forum i asked for the possibility to free a core when a special app is running (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=78996). A nice member gave me a tip to add such a functionality with already available commands, but now i want to request a more general feature added to the BOINC client via boinccmd, which provides a lot more functionality and is more comfortably to use.

Something like:

boinccmd.exe --free_cores N
Frees N cores, i. e. telling BOINC to use (MAXavailable-N) cores only.

boinccmd.exe --use_all_cores
Revert the previous command or simply tell BOINC to use all available cores.
Synonym: boinccmd.exe --free_cores 0 (0=zero)

What do you developers think about this?

Best regards, Uli

Countless volunteers have requested one or the other feature that reduces the number of cores/gpgpu's used for computing, either when the system is in use or when a specific user app is loaded. No development takers.

Whilst, boinccmd has many functions which combined with scripting and maybe scheduling / cron job settings can achieve the object. Keep multiple copies of the global_prefs_override.xml with different configurations, possibly combined with different cc_config.xmls and let boinccmd read in the different configurations... scheduled or with shortcuts on the desktop... the sky is the limit in self-creativity.

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Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt

There's also the <ncpus> option still in cc_config.xml which can do this. Although it says it's used for testing more CPU cores than the system has, you can also set it to use less cores than the system has.

So, using this on a quad core CPU will let it use two cores:

<cc_config>
<log_flags>
</log_flags>
<options>
<ncpus>2</ncpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

To disable <ncpus> use the value -1.

<cc_config>
<log_flags>
</log_flags>
<options>
<ncpus>-1</ncpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

Using boinccmd --read_cc_config you can quickly switch between these options.

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Sure, that workaround functions well, but if you change the cc_config.xml, you'll also have to change all other instances, used for "simulating" the requested behavior, which is - at least to say - error prone.

Also for using all cores again, one has to provide the exact number (i. e. 4 for a quad core) for the <ncpus> parameter. Using -1 leads to no change at all.

Greetings:

I also would love to see the ability to either manually, via BoincTray functionality, in Windows, or via the ability to specify cores allowed while certain named programs are running.

I think the ability to turn off a certain number of cores when I load one of my games, as an example, as well as turn off use of the GPU (which IS possible in the current release, 7.6.22, I don't know when this capability was added), would be the most effective method. Just add the executable to the exclusion list and specify the number of cores to 'disable' while it's running. I wouldn't think that would be a big deal, but I'm not a developer. I would appreciate an actual number of cores be specified instead of the %-age method now used in Computing Preferences.

Any takers??


Thanks!

Neil

The percent works well because it applies always in rounded down whole core. E.g 88 percent on an octo would let 7 cores running but on a 4 core or 2 it would let 3 resp. 1 running or for that matter leave 5 running on a 6 core.

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Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt

I see, i'm not alone! ;)

This feature would really be very handy for multiple purposes.
Maybe some developer finally realizes this feature - would be greatly appreciated!

I think anyone running these apps knows how many cores they have and, therefore, how many they'd like to 'turn off'. Most won't want to do the math to figure out that you need to specify 88 to leave 7 of 8 running on an 8-core CPU. Just say 7.

Neil