prime95 config file changes

[bgbeuning]

Sometimes I want to make a config file change and hope prime95 will
see the change at some point. But sometimes it seems to just overwrite
my change and lose it.

Prime95 has config files prime.txt, local.txt, and worktodo.txt .
Which can I safely change and which require me to stop
prime95 before changing?

Thanks,

[Uncwilly]

Before making changes to any of them stop and exit Prime95. Make the changes, then restart.

You can use worktodo.add to add items to worktodo.txt. Prime95 will see the file and grab the entries and add them to the end of the the .txt file (and attempt to register assignments if needed.)

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by bgbeuning

Prime95 has config files prime.txt, local.txt, and worktodo.txt. Which can I safely change and which require me to stop
prime95 before changing?

None.

You /can/ add to worktodo.txt without stopping by putting the new assignment lines in worktodo.add, and Prime95/mprime will see the file and add it to the end of worktodo.txt within half an hour or so.

Edit: LOL; crossposted with Uncwilly.

[kladner]

Prime95/mprime will see the file and add it to the end of worktodo.txt within half an hour or so.

I think it may notice immediately if you do Test>Status in P95.

[GP2]

You can create a file called either worktodo.add or worktodo.add.txt

Both forms work, on both Linux and Windows computers. The contents of this "add" file get appended to worktodo.txt (but not immediately), after which the "add" file is automatically erased.

To figure out the time when the contents of the "add" file will get appended, look at the DiskWriteTime value in prime.txt, and add that number of minutes to the timestamp of the most recently written savefile. The only exception is when an LL test completes, in which case the disk write occurs immediately afterward, rather than after the DiskWriteTime interval has elapsed.

Occasionally you want to do something more complicated than merely appending lines. For example, let's say you want to permute the order of the lines in worktodo.txt because one of your exponents just got bumped into Category 1 and you want it to complete sooner.

In that case, you can do so by editing the worktodo.txt file directly and then creating an empty (zero-size) "add" file. When the next scheduled disk write occurs, your changes become permanent. Unless, of course, the topmost worktodo.txt line completes before the DiskWriteTime interval elapses. In this case an immediate disk write occurs as mentioned above, and this disk write unfortunately overwrites your changes.

Summary:

1. When the DiskWriteTime interval elapses and there is no "add" file, any manual edits you made to the worktodo.txt file are lost and overwritten.

2. When the DiskWriteTime interval elapses and there is an "add" file, any manual edits you made to the worktodo.txt file become permanent, and the contents of the "add" file are appended to the end of the worktodo.txt file. This still works even if the "add" file is zero-sized.

3. However, if the current top line in worktodo.txt completes its work before the DiskWriteTime interval elapses, any manual edits you made to the worktodo.txt file are lost and overwritten. A new worktodo.txt file gets written, without the former top line. If there is an "add" file, its contents are appended to the end of the worktodo.txt file.

[pepi37]

So how you suggest to use this feature ( worktodo.add) when working on CRUS?. If I load 1000 candidates, and in mean time I found one prime, I need to stop mprime/prime95, remove all candidates that is not need to test any more, and start again. since you say that new data will be added at the bottom of current file, can I how "cheat" to get continues work? It is somewhere easy to work with LLR since you can add stop on primeK found, but there is no similar option in mprime/prime95

Any suggestion?

[GP2]

I'm not familiar with those types of work.

However, in practice you can edit worktodo.txt without stopping mprime/prime95 by creating a worktodo.add file (which can be a zero-size empty file), as long as the current work line at the top of worktodo.txt doesn't complete before the DiskWrite interval expires.

[petrw1]

Originally Posted by kladner

I think it may notice immediately if you do Test>Status in P95.

Test stop
Test continue
Immediately sucks in worktodo.add
I do it all the time.

[GP2]

Originally Posted by petrw1

Test stop
Test continue
Immediately sucks in worktodo.add
I do it all the time.

That's fine for Prime95 on Windows. It's a little more complicated when you're running mprime on Linux and it starts up automatically at boot time. Especially if you're running on multiple machines which have their work directories on a shared networked file system, and you don't even have a shell prompt for the machine in question. It's a lot easier just to use a little file editing trickery like I described.