PRPnet

[mdettweiler]

Hi all,

With recent releases of PRPnet, PRPnet is stable enough to handle large #'s of clients on a wide variety of tests. We have several PRPnet servers available for various team drives. See PRPnet servers for NPLB for details.

For those unfamiliar with PRPnet, it was designed by Mark Rodenkirch (who goes by "rogue" on this forum) to replace the aging LLRnet software. LLRnet, due to its tight integration with the underlying LLR code, was hampered by the fact that it utilized the older, slower LLR version 3.5. PRPnet was designed modularly, so that its underlying LLR code can be upgraded easily, and thus does not suffer from this limitation.

In addition, PRPnet supports utilization of both LLR and PFGW for primality testing in cases where those respective programs are faster or otherwise better applicable. While this aspect of the program does not particularly benefit NPLB, it is a great boon for our sister project, Conjectures 'R Us (CRUS), which does a lot of testing on non-base-2 numbers, which require PRP or N+/-1 tests instead of LLR tests.

The PRPnet client is not difficult to set up and use. It works a little differently than the classic LLRnet client, behaving more akin to the updated LLRnet client that we are currently using. Rather than constantly topping off its work queue after each completed test, PRPnet finishes its entire queue before returning it and starting on the next batch. This limits the amount of network connections PRPnet needs to make, and eliminates many of the strange behaviors that occurred in LLRnet and drove many of us nuts.

One interesting feature that PRPnet has is the ability to mix and match multiple servers in user-specified proportions. For example, you can have it spend 70% of its time working on server A, and 30% time working on server B. You can even configure servers with a 0% proportion, to be used as a backup to ensure your computer does not go idle if the primary server(s) cannot be reached. This feature opens the door to all sorts of interesting possibilities, by allowing almost BOINC-like flexibility yet retaining the simplicity of a standalone application.

You can download the latest PRPnet from the following link: Primegrid prpnet clients



To set up the client:

• Download the client package for your operating system from the link above.
• Extract the zip file to a new folder.
• Open the file prpclient.ini.
• Plug in your email address and username near the top of the file. Also, you'll need to provide an arbitrary name for the particular computer this client is running on. This is mainly useful in case we find a bad result from your computer in future doublechecking, so you can identify the culprit machine more easily.
• Below the area where you just put your user information, you'll see a section where you can configure what servers the client gets work from. Here, you can configure the proportions and queue sizes for each individual server. The instructions provided in the prpclient.ini file are rather self-explanatory, so we won't go into detail about that here. You can reference the prpnet_servers.txt file for a list of known active public PRPnet servers at the time of this version's release, or check our PRPnet servers for NPLB thread for an up-to-date list of NPLB servers.
• Farther down the file, you'll see two options, "startoption" and "stopoption". By default, each time the client is stopped or started, it asks you what to do with any work left in its queue. This can become rather redundant during normal operation, and can be especially annoying on Windows systems where PRPnet will hold up a system shutdown until you answer its prompt. We recommend configuring the client to startoption=9 (complete assigned work units), and stopoption=3 (return completed workunits, keep incomplete workunits in queue, and shut down).
• Once you're satisfied with the configuration, save the file.
• Now, run prpclient.exe (or ./prpclient from a terminal on Linux). The client will run, fetch its first batch of work from whatever server has the highest work proportion, and start working. When that batch is done, it will return the results and grab a new batch to work on.
• To stop the client, press Ctrl-C. The client will stop according to your specified stopoption.

That's all there is to it! If you have any questions, feel free to post them in this thread and someone knowledgeable with PRPnet will answer your question.

Note on what we expect will be a frequently asked question: Most of the various options in prpclient.ini may look a little confusing, but are quite safely left at their defaults.

Max

[TimSorbet]

The Windows package includes what I presume to be the Linux executable (in addition to the Windows executable).
Attached is a zip file with all the text files modified to have the Windows-style endline markers so that Notepad can view them properly. (the LLR and Phrot readmes are the same as the ones already included)

[mdettweiler]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

The Windows package includes what I presume to be the Linux executable (in addition to the Windows executable).
Attached is a zip file with all the text files modified to have the Windows-style endline markers so that Notepad can view them properly. (the LLR and Phrot readmes are the same as the ones already included)

Oh, good catch! Thanks, I've got the fixed file uploading right now.

[vaughan]

Typo: in line 10 of prpnet.ini it says "differtiates", it should be "differentiates" ie it needs "en" inserting.

[gd_barnes]

Since PRPnet cannot be used for project-level drives at this point, I have modified the 1st para in the 1st post here to reflect what we would currently recommend for people wanting to run a PRPnet server.

[mdettweiler]

Since PRPnet 2.4.3 appears to be stable on both server and client ends with no apparent problems, I've upgraded all of the NPLB and CRUS servers to the latest version. Note that while the 2.4.3 server is backwards compatible with earlier clients, the 2.4 client (which I will be posting binary packages for soon) only works with >=2.4.0 servers.

This new version of PRPnet should be immune to the blank-residue problem that plagued earlier versions of the server and forced us to limit PRPnet usage drastically. At this point, we can run pretty much anything through PRPnet, and should start looking into what we might want to transition over from LLRnet in the near future. We'll still keep some of our servers on LLRnet for quite a while to come, but nonetheless any discussion on which drives we should transition and when is welcome.

Personally, I think it would be interesting to take one of the k=400-1001 drives and switch it to PRPnet. We currently have three nearly identical drives for that range, and switching one over would not really detract from the selection available in LLRnet servers.

[mdettweiler]

Hi all,

I've now (finally--sorry for the wait) put together NPLB/CRUS client packages for the 2.4.3 release of PRPnet and posted them for download on the noprimeleftbehind.net website. Download links and setup instructions can be found in the first post of this thread.

A couple of notes on this release:
-Just to reiterate, the 2.4.3 client will not work on a pre-2.4 server. All of the NPLB and CRUS servers are running 2.4.3, though some other projects may not have yet upgraded from 2.3 or 2.2. PSP has upgraded to 2.4, but I don't think PrimeGrid has quite yet for all their servers (though they probably will soon).
-Version 2.4 added support for testing of Generalized Fermat Numbers (GFNs). While neither NPLB or CRUS is testing these numbers, I've included binaries for genefer (the GFN PRP-testing application) in the client packages, in the interest of making a complete client package that will work on any server.

Max

[Lennart]

Originally Posted by mdettweiler

A couple of notes on this release:
-Just to reiterate, the 2.4.3 client will not work on a pre-2.4 server. All of the NPLB and CRUS servers are running 2.4.3, though some other projects may not have yet upgraded from 2.3 or 2.2. PSP has upgraded to 2.4, but I don't think PrimeGrid has quite yet for all their servers (though they probably will soon).
-Version 2.4 added support for testing of Generalized Fermat Numbers (GFNs). While neither NPLB or CRUS is testing these numbers, I've included binaries for genefer (the GFN PRP-testing application) in the client packages, in the interest of making a complete client package that will work on any server.

Max

They are all upgraded to 2.4.3 on PrimeGrid :)

Lennart

[mdettweiler]

Originally Posted by Lennart

They are all upgraded to 2.4.3 on PrimeGrid :)

Lennart

Cool! Now I can upgrade all my clients to 2.4.3. (I was holding off until the PrimeGrid servers were upgraded since I have them configured as backup servers in case Gary's network goes down or something like that.)

[mdettweiler]

PRPnet 2.4.4 was just recently released to correct a few last-minute bugs that showed up in 2.4.3. It is recommended that all users upgrade to this latest version. (Note that if you already downloaded and set up 2.4.3, then all you have to do is stop the client, swap in the new prpclient.exe, and restart the client. This makes upgrading somewhat easier than having to replace and re-fill-in prpclient.ini as with earlier, more major releases that included changes to that. )

[mdettweiler]

Hi all,

I have just posted binaries for PRPnet 2.4.6. This fixes some critical bugs in earlier versions that showed up on Linux for both the client and server, though since I think a few minor tweaks may affect Windows as well, I'd recommend everyone upgrade. The only files you'll need to replace are prpclient.exe (or prpclient on Linux) and prpnet_servers.txt (in which I added NPLB's new G3000 PRPnet server for the 5th Drive).

Max