boinc/todo

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BUGS (arranged from high to low priority)
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- Suspend/resume not fully functional on Windows,
no way to suspend/resume on UNIX
- Currently, if there are multiple CPUs they work on the same result
- "Show Graphics" menu item brings up minimized window,
client does not remember window size/pos after close/reopen,
window closes and does not reopen when workunit finishes
and new workunit starts
- No easy way to quit/add projects on UNIX
- Write a README file
what should it say?
- "ACTIVE_TASK.check_app_status_files: could not delete
slots\0\fraction_done.xml: -110" appears in stderr.txt on Windows
- "no work available" appears sporadically though work is eventually assigned,
not sure if it is assigned immediately or on next RPC
- Should include option in Windows client or installer whether to
run client at startup or not
- Screensaver "blank screen" functionality not implemented
- Scheduler reply includes blank lines that XML parser complains about
- boinc_gui.exe priority should be lower (?),
launched app priorities should be very low
- on final panel of install, add checkbox to let user view readme
- Time to completion isn't too accurate,
this is more of an Astropulse problem involving fraction_done
- Report problems page on maggie doesn't link to anything
- Host stats incorrectly reports number of times connected with same ip
(unconfirmed)
- CPU time updates infrequently (every 10 seconds),
should there be a user control for this?
- Client treats URL "maggie/ap/" different than URL "maggie/ap",
though this isn't really a bug it might be good to fix anyway
- Astropulse uses a lot of memory (~70 MB) b/c of the dispersion table,
should this be decreased?
- CPU time for a completed workunit is incorrect (unconfirmed)
- verify that if file xfer is interrupted, it resumes at right place
(and progress bar is correct)
- client died quickly on Mandrake 9.0 linux (unconfirmed)
- make pie chart colors/labels easier to understand
- need a way to refresh prefs from client
- columns expand when window expands
- % done display screwed up in progress bar; also dark color is hard to read
- Download speed is not as fast as it should be
- Result status should say "downloading files", "uploading files", etc.
- result % done should have 2 digits after dec pt
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HIGH-PRIORITY (should do for beta test)
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Windows: put text (e.g. column headings, menus) in a file
so that people can develop alternate versions of the file
for different languages.
Windows: use messages rather than interrupt for timing
make get_local_ip_addr() work in all cases
est_time_to_completion doesn't work for non-running tasks
run backend programs (validate/file_deleter/assimilate)
from crontab; document
Windows client
make mini-logo
fix "unable to calculate"
completed results: show final CPU time
Messages from core client
decide what messages should be shown to user, and how
log file? GUI? dialog?
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MEDIUM-PRIORITY (should do before public release)
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Devise system for porting applications
password-protected web-based interface for
uploading app versions and adding them to DB
Figure out how to support people with computers at home/work
with different preferences.
- separate accounts, but credit funnels to 1 account?
(can have same email?)
- separate prefs under 1 account?
need separate DB table for prefs?
Add 2-D waterfall display to Astropulse
protect project admin web pages (htaccess)
get timezone working on all platforms
Deadline mechanism for results
- use in result dispatching
- use in file uploading (decide what to upload next)
- use in deciding when to make scheduler RPC (done already?)
Testing framework
better mechanisms to model server/client/communication failure
better mechanisms to simulate large load
do client/server on separate hosts?
Delete files if needed to honor disk usage constraint
inform user if this happens
implement max bytes/sec network preferences
Global preferences
implement disk usage prefs
time-of-day prefs?
test propagation mechanism
set up multi-project, multi-host test;
change global prefs at one web site,
make sure they propagate to all hosts
limit on frequency of disk writes?
max net traffic per day?
implement in client
Per-project preferences
test project-specific prefs
make example web edit pages
make app that uses them
set up a test with multiple projects
test "add project" feature, GUI and cmdline
test resource share mechanism
CPU benchmarking
review CPU benchmarks - do they do what we want?
what to do when tests show hardware problem?
How should we weight factors for credit?
run CPU tests unobtrusively, periodically
check that on/conn/active fracs are maintainted correctly
check that bandwidth is measured correctly
measure disk/mem size on all platforms
get timezone to work
CPU accounting in the presence of checkpoint/restart
test
Test nslots > 1
Redundancy checking and validation
test the validation mechanism
make sure credit is granted correctly
make sure average, total credit maintained correctly for user, host
Windows screensaver functionality
idle-only behavior without screensaver - test
Data transfer
make sure restart of downloads works
make sure restart of uploads works
test download/upload with multiple data servers
make sure it tries servers in succession,
does exponential backoff if all fail
review and document prioritization of transfers
review protocol; make sure error returns are possible and handled correctly
Scheduler
Should dispatch results based on deadline?
test that scheduler estimates WU completion time correctly
test that scheduler sends right amount of work
test that client estimates remaining work correctly,
requests correct # of seconds
test that hi/low water mark system works
test that scheduler sends only feasible WUs
Scheduler RPC
formalize notion of "permanent failure" (e.g. can't download file)
report perm failures to scheduler, record in DB
make sure RPC backoff is done for any perm failure
(in general, should never make back-to-back RPCs to a project)
make sure that client eventually reloads master URL
Application graphics
finish design, implementation, doc, testing
size, frame rate, whether to generate
Work generation
generation of upload signature is very slow
prevent file_xfer->req1 from overflowing. This problems seems to be
happening when the file_upload_handler returnes a message to the
client that is large. This causes project->parsefile to get wrong
input and so on.
test HTTP redirect mechanism for all types of ops
Add batch features to ops web
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LONG-TERM IDEAS AND PROJECTS
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use https for login (don't sent account ID or password in clear)
CPU benchmarking
This should be done by a pseudo-application
rather than by the core client.
This would eliminate the GUI-starvation problem,
and would make it possible to have architecture-specific
benchmarking programs (e.g. for graphics coprocessor)
or project-specific programs.
investigate binary diff mechanism for updating persistent files
verify support for > 4 GB files everywhere
use FTP instead of HTTP for file xfer??
measure speed diff
Local scheduling
more intelligent decision about when/what to work on
- monitor VM situation, run small-footprint programs
even if user active
- monitor network usage, do net xfers if network idle
even if user active
The following would require client to accept connections:
- clients can act as proxy scheduling server
- exiting client can pass work to another client
- client can transfer files to other clients
User/host "reputation"
keep track of % results bad, %results claimed > 2x granted credit
both per-host and per-user.
Make these visible to project, to that user (only)
Storage validation
periodic rehash of persistent files;
compare results between hosts
Include account ID in URL for file xfers
This would let you verify network xfers by scanning web logs
(could use that to give credit for xfers)
WU/result sequence mechanism
design/implement/document
Multiple application files
document, test
Versioning
think through issues involved in:
compatibility of core client and scheduling server
compatibility of core client and data server
compatibility of core client and app version
compatibility of core client and client state file?
Need version numbers for protocols/interfaces?
What messages to show user? Project?
Persistent files
test
design/implement test reporting, retrieval mechanisms
(do this using WU/results with null application?)
NET_XFER_SET
review logic; prevent one stream for starving others