Changes between Version 10 and Version 11 of ValidationIntro

Timestamp:

Sep 14, 2011, 12:41:40 PM (13 years ago)

Author:

davea

Comment:

--

ValidationIntro

@@ -2 +2 @@
 
 In BOINC, a '''validator''' is a program that decides whether results are correct.
+You must supply a validator for each application in your project,
+and include it in the <daemons> section of your [ProjectConfigFile project configuration file].
 
-A validator is a daemon program. You must supply a validator for each application in your project, and include it in the <daemons> section of your [ProjectConfigFile project configuration file].
+Depending on various factors, you may be able to use a standard validator that comes with BOINC,
+or you may have to develop a custom validator.
 
-Depending on various factors, you may be able to use a standard validator that comes with BOINC, or you may have to develop a custom validator.
-
- * If your application generates exactly matching results (either because it does no floating-point arithmetic, or because you use [HomogeneousRedundancy homogeneous redundancy]) then you can use the 'sample bitwise validator' (see below).
- * If you are using BOINC for 'desktop grid' computing (i.e. you trust all the participating hosts) then you can use the 'sample trivial validator' (see below).
- * Otherwise, you'll need to develop a custom validator for your application.
-  BOINC supplies a [ValidationSimple validator framework] in which you plug in a few short application-specific functions.
+ * If your application generates exactly matching results
+  (either because it does no floating-point arithmetic,
+  or because you use [HomogeneousRedundancy homogeneous redundancy])
+  then you can use the 'sample bitwise validator' (see below).
+ * If you are using BOINC for 'desktop grid' computing
+  (i.e. you trust all the participating hosts) then you can use the 'sample trivial validator' (see below).
+ * Otherwise, you'll need to [ValidationSimple develop a custom validator] for your application.
 
 Two standard validators are supplied:
 
     * The '''sample_bitwise_validator''' requires a strict majority, and regards results as equivalent only if they agree byte for byte.
-    * The '''sample_trivial_validator''' regards any two results as equivalent if their CPU time exceeds a given minimum. 
+    * The '''sample_trivial_validator''' accepts all results as valid.
+
+By default, a validator grants credit for valid results using the mechanism described [CreditNew here].
+You can change or disable this using command-line arguments.
 
 === Command-line arguments ===
+
 A validator (either standard or custom) has the following command-line arguments:
 
@@ -24 +32 @@
  [ --one_pass ]::       Make one pass through WU table, then exit
  [ --mod n i ]::        Process only WUs with (id mod n) == i. This option lets you run multiple instances of the validator for increased performance.
- [ --max_claimed_credit X ]::   If a result claims more credit than this, mark it as invalid.
  [ --max_granted_credit X ]::   Grant no more than this amount of credit to a result.
- [ --grant_claimed_credit ]::   If set, grant the claimed credit, regardless of what other results for this workunit claimed.
-  This is useful for projects where different instances of the same job can do much different amounts of work.
- [ --credit_from_wu ]::  If set, credit is specified by the <credit> element in the WU.
  [ --update_credited_job ]:: For each valid result, create an entry in the credited_job database table.
   This lets you keep track of which user contributed to each WU, even if you use [DbPurge db_purge].
  [ --no_credit ]:: Don't grant credit (use this if you grant credit via trickle messages).
+ [ --credit_from_runtime ]:: Grant credit proportional to (runtime * CPU FLOPS).
+  Use this if:
+ * the app has only single-threaded CPU versions, and
+ * the app's jobs do different amounts of computation on different hosts,
+   e.g. if they exit after a fixed amount of time.