Project 19229 (Run 0, Clone 0, Gen 0) dumped 45762 times

[arisu]

This WU was first dumped in 2023 and was last dumped a few minutes ago. It has been in a loop, getting dumped, for years.

Code: Select all

$ curl https://api.foldingathome.org/project/19229/run/0/clone/0/gen/0 | python -m json.tool | grep -c Dumped
45762

[Joe_H]

Actually no, I believe that is a bug with the server and stats code. Under some conditions dumped WUs are listed against the "0,0,0" WU of a project instead of the actual Run, Clone and Gen.

[arisu]

Strange! What conditions are those?

A lot of the API seems confusing and a bit undocumented. Return codes, known (?) bugs etc.

Sorry for the duplicate bug report!

[Joe_H]

I don't recall the conditions, it is something that came up months ago elsewhere and I would have to go digging to find the details. Partly as I recall it has something to do with how the v8 client returns WUs as compared to v7.

As for the API it has been changing as needs changed for the client and Web Control changed. The developer has mentioned needing to take time to update the documentation. But there is one paid developer for the client and server code the last I checked. At one point they did manage to carve out enough money to hire a second software developer, but that person left after about a year. There was some talk of another person going to be hired, and then things went quiet.

[arisu]

Damn it always seems like the whole thing is held together with duct tape and on the brink of collapse.

I hope that's just the nature of volunteer-run scientific projects like this.

Maybe one day they'll open source the API too and make it easier for others to assist with the development.

[Joe_H]

Something like that. But it has been running over 20 years, spread out from the original research group, and has groups at over half a dozen locations. One problem they have is that most grant funding available in the US doesn't allow for hiring software developers and similar support staff. They did figure out how to carve out enough to do so, and have had a developer on payroll for about 15 years. The first project was the creation of the v7 client to be better documented and extensible than prior clients written mostly by grad students.

After the original founder of the research group using Folding@home went to work for an investment company, his lab closed and leadership went to the heads of the three main labs remaining. This included moving infrastructure from Stanford servers. After the developer did that, next task was to start making the software open source. That was partly done, but COVID interrupted that for a couple years. v8 was the restarting of that open source effort.

So currently some researchers and grad students are responsible for writing the GPU folding core code. The developer is responsible for the server and client code, though some volunteers have been assisting through GitHub. In the past the developer was given the task of updating the CPU core, that came out as the A7 core. During COVID assistance from a developer from a company working on ARM solutions helped with updating that code and adding ARM support. They also assisted in the creation of the A9 core, but I haven't heard anything about them since.

There was/is a pubished API for v7, some developers did create utilities and apps to use with it. It was located on the Folding@home GitHub site after being moved from the Stanford servers, should still be there somewhere. Hopefully the v8 API gets published relatively soon.

[toTOW]

All "dumped" WU by v8 client are reported to (Run 0, Clone 0, Gen 0) of the project. I don't know why Joseph doesn't fix this bug (it's a WS bug as far as I remember), it's been here for a very long time ...