[ET Trac] [Einstein Toolkit] #487: SimFactory should allow steering of parameters between restarts

[Einstein Toolkit]

#487: SimFactory should allow steering of parameters between restarts
--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  hinder       |       Owner:  eschnett
      Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new     
  Priority:  major        |   Milestone:          
 Component:  SimFactory   |     Version:          
Resolution:               |    Keywords:          
--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------

Comment (by rhaas):

 I have similar situations to the ones Bruno mentioned. In particular the
 AH issue happened during a current run for the CIGR BHNS project (and I
 "fixed" this by cloning the simulation directory by hand and modifying the
 parameter file). We also have been turning apparent horizon finding on and
 off during simulations which we do by either modifying the parameter file
 or even using HTTPD (eg. to turn off the AHFinderDirect after some
 evolution time has passed and to turn on an AHFinderDirect at the location
 of the merged BH once they merge).

 Generally I find myself often playing with parameter files to find good
 settings whenever a simulation fails. Once I have found good ones I can
 often put them into a single parameter file (eg. using a simple thorn that
 lets me steer parameters at given iterations). While testing though it
 would be nice to be able to change parameter files easily. The --continue
 option might work for me in that respect. Would it be possible to
 link/mkdir in the output directories from the previous restarts instead of
 having the pointer mechanism that Ian suggested? That way the continued
 simulation would look like a normal one with changing parameter files and
 simplify postprocessing scripts.

 I fully agree that for a production run the simulation is the unit of
 source code and parameter file and that it should not change during the
 whole simulation. On the other hand the fast majority of the SU that I use
 are used for testing runs where code and parameters do usually change for
 me (I might find a bug, find NaNs...).

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/487#comment:4>
Einstein Toolkit <http://einsteintoolkit.org>
The Einstein Toolkit