[ET Trac] [Einstein Toolkit] #1248: SimFactory should not silently disable thorns

[Einstein Toolkit]

#1248: SimFactory should not silently disable thorns
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  Reporter:  hinder      |       Owner:  eschnett
      Type:  defect      |      Status:  new     
  Priority:  major       |   Milestone:          
 Component:  SimFactory  |     Version:          
Resolution:              |    Keywords:          
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Comment (by hinder):

 It was hwloc on supermuc, presumably because the configuration script
 didn't work. I've now fixed this (see other ticket) so I can now run hwloc
 on that machine.  I see your point, but I didn't have hwloc in my
 thornlist in the first place (it was not a standard ET thornlist), it was
 only when I added it that I ran into the problem, and a lot of head-
 scratching ensued! It was only when I checked the thornlist in the config
 directory that I saw that the thorn had been commented out.  I can see
 someone getting very confused if they run what they think is an identical
 thornlist on two different machines, and get an error on one of them
 because a thorn is not compiled in.  This would be solved by a more
 visible warning though, so I think now that that would be better than
 disabling this feature.

 I'm uncomfortable about simfactory looking at the parameter file on job
 submission, as it breaks an abstraction (simfactory should not know much
 about cactus).  Would it be possible/good to add the information about the
 machines to the thornlist rather than adding the information about the
 thorns to the machine definition?  That keeps cactus information with the
 cactus file, and it would be quite obvious when looking at the thornlist
 that there is an issue on certain machines.  People are probably more
 likely to look at the thornlist than the machine definition (I think).  I
 think it doesn't matter where the warning is, or when, as long as the user
 notices it eventually.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/1248#comment:2>
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