[ET Trac] [Einstein Toolkit] #1283: Missing data in HDF5 files

[Einstein Toolkit]

#1283: Missing data in HDF5 files
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  Reporter:  hinder  |       Owner:     
      Type:  defect  |      Status:  new
  Priority:  major   |   Milestone:     
 Component:  Cactus  |     Version:     
Resolution:          |    Keywords:     
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Comment (by eschnett):

 Starting a new HDF5 file for every restart is what Simfactory does by
 default. This is why every restart has its own directory. I implemented it
 this way because I was bitten by this problem in the past. People didn't
 like it.

 Simfactory needs a mechanism to check whether the output produced by a
 restart is complete and consistent, before using a checkpoint file
 produced by this restart. This could be implemented by Cactus writing a
 "tag file" that is only present while the output is consistent. That is,
 this tag file would be deleted before HDF5 output is started, and re-
 created afterwards if there were no errors. During cleanup, Simfactory
 would disable checkpoint files from incomplete or inconsistent restarts.

 This requires keeping checkpoint files in the restart directories, and
 requires keeping checkpoint files from previous restarts. This is what
 Simfactory did in the past (and there is also an option to manually
 restart from an earlier restart). People didn't like this safety measure.
 Do we need to go back to it?

 To go back to it, we would discourage people from writing anywhere than
 into restart-specific directories.

 If this is inconvenient, it can probably be fixed via post-processing,
 even automatically during the cleanup stage. That is what the cleanup
 stage is for...

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/1283#comment:3>
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