Personal Info
Hello, my name is Andrei - Constantin Popescu, I usually go by Andrei. I am a second year undergraduate at Polytechnic University of Bucharest,studying at the computer science department.
Contact
I can usually be found on IRC on #brlcad - freenode, I have various nicknames, depending on availablity : andrei, andrei_, andrei__. The quickest way to reach me on e-mail is the address: popescu.andrei1991@gmail.com - I read emails on this several times a day. My github account is : https://github.com/pandrei
I will use this page to keep track of my progress on a daily basis.
Project Summary
Firstly, here can be found my official proposal. https://google-melange.appspot.com/gsoc/proposal/review/google/gsoc2012/popescuandrei/4002
The purpose of a package managing library ( or tool) is to pass around packages containing data from brlcad tools. The packages are sent via TCP and as a result are using TCP header. TCP -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_Control_Protocol
My current knowledge is that the TCP Payload[1] has a size of 64kb, at least in the linux kernel. There has been a reported incident where libpkg fails to send 24k+ packages. [1] Payload - TCP field containinig effective data (user data, for example).
I believe this is the reported incident : http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.cad.brlcad.devel/959.
Tpkg will be used for testing the package issue. I am currently researching dstat and ifstat, found via apt-cache search ifstat dstat - versatile resource statistics tool ifstat - InterFace STATistics Monitoring
The curent state of brlcad libpkg is a basic client-server protocol.
GsoC 2012 progress
So far I have managed to compile and install brl-cad on a 32-bit Archlinux. I am focusing on the tpkg command to see what exactly happens and properly submitting the global removal patch.
Tests have been run 3D version on a remote machine. The graphics are present on here on the log. However, after more discussion it was decided there is too much noise in 3d mesh.
Currently, tests have been performed for package size from 2048 to 4194304 ( 2048 ^ 2 ). Tests have been performed on a 8M file. This is the graphic obtained by testing : http://i.imgur.com/H5Q2u.jpg
TODO : add some github link with files and numerical values.
There is a second test, running package size from 1 to 2048 on a 8M test. It has not finished at the moment of writing. However, a graph was drawn with some partial data ( 1 - 95 package size ). It's correctness needs to be checked but it does seem to look like an exponential curve.
TODO : add details and graphics when the script finishes.
I m currently working on fixing the unit test.
Performance measuring
The 3d graphics have finished.
File size increase as powers of two series from 1 to 8MB
Package size 1 - 2048
Package size 2048 - 4194304
Package size 1 - 4194304
After converting data into CSV format and using GNU plot I have obtained the following graphics :
1 - 2048 : http://i.imgur.com/tnWAa.png
2048 - 4194304 : http://i.imgur.com/isNXL.png
Currently I m working to see if I can combine the two files. From what I read so far this seems rather complicated.
Daily development log
Weeks 1 - 3
21th May - 8th of June - exams period, minor work on tpkg patch and on the red - black tree test unit.
9th June - working on obtaining commit access asap. Currently developing the performance shell script.
10-11th June - not much work , documenting regarding bash programming.
Week 4
12-13th June -finishing the shell script, applying feedback given by Erik on the tpkg parameter patch.
14th June - submitting the final version of the shell script.
15-17th of June - learning K&R indentation, learning about POSIX. Finishing the tpkg script and the tpkg.c modifications.
18th of June - unsuccesful attempts to sync the server and client ( To start the client only after server started) using signal handling, docummenting about signal handling
19th of June - unsuccesful attempts to achieve the above by using inter-process communications, understanding thread concepts, docummenting about the basics of fork() , pthreads_
Week 5
20th of June - sync the server with the client by using a loop to detect a key string (while "Server_ready" isn't found in the log_file the client does not start. Having issues with redirecting output from a background process
21st of June - finished tpkg script for localhost ( both client and server are on the same machine), developing the remote one. (Using two different machines)
22nd of June - getting some hints from #bash, reading about ssh, working on the ssh remote script(password-less ssh login process). Having issues with the ssh session not exiting properly.
23rd of June - script finished, full functional started script on two machines setting up log files / reading a bit about sampling necessary for graphic( how many points are enough )
24th - 25th of June - scripts running time, realized I could have done them a lot better and faster. No notable work done in these days. ( a script using small files ran twice and one using large files( up to 700 mb ) ran once.
26th of June the total dimension for the log files was 8.4Gb on server machine as well as on client ( minor difference) purging the files from irrelevant data. read about sed and awk. Compared the first two tests( which use identical parameters) and found no notable difference. Starting to read about and write the octave script. Reading about interpolation and how can I use it if I don t know what points am I missing.
27th of June - asked for some mathematical hints on #octave - freenode. Finished graphs currently without interpolation. Looking up bu_bomb.log but they are empty. Re-run the script for a small number of iterations still found no error.
Week 6
28th of June - uploaded data. upated logs.
29th of June - Reading about google test, planning on what testing framework to use for libpkg client - server.
30th of June - still stuck with the OOP from google test.
1st of July - learning / understanding how to use google test for this was taking too long, finding another way.
2nd of July - initially created the unit test as a shell, after further digging, decided to change the plan and make it a .c unit test.
3rd of July - finished unit testing. uploaded unit test on sourceforge.
4th of July - minor work, mostly look up things I already did and see where and what I can improve.
Week 7
5th of July - Issue with wallclock, script was modified to counter the wallclock instability. Single variable tests were run.
6th of July - issues with the script, for some reason ssh was not working. Adjusting that. Finished all the issues with the scripts / tpkg. Started 2d graphics ( 1 - 2048 ) and ( 2048 -> 2048^2).
7th of July - 2048 -> 2048^2 testing finished, graph drawn. Minor analysis on it. Drawn a graph with the partial data from 1 - 2048 one, does seem incorrect. Will be reworked.
8th of July - Restarted 1 - 2048 test. Discussing further tests and how I should proceed. Minor reading about unit tests in networking
9th of July - Scripts still running, wrote unit test. Received feedback started applying it. Monitoring the values obtained from the tests. The " 3D graphic " test failed ( script execution ended ). It was an script error not a tpkg error. Fixed it and resumed tests.
10th of July - working on the test unit, running tests.
11th of July - Graphed the results of one test
Week 8
12th of July - discovered an error in testing. Previously calculated average was taken into consideration when it should have not, restarted scripts. Got two more machines ( installing archlinux + brlcad on them )
13th of July - fixing HACKING issues on previous patches. Providing 1-2048 Graph.
14th - 15th of July - minor work, waiting for tests mainly.
16th of July - finished tests, graphed results. TODO:// Complete with rest
17th of July - obtain data in CSV format, attempt to check scripts correctness, minor reasearch about gnuplot
18th of July - plotting data in a single file, taking a look into pkg.c and pkg.h to decide what unit tests to write
Week 9
19th of July - didn't manage to work anything at all, had somehardware(hdd)failure, reinstalled OS.
20th of July - started working on test_pkg_permserver, some documentation regarding unit tests.
21th of July - finished test_pkg_permserver, minor HACKING reedit, started working on test_pkg_getclient.
22th of July - trying to solve issues with blocking calls. Document about potential solutions such as threading / signal handling or select ()
23th of July - abandoned test_pkg_getclient for the moment, moving to test_pkg_open, had some issues. Pkg_open was not exiting correctly.
24th of July - finished test_pkg_open. Moved to test_pkg_stream, almost finished but there are some issues with the structure of the test. ( checking only pkg_conn header)
25th of July - Clean-up on the current test units, searching for other potential candidates. Taking a look into pkg_send and pkg_send2.
Week 10
26th of July - asked for guidance on IRC, uploaded on sourceforge.
27th of July - None
28th of July - still searching for methods to escape a blocking call, none found using stdout as file descriptor. finished writing test_pkg_getclient
29th of July - fixing indent issues and such on test_pkg_getclient, started working on test_pkg_stream. finished coding test_pkg_stream.
30th of July - fixing minor issues with test_pkg_stream. started working on test_pkg_flush. Finished working on test_pkg_flush( tho there are some issues)
31st of July - started working on pkg_block and pkg_suckin, investigating some issues regarding pkg_conn
1st of August - finished pkg_block / pkg_suckin, checking out contributor quickies in order to obtain commit access
Week 11
2nd of August - done test_pkg_close and started working on test_pkg_waitfor
3rd of August - finished working test_pkg_waitfor. reading /understanding pkg_send.
4th of August - worked on test_pkg_send. Finished it. Minor work on pkg_2send.
5th of August - finished working on pkg_2send.
6th of August - taking a look into pkg_bwaitfor, no other work done.
7th of August - started working on pkg_bwaitfor, finished it. however still some minor issues with it
Week 12
8th of August - None
9th of August - Minor programming issues. None other
10th of August - read pkg.c code, attempted to fix fail cases discovered in unit tests.
11th of August - continued to work on fixing fail cases ( difficulty in finding out which ones are legit and which ones I should fix ) PKG_CK for example, aborts execution.
12th of August - cleaning up unit tests, making them ready for upload
13th of August - Converting tests into patch format and uploading them , fixed some more fail cases, adjusting code.
14th of August - issues with a segmentation fault in pkg.c code, working on fixing it.