Task #1571
open
What is timestamp? Why do we use both runname and timestamp (i.e., -t option) in some appion process?
Added by Anchi Cheng over 12 years ago.
Updated over 12 years ago.
Description
Examples that use timestamp in naming their results are maxlikeAlignment; runCL2D and uploadExternalPackageRefinement.
Examples that does not have it are uploadFrealign and other refinement upload.
I thought the original idea is that runname is unique and repeating job submission with the same runname would mean that the old one is not useful and can be over-written. These python files that uses timestamp in the result file naming introduce -t with all its output contains the so-call timestamp.
I hoping to find out from developers why was this timestamp included in the code they develop and from users what its function is if runname is already unique. I am in the process of writing an appion script that involves first autopreparation, then manual step in ETOMO and at last upload step. I can't control ETOMO file names that well.
Basically, in my code timestamp is used for repeated runs of the same runname. Such as, maxlike1 crashed (which could be after 4 days of running) and the job is resubmitted. Rather than deleteing the old results (which may have taken a long time to produce) it creates a file with a new timestamp -- dependent upon time not runname.
Now, I agree, it can cause clutter so I tried to use it sparingly on smaller files.
I guess it was more of a developer tool (re-submitting the job over and over again), rather than for production, and maybe should be removed.
From a user's perspective, and particularly with respect to refinements, I thought it would be useful to include this information in the resulting files (e.g. .mrc, .fsc, and particle_params.txt) that are created. I usually download the files to my computer and rename them to something I can later track, as opposed to, e.g. 'xmipp_recon1'. To avoid renaming them each time I download a refined model, the timestamp was implemented for the uploads.
From a different user's perspective, I don't particularly care for the timestamps. It looks cluttered, and all I really want to see is the run name and comments. However, that is just one perspective.
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