Create simulations and automatically purge old version

Issue #511 new
Ian Hinder created an issue

When I create a new simulation, I go through a cycle of

1. Edit parameter file 2. create-submit 3. Check output 4. Correct errors 5. Purge simulation 6. Go to 1

This cycle can happen several times for a new parameter file, and there is no value to me in keeping the old broken versions of the simulation around, and I don't want to have to keep choosing a new name for the simulation anyway. I propose adding a --purge option to the create[-submit] command which purges the simulation if it already exists. This would avoid me having to run an additional purge command.

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Comments (2)

  1. Erik Schnetter
    • removed comment

    I've thought about this, and the danger is that one gets use to the "--purge" option, even if one accidentally mistypes the simulation name, and thus irrevocably deletes two months of progress. I also often find it useful to keep these old, wrong results around for a few iterations of this process, so that I can quickly see whether I'm trying something that I already tried before, or at which iteration I began to introduce a new error.

    Personally, I'm appending a numerical counter to simulation names. That does the trick for me, but is obviously less convenient than it should be.

    Instead of purging simulations, I suggest to rename the old simulation (after checking that it is inactive etc.) by appending such a numeric index; simulation "bbh" becomes "bbh.0000" etc. Their names should clearly identify them as backups, and one can easily purge them at a later time.

    What about --rename as an option for this? Or --replace?

  2. Barry Wardell
    • removed comment

    Replying to [comment:1 eschnett]:

    Instead of purging simulations, I suggest to rename the old simulation (after checking that it is inactive etc.) by appending such a numeric index; simulation "bbh" becomes "bbh.0000" etc. Their names should clearly identify them as backups, and one can easily purge them at a later time.

    This sounds like a good solution to me. The typical scenario is that I keep iterating until finally settling on a "good" simulation. I'd like for this final iteration to have a "nice" name which I have already chosen in advance, so I think adding a --replace option is a good idea. It would also be nice to have a single command to delete all the old iterations by just giving the name of the final "good" version.

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