How can you tell which "In Progress" task is actually running when they all have the same name ?

JIMG4956
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Topic 198555

I have more details on this question, but I lost them all when I did a preview.

mikey
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How can you tell which "In Progress" task is actually running wh

Quote:
I have more details on this question, but I lost them all when I did a preview.

I will start but others may provide better answers....you have two pc's, one is a dual core pc and the other is a quad core pc...using the default settings Boinc would be running 2 workunits at the same time on the dual core and 4 workunits at the same time on the quad core. I also see you are using Windows...down by the clock is a an up arrow, left click on it and you should see a Boinc icon, that is the Boinc Manager, open it by double clicking it and under the Tasks tab you should see which of your tasks are actually running at this very moment. There is no way for the website to know that info as the data isn't relayed like that in real time.

JIMG4956
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Well, it looks like there is

Well, it looks like there is no way to do this, because as you mentioned, the "In Progress" tasks or work units do not get updated to show any "run time" until the task finishes. They apparently do not switch either because I changed that switch parameter to 5 minutes and then watched the elapsed time. It continued to increase past the 5 minute switch value mark. If a different "In Progress" task began (or resumed) running, I would have expected the elapsed time value to change to a completely different value. So my conclusions based on this somewhat inferential analysis is that the tasks run in sequence based on the time they were sent from the server. BTW, this was all done on the Windows 7 computer which is set to only run one task at a time.
If anyone would like to add anything to this, please feel free to do so.

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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I'm a little puzzled by what

I'm a little puzzled by what exactly you are wanting to do and where you expect to be able to see this information. All we have to go on is the title of your thread.

The place you see tasks listed as "In progress" is the website. You said that they all have the same name but this is not true. The far left hand column of the page that shows all the tasks assigned to your computer is the task ID (a numerical version of the name, if you like) and under the heading is a clickable link which will show you the actual names instead of ID numbers. None of the IDs or the corresponding names will be exactly "the same".

It's certainly true that all "In progress" tasks will show just the static deadline whilst they are in progress and there is no way of knowing (on the website) which (if any) of those tasks are crunching at the moment or of their current accumulated crunch time and % completed status. Can you imagine the amount of server power that would be needed and the size of the pipe to transport all the data if the website were to be able to show those sort of details in any meaningful fashion for the whole range of attached computers?

So the answers to what you want to see are to be found on your own computer and not on the website.

Quote:
Well, it looks like there is no way to do this, because as you mentioned, the "In Progress" tasks or work units do not get updated to show any "run time" until the task finishes.


If you open BOINC Manager on your computer and switch to the advanced view, you can see all the details on exactly which tasks are running and where they are up to right now.

Quote:
They apparently do not switch either because I changed that switch parameter to 5 minutes and then watched the elapsed time. It continued to increase past the 5 minute switch value mark. If a different "In Progress" task began (or resumed) running, I would have expected the elapsed time value to change to a completely different value.


Why do you want tasks to "switch"? The purpose of the "switch parameter" is to set an interval, after which your local BOINC client will have a look at all tasks in the queue on your machine to see if any other task is more deserving of running. If not the current task will just continue on. If you happened to be contributing to a large number of different projects, switching would be quite important to ensure that all projects get some sort of fair share of the resources.

Quote:
So my conclusions based on this somewhat inferential analysis is that the tasks run in sequence based on the time they were sent from the server.


Since you appear to have only one project (Einstein) the most efficient way to process the work is to do exactly that - your work cache is just a FIFO queue with BOINC selecting the 'oldest' task always to be done first.

Quote:
BTW, this was all done on the Windows 7 computer which is set to only run one task at a time.


That machine is a Core 2 Duo - two physical CPU cores. Are you running one task per core or one task total?

Quote:
If anyone would like to add anything to this, please feel free to do so.


I hope the above comments are of some use to you. If I'm not properly understanding your situation, please give some more detail about what exactly you are trying to do. Do you need assistance with using BOINC Manager to see what's happening on your machine? Have you looked at what you can see on each of the available tabs in advanced view?

Cheers,
Gary.

JIMG4956
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Thanks for the clarification

Thanks for the clarification Gary,
1)So the simple answer is BOINC MANAGER/VIEW/ADVANCED VIEW/TASKS.
2)Yes, I was using the website, not the BOINC manager. I did not know that the method in 1) above existed.
3)The Task Manager on my machine shows the "application name", not the "task Id" name. I was aware the task ID's can be viewed on the website under "details"
4)I was not aware that the "switch" parameter refers to different projects and not to tasks within the same project. I am only running one project.

Mike Hewson
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@Jim : Sometimes the task

@Jim : Sometimes the task names are very long and you need to adjust the column width ( in advanced view ) to get the full name. On my Boinc Manager the task name is to the right of the application name and if you hover the mouse b/w those column titles then the cursor changes appearance and you can drag/slide to change the column width. HTH.

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Gamboleer
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In the Advanced view, you can

In the Advanced view, you can also turn off extra columns, with Options > Select Columns.

JIMG4956
JIMG4956
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I believe I have this

I believe I have this clarified now. Thanks to everyone for your help.

I will comment though that some of the parameter titles are somewhat mis-leading, especially the "switch between tasks" parameter in "your account/computing preferences" on the website which actually refers to different projects, not to different tasks within the same project. I thought perhaps the tasks within a project were time shared.

The answer to the WHY question is that I am a new user and I am curious.

mikey
mikey
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RE: I believe I have this

Quote:

I believe I have this clarified now. Thanks to everyone for your help.

I will comment though that some of the parameter titles are somewhat mis-leading, especially the "switch between tasks" parameter in "your account/computing preferences" on the website which actually refers to different projects, not to different tasks within the same project. I thought perhaps the tasks within a project were time shared.

The answer to the WHY question is that I am a new user and I am curious.

We were ALL new once, don't be afraid to ask a question just because you are new!!

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