One Client Missing Caused Tracker to Totally Reset

First off, great program. I have been using it for several months now, and I'm very impressed. However seeing as I like to tinker, I tried renaming the GPU3 client to see if the tracker would download the new 6.41 client (instead of 6.30r1) and when I restarted, Tracker total reset and downloaded all clients again and cleared all the folders thus losing all current work being done. Of course I did not back anything up, so I lost it all, my bad.

I did not know if I should report this as a bug, or if the program is working as specified. I just wanted to suggest possible updates to include treating each client individually when detecting something missing at startup.

Thanks

wkhudson wrote:First off, great program. I have been using it for several months now, and I'm very impressed. However seeing as I like to tinker, I tried renaming the GPU3 client to see if the tracker would download the new 6.41 client (instead of 6.30r1) and when I restarted, Tracker total reset and downloaded all clients again and cleared all the folders thus losing all current work being done. Of course I did not back anything up, so I lost it all, my bad.

I did not know if I should report this as a bug, or if the program is working as specified. I just wanted to suggest possible updates to include treating each client individually when detecting something missing at startup.

Thanks

The 6.41 client on the download page won't work because it's the systray version. Also, the Tracker won't automatically update clients if you delete them, and this will cause the initial setup to run again. The 6.40r1 client listed below can't be used by the Tracker for initial setup because it doesn't include the DLL files. But, it does work if you manually replace the older version.

If you do want to manually update to a newer version of the console client, you just need to rename it to FAH_GPU3.exe and replace the original file in the Tracker's folder.

Download 6.40r1 console client here:
http://www.stanford.edu/%7Efriedrim/Folding@home.exe_console

Thanks Jedi95, I guess I should have checked that before I attempted what I did.

However the point I was trying to make was that despite what I was trying to do, the actions taken by Tracker were unexpected. When it noticed the missing GPU3 client, it downloaded all clients i.e. SMP, GPU2 and GPU3, even though two of them were already present. It also cleared all the client folders, so I lost my current SPM and two GPU2 work units. I didn't have an active GPU3 WU at the time.

I am only suggesting that a possible future update to the Tracker program would be to treat each client software individually and not reset anything that does not need to be reset. This will make the program more robust when dealing with idiots like me. It would also prevent the Tracker from nuking properly functioning clients if a problem happens with just one of them.

Cheers
------------
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/sigs/sigimage.php?u=473742

wkhudson wrote:Thanks Jedi95, I guess I should have checked that before I attempted what I did.

However the point I was trying to make was that despite what I was trying to do, the actions taken by Tracker were unexpected. When it noticed the missing GPU3 client, it downloaded all clients i.e. SMP, GPU2 and GPU3, even though two of them were already present. It also cleared all the client folders, so I lost my current SPM and two GPU2 work units. I didn't have an active GPU3 WU at the time.

I am only suggesting that a possible future update to the Tracker program would be to treat each client software individually and not reset anything that does not need to be reset. This will make the program more robust when dealing with idiots like me. It would also prevent the Tracker from nuking properly functioning clients if a problem happens with just one of them.

Cheers
------------
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/sigs/sigimage.php?u=473742

I will change this in the next version so the complete client reinstall will only happen if all 3 of the clients are missing. Otherwise it will ask the user before re-downloading everything. However, a complete reset will remain the only automatic repair option. (so in your case you would have needed to restore the GPU3 client manaully)