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Flowvr-glgraph is based on OpenGL, QT and QGLViewer, libxml2 and graphviz. these libraries are required when compiling FlowVR to have flowvr-glgraph correctly compiled. Optionally, if CG and glew are installed on your machine, flowvr-glgraph provides some extra features (fisheye view).
To launch flowvr-glgraph:
flowvr-glgraph [network.net.xml]
Use the c key to toogle the clustered layout that improves the layout by taking benefit of the component hierarchies. This layout is very helpfull, but crashes may occur (layout algorithm not totally stable).
 | Open a .net.xml FlowVR file. |
| The layout is computed before loading, so this operation can take a few seconds with | |
| large graphs. You can also load a file from command prompt by running flowvr-graph | |
| with the file name in argument. | |
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| Reload the current file. |
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| Export the current view in a graphical file format. |
| Available formats are: jpg, png, eps, ps, ppm, bmp and fig. | |
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 | If this button is toggled, only the connections between two |
| different host are made visible. | |
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| By toggling this button, you enter in selection mode. |
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| Decrement visualization depth. |
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| Increment visualization depth. |
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| Set visualization depth to the max depth. |
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| Visualize only the upstream elements. |
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| Visualize only the downstream elements. |
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| Visualize both upstream and downstream elements. |
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 | Use one color for one node type (green for modules, |
| blue for filters, red for synchronizers and gray for routing nodes) | |
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| Use one color for one host. |
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| Use the colors defined in the file. |
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| Replace the clicked color by the current color. |
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| Change the current color. |
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| Open the help dialog. |
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All the graph nodes are visible. A click on a node or a connection magnifies it.
The visualization is depth-limited. i.e. only the nodes not farther from the selected element than the depth limit will be set visible. A click on a node or a connection will select it.
Four trees are filled during loading.
id: nodes id.
host: nodes id, grouped by host.
connections: connections id.
XML: the whole xml tree.
In the normal mode, a click on a list element will simply center the view on it.
In the selection mode, the clicked element is centered and selected. If it is a branch, all its leaves will be selected.
This text field allows to make advanced research in the nodes id list. The syntax used is fully described on the QT's web site: http://doc.trolltech.com/3.3/qregexp.html. The 'Search' button makes the matching nodes visible and hide the rest. The 'Reset' button allows to come back to the normal visualization.
To generate graphical representations of FlowVR networks flowvr-graph uses two external tools: xsltproc (a XSLT parser) and dot (Graphviz).
xsltproc is the XSLT parser associated with libxslt. On Debian it can be installed using apt-get install libxslt1-dev
dot is a graph layout tool from the Graphviz package available at http://www.graphviz.org/. On Debian you can use apt-get install graphviz to install it.
Once these tools are installed you can use the provided script flowvr-graph. It takes as input the .net.xml file. If no argument is given it will print a .dot graph description. This graph can be customized and then displayed using dot. You can also directly specify arguments to flowvr-graph which will invoke dot using these arguments.
For example to compute the image of the Primes application:
cd share/flowvr/examples/fluid # Compile the application make-app.sh # Process he application: flowvr Fluid # and this command will create a graphical representation flowvr-graph -Tps -o ./primes.net.ps < ./primes.net.xml
You can generate different types of files (PS,PNG,FIG) using the -T argument. You can also pass some graph attributes using -G (such as -Grankdir=LR to have an horizontal layout.
If you have chosen to install it, you can also use the graph visualizer flowvr-glgraph.
flowvr-shmdump is a useful utility to know the state of the shared memory created by a FlowVR daemon. It takes two arguments : the SHM ID (0 by defaults), to specify which shared memory area to explore if several FlowVR daemon are launched on the node ; and a position given in hexadecimal, to have a look on the data stored at this position.
There is the result of the command flowvr-shmdump, when there is just the daemon launched and no application.
flowvr-shmdump 0 FlowVR Shared Memory Dump version CVS Opened shared memory area with ID=51337: internal id=3014667 size=10000000 attached 1 time(s) Mapped shared memory area with ID=51337 at 0x402a0000 Shared memory area mapped at 0x402a0000 Daemon header at 0x40 Head bloc at 0x1e0 Buffer pos=0x1f0 length=0x18 nbref=1 Buffer pos=0x208 length=0x10 nbref=1 Bloc pos=0x218 length=0x989468 prevDP=-0x38 nextDP=0x989468 Free memory 9999456, found 9999456 (99
This utility can be very useful for debugging some memory lack or to find a better size for the shared memory area.
flowvr-run-ssh (bin/flowvr-run-ssh) is a useful tool for launching FlowVR modules through ssh. It alleviates the difficulty of handling environnment variables with ssh and automatically propagates the FlowVR variables (FLOWVR_DAEMON, FLOWVR_PARENT, FLOWVR_MODNAME).
flowvr-run-ssh is intentionally kept simple. If it does not fit your needs look at more advanced launchers like TakTuk or mpirun.
The MetaModuleFlowvrRunSSH metamodule class (include/flowvr/app/components/metamoduleflowvr-run-ssh.comp.h) eases the use of flowvr-run-ssh. You just need to provide the executable name of you module and customize some options if required (include/flowvr/app/core/run.h). You will be able to start several instances of your module on distant machines.
flowvr-run-ssh [-v] [-d path] [-m] [-l login] [-e VAR VALUE] [-x VAR] [-s] [-p] hostlist command
flowvr-run-ssh needs a valid bash account with flowvr environment variables set at login.
FlowVR provides modules for writing messages to a file and for reading them.
FlowVR also provides a module for retrieving events from a joypad. It opens two ports per button and axes: one for the event itself and one for the accumulated value on this axe (or state of the button). Note that the desc files should be modified according to your device for the number of buttons and axes.
2009-04-06
