QDINFO.DAT(5)               qd-tools documentation               QDINFO.DAT(5)



NAME
       qdinfo.dat - The data file for qd, a Folding@Home queue dumper


SYNOPSIS
       qdinfo.dat


DESCRIPTION
       qdinfo.dat  is  the  data file which can update the credits per project
       table build into qd(1).


       Besides the table with the current credits per project,  a  table  with
       the  credits  a  project was worth up to certain points in time is also
       included. The date the file was generated and by whom is also  recorded
       in qdinfo.dat.

       The  file  is split up into three sections, a header with some informa-
       tion on the content, the current credits per project table, and finally
       a table with the credit history per project.


       The qdinfo.dat file layout is detailed below.

       -- header --
       # <qdinfo.dat>

       da 11 August 2005 (rph)

       # Latest functional revision number of "qd"

       fr 032

       # Point table generation time, epoch 2000

       pg 0A8DA04A

       -- header --


       Each  information  item  in  the  header  section has a comment briefly
       describing its function. Below and above each comment is an empty line,
       with  the  exception  of  the  first comment which is on the first line
       without an empty line above it. I will describe each item in  a  little
       more detail below.


       da 11 August 2005 (rph)


       A  line  beginning  with  "da" indicates that it contains the date this
       qdinfo.dat file was generated on and by whom. The date is in  the  form
       "day  month year", the day is not prefixed with an 0 if the day is less
       than 9, the month is the full name of the month  in  English,  and  the
       year  is in 4 digits. The tag "(rph)" indicates that this file was gen-
       erated by Dick Howell as those are his initials.


       Dick Howell original documentation has the following to say  about  the
       "da" entry:


       "The  official  distributed  qdinfo.dat has the tag "(rph)" at the end.
       People maintaining their own versions of the file, for whatever reason,
       should use a different tag."


       Since  the  last official distributed qdinfo.dat was of 11 August 2005,
       all later versions of qdinfo.dat use a different tag.


       A qdinfo.dat generated  by  psummary2qdinfo.pl(1)  will  have  the  tag
       "(psummary2qdinfo)".
       A  qdinfo.dat  generated  by  update-qd-files.pl(1)  will  have the tag
       "(update-qd-files.pl)".


       The tools psummary2qdinfo.pl and update-qd-files.pl  are  part  of  qd-
       tools  and  can  be used by anyone to keep their copy of qdinfo.dat and
       qd.c up to date. Therefor I didn't think it was appropriate to  use  my
       initials or another more personal tag.


       If  someone  were  to modify those scripts, please use a different tag.
       This way we can always determine the exact person or script responsible
       for the updated qdinfo.dat.


       fr 032


       A  line beginning with "fr" indicates that it contains the latest func-
       tional revision of qd. Its function is basically to inform users of  qd
       when  a  new version of qd is available when the only thing they update
       is qdinfo.dat.


       Dick Howells original documentation has the following to say about  the
       functional revision:


       "The  program [qd] is released as necessary to keep up with changes and
       new features. Often it is several times a week, as new project  numbers
       are  activated  and  their  scores have to be added to qd's tables.  If
       there is a significant change, or a bug fix, there  is  also  a  "func-
       tional revision" level built into the program, which will be increased.
       The message above shows the program functional revision level at "032".
       The  latest  functional  revision  level  available  is  given  in  the
       qdinfo.dat file as an "fr" field.  Users who update only qdinfo.dat  to
       stay current will be notified with a warning message here if qd notices
       an "fr" level greater than its own functional level."


       pg 0A8DA04A


       A line beginning with "pg" indicates that it contains the date and time
       on  which  the point table was generated. The value is the time in sec-
       onds since January 1 2000 00:00:00 in hexadecimal. This value  is  only
       used  by  qd to determine if its own credits per project information is
       more recent than that supplied in qdinfo.dat.


       Dick Howells original documentation has the following to say about  the
       "pg" entry:


       "The  date the table information was compiled is recorded in qdinfo.dat
       as a hex value in a "pg" entry.  If such a value is present and  it  is
       earlier than the date of the built-in tables in qd, then a warning mes-
       sage will be printed here, and the table entries in qdinfo.dat will not
       be allowed to overwrite the built-in values."


       Below  the  header are the two last sections, the point table and point
       history entries. Point table entries are on lines  starting  with  "pt"
       and point history entries are on lines starting with "ph".


       Point Table


       Below  are  the  two  first  and two last lines of the point table from
       qdinfo.dat of 11 August 2005.


       -- point table --
       # Point table entries (points per WU (project, 100 * points))

       pt  101  7400   111   500   112   500   113   500   114   500
       pt  127   200   128   200   129   200   131   140   132   280
       pt 2051 16700  2052 16600  2053 13700  2054  6900  2055 12900
       pt 2056 12800  2057 10600  2059  3800  2060  5700
       -- point table --


       The point table entries are nothing more than the  project  number  and
       the last known amount of credits that project was worth. If over time a
       projects credit is changed, this new value is used in the  point  table
       entry  and the old value of the point table entry is added to the point
       history entries of that project.


       The point table lines contain double space separated pairs  of  project
       and  credit data. The first thing on each line are the pt characters to
       indicate   that this line contains point table data. The  rest  of  the
       line  is  populated with the actual data, first the project number fol-
       lowed by a space and than the amount of credits for that project multi-
       plied  by  100.  Due  to  the  max  of 80 characters on a line, up to 5
       projects are listed per line.


       Point History


       Below are a few point history lines.


       -- point history --
       # Point history entries (project, 100 * old points, change  date  epoch
       2000)

       ph  171   200 0A7A948C
       ph  257  9200 08398674   257 10483 0817020C
       ph 2020  1400 0A77D56C  2020 13600 0A72734C  2020 24600 0A71E6AC
       ph 2020 12200 0A58CC1C
       -- point history --


       The  point  history entries are not much different from the point table
       entries. They also have the project number and the  amount  of  credits
       for  that  project,  but  also  have the date up to when that amount of
       credits was awarded to that project.


       The point history lines contain groups of credit revision history sepa-
       rated by double spaces. The first thing on each line are the ph charac-
       ters to indicate that this line contains point history data.  The  rest
       of the line is populated with the actual data, first the project number
       followed by a space, then the amount of credits multiplied  by  100,  a
       space, and the epoch 2000 time which indicated when the amount of cred-
       its was changed to that value.
       Every line contains one or more credit revisions of only  one  project.
       Because  of  the  maximum of 80 character per line, there are at most 3
       revision on one line. If a project has more  than  3  credit  revision,
       additional  ph  lines  are  created to list all the revisions. So it is
       very well possible to see a  specific  project  which  has  several  ph
       lines.  The  revisions are ordered from latest up to the oldest. So the
       most recent revision is at the beginning of the line.


       Preferred Deadlines


       Below are a few lines with preferred deadlines.


       -- preferred deadlines --
       # Preferred deadline entries (project, deadline in seconds)

       pd  772 25920000   773 25920000   962    86400   963    86400
       pd  964   259200  1136   950400  1151   432000  1155   432000
       pd 1156  3974400  1157  3974400  1158  3974400  1162   172800
       pd 1163   172800  1164   604800  1165   604800  1166   864000
       pd 1167   864000  1487  4060800  1491   259200  1492  2851200
       -- preferred deadlines --


       The preferred deadline entries are nothing more than the project number
       and  the last known preferred deadline in seconds that was reported for
       that project. If over time a projects preferred  deadline  is  changed,
       the new value is used in the preferred deadline entry, the old value of
       the preferred deadline is discarded.


       The lines with preferred deadline entries contain  double  space  sepa-
       rated  pairs of project and preferred deadline data. The first thing on
       each line are the pd characters to indicate  that  this  line  contains
       preferred  deadline  data.  The  rest of the line is populated with the
       actual data, first the project number followed by a space and than  the
       preferred  deadline  for  that project in seconds. Due to the max of 80
       characters on a line, up to 4 projects are listed per line.



FILES
       qdinfo.dat
              The data file for qd with updated credits per project  and  pre-
              ferred deadlines.


BUGS
       The  date  saved  in  the point history is the time on which the system
       which updated the qdinfo.dat noticed the change in the project  summary
       of  Stanford.  If you check for updates every hour, you should not have
       much difference, if at all. If you check less frequent it  is  possible
       that  your  work  unit  is  rewarded  with  less credits than stated in
       qdinfo.dat.


       Dick Howell had the following to say about the date saved in the  point
       history in his original documentation:


       "The  times  are not necessarily very accurate, being determined not so
       much by when the points were actually changed as by the time I  noticed
       the changes on the Stanford project summary web page. I check the Stan-
       ford page automatically at 0635 and 1835 UTC (0535 and 1735 UTC  during
       the summer), and occasionally when I use the network for other reasons,
       so my times could be late by as much as twelve hours."


       The qdinfo.dat distributed with qd-tools has a gap in  the  point  his-
       tory, between Dick Howells last release on 11 August 2005 and 25 Novem-
       ber 2005 when I had fixed my update scripts which  had  a  bug  in  the
       point history handling.


       The  qdinfo.dat  distributed  with  qd-tools no longer contains data on
       projects in beta stage. Usage of that project data was not allowed. The
       position of Vijay Pande was posted on the Folding-Community, Team MacOS
       X and Dutch Power Cows Forums:


       http://folding-community.org/fpost171195.html#171195


       http://www.teammacosx.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=42409#p42409


       http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_message/27655766#27655766


NOTES
       The qdinfo.dat which is being maintained as part of qd-tools is updated
       every hour, because Stanford updates its  project  summary  page  every
       hour as well. The version distributed with qd-tools always reflects the
       most recent version at the time when it was packaged. For  updates  you
       can download the most recent version from the qd-tools website:
       http://linuxminded.xs4all.nl/?target=software-qd-tools.plc


AUTHORS
       qd(1), qdiprint(1) and qdinfo.dat(5) were originally written by Richard
       P. Howell IV

       This manual page is written as part of qd-tools(1)  by  Bas  Couwenberg
       <sebastic@xs4all.nl>


SEE ALSO
       qd(1), qdiprint(1), qd-tools(1)



qd-tools                          2007-02-26                     QDINFO.DAT(5)