Alternate Run Modes:Batch Mode Runs

Batch Mode

Batch mode is designed for running many different run of the same basic model but each run having a few different parameters. To run in batch mode, a project should be set up with replacement parameters and the parameters file. The other file needed is the values file, described below. Once the values file and the replacement file are created, they must be defined in the project file by using the following cards:

REPLACE_PARAMS  “params.in”
REPLACE_VALS  “values.in”

where “params.in” is the name of the parameters file, and “values.in” is the name of the values file. If it is desired to run a single simulation from the many that have been set up, you can put

REPLACE_LINE   ##

In the project file before the REPLACE_PARAMS and REPLACE_VALS lines, where ## is the line number of the values file (starting with 1 for the first line.)

It should be noted that any part of any file can be changed once the REPLACE_PARAMS and REPLACE_VALS lines are read, but not before. Since the first file read in is the project file, any part of any line after these lines can be replaced, but not before. The only other files that are read in as the project file is being read in are the time series files. So any time series file that is specified in the project file before the REPLACE_PARAMS and REPALCE_VALS lines would not be able to be replaced. In practice, it is best to simply put the REPLACE_PARAMS and REPLACE_VALS lines after the watershed mask and WMS headers.

If you wish to put all output files into a separate folder for easier viewing and managing, then add the card

REPLACE_FOLDER  “path/to/folder/”

where “path/to/folder/” is either an absolute path (if no project file path) or a path relative to the project file path (if specified using PROJECT_FILE) or a path relative from where GSSHA was run (if no project file path.) If you are running on windows, use DOS style paths (like\this\path\) or if on unix or linux machine, use unix style paths (like/this/path/).

To run GSSHA™ in batch mode, for non-MPI runs, use the following command:

gssha –b## projectfile.prj

For example, the command gssha –b11 myproj.prj would run 11 runs of GSSHA using the first 11 lines of the values file. Each of these runs would be done one after the other.

For runs with MPI enabled, you must also specify how many processors should be dedicated to a single run, so there is an extra value in the command line to specify this number.

gssha –b## ## myproj.prj

For example, the command gssha –b11 10 myproj.prj will dedicate 10 processors to each run, and should have some multiple of 10 for the total number of processors it is running on, such as 40 or 100. If there are more processors available than the minimum specified for a run, then the runs will run in parallel. For example, if you have are able to run the command gssha –b11 2 myproj.prj on 22 processors, then they will all run simultaneously

Values File

The values file is essentially a list of all parameter values for individual runs. The values for each run go across a line, so each line should contain all values for a run. The order of the values across the line (from left to right) should be the same as the order in the parameters file (top to bottom.) If any string is empty or has a space or other whitespace in it, it should be enclosed in double quotes.

For example, a values file corresponding to the parameters file above could be:

5  2.6  ADE  0.4
10  2.6  ADE  0.4
15  2.6  ADE  0.4
5  1.6  ADE  0.3
10  1.6  ADE  0.3
15  1.6  ADE  0.3
5  2.6  EXPLICIT  0.4
10  2.6  EXPLICIT  0.4
15  2.6  EXPLICIT  0.4

This values file has 9 lines, so to run with it you would use a command-line option of –b9.

The filenames for all output for a batch mode run is prepended with a number, starting at 0 and corresponding to each line of the values file.

Parameters File

The parameters file lists the names of the parameters, in square brackets, and the C-style replacement string. For more information, see the Simulation Setup for Alternate Run Modes