Hi,

I've recently installed BOINC (6.2.18 for Windows) and yesterday I noticed what looks like a (minor) bug: the "used by BOINC" stat was showing as 405.82 KB. A few days ago it was fine, so I thought it was just a glitch, and after shutting down / restarting today, I checked and it was back to normal (around 90 MB). I minimized the BOINC Manager, and then checked it again not long ago and it's back to 405.82 KB.

BTW, a bit of confusion to post here... I assume I had to create an account? When I clicked on "Create Account", it has this message:

"NOTE: If you use BOINC version 5.2+ with the BOINC Manager, don't use this form. Just run BOINC, select Attach Project, and enter an email address and password."

I tried logging in with my e-mail address (as I'm attached to two projects already), but it said it couldn't find my e-mail address. I also tried the above instructions, but if you "Attach a project", it asks which project to attach to. So, I created a new account so I could post.

Best Wishes,
GlobalCitizen

Hi,

I've recently installed BOINC (6.2.18 for Windows) and yesterday I noticed what looks like a (minor) bug: the "used by BOINC" stat was showing as 405.82 KB. A few days ago it was fine, so I thought it was just a glitch, and after shutting down / restarting today, I checked and it was back to normal (around 90 MB). I minimized the BOINC Manager, and then checked it again not long ago and it's back to 405.82 KB.

Where do you see this? Please give all steps to reproduce this.
Also tell which Windows it is on.

BTW, a bit of confusion to post here... I assume I had to create an account? When I clicked on "Create Account", it has this message:

"NOTE: If you use BOINC version 5.2+ with the BOINC Manager, don't use this form. Just run BOINC, select Attach Project, and enter an email address and password."

I tried logging in with my e-mail address (as I'm attached to two projects already), but it said it couldn't find my e-mail address. I also tried the above instructions, but if you "Attach a project", it asks which project to attach to. So, I created a new account so I could post.

These forums do use a hacked version of the standard BOINC forums, so you can come across things like that. You can also make a team, which strikes as weird as we don't crunch anything here. There's no scheduler running on this site, so you can't attach to anything. In other words, you followed the correct road to freedom. :-)

Welcome.

---

Where do you see this? Please give all steps to reproduce this.
Also tell which Windows it is on.

I'm using the "Grid View", and if you look on the last tab, "Disk", there are two pie charts. On the left pie chart, under "total disk usage", is the stat "used by BOINC".

To be honest, I have no idea what steps caused this (if any steps on my part were even necessary?) ... I just checked it again, after it has been doing some crunching this afternoon, and it's back to normal -- approx. 91 MB now. The only thing I remember doing was opening BOINC Manager, minimizing or closing (not exiting) it for a while to do other things, and looking at it again later. I basically only use BOINC Manager to check on the progress of tasks, and occassionally to see how much disk space is being used. I just tried various tab views, minimizing / closing, etc. and the stat is still correct.

This is on Windows XP Pro w/ SP3.

These forums do use a hacked version of the standard BOINC forums, so you can come across things like that. You can also make a team, which strikes as weird as we don't crunch anything here. There's no scheduler running on this site, so you can't attach to anything. In other words, you followed the correct road to freedom. :-)

Welcome.

Ah, I see... makes sense. :) You might want to get rid of that message so that newcomers don't wander away confused. ;)

For the past 15 minutes I have been trying to reproduce this bug, but I can't get it done. Not on my Windows 2000 SP4 system, nor on my Windows XP Pro SP2 system.

Anyone else who can reproduce this (on any platform for that matter)?

---

I just had a look at XP Pro SP3 / BOINC 6.2.18 / running 3 climate models.

Pie chart: 924.58 MB
Windows properties: 925 MB

Perhaps it depends on which project GC is running, and how many WUs are active from time to time.

PS
Why is 90 MB "normal"? Is this what 'properties' is showing?

PS
Why is 90 MB "normal"? Is this what 'properties' is showing?

I think because 405.82 KB is "abnormal" :-)

I didn't see it either the first few times I read the post, but even boinc.exe alone is bigger than that.

Gruß,
Gundolf

PS: After rereading this and checking sizes, I found that boinccmd.exe has 400,75 KB in 5.10.45. Perhaps in 6.2.18 it has 405.82?

---

Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

Thanks everyone for your responses... I'll try to shed some light. Just a FYI ... problem hasn't come back, so either it was a temporary glitch, or it needs very specific conditions to occur.

Perhaps it depends on which project GC is running, and how many WUs are active from time to time.

I'm running two projects right now: SETI and CPDN
I have two CPDN WUs, and one SETI WU, at any given time. (with an additional SETI WU fetched just before the previous one finishes crunching)
Dual core machine, each core runs a WU for a time, then switches to something else... which I guess is normal?

PS
Why is 90 MB "normal"? Is this what 'properties' is showing?

I think because 405.82 KB is "abnormal" :-)

Exactly. :) I figured the less than 0.5 MB was "abnormal", plus at the time, 90 MB was what was in my data directory. Also, the right-side pie chart showed approx. 90 MB in total BOINC usage (between SETI and CPDN), at the same time that the left-side state was showing 405.82 KB. I assume these two are supposed to more-or-less match?

Why is the number fluctuating from 405 KB to 90 MB? As Les suggested, the contents of the directory is changing all the time as tasks come and go. 405 KB does seem rather small but if he's got a tiny cache and his projects send tiny task files and produce small result files it is conceivable. And if only 1 core then there would be fewer files too. Only 1 project on a single core?

Reasonable conclusion / assumption, but it doesn't fit my case. BOINC has been crunching the same two CPDN tasks since Day 1 (and I assume the data from those should only get larger over time, which seems to be the trend -- CPDN is now at 108.92 MB)

Anyways, I guess it's just a very minor (cosmetic) issue ... and it seems to be gone for now. :)

Trouble always comes in threes.

:) ... I figured the triple posting was to get my attention. ;)

Just a wild guess here... is the BOINC data dir compressed or on a compressed volume?

No, neither.