HP Ski Simulator, IA-64 manual Ski Variations, Using bski for Batch Simulations

Ski IA-64 Simulator Reference Manual 1.0L

2.4Ski Variations

The simulator is available in three varieties, distinguished by their user interfaces: ski, xski, and bski. The underlying simulation engine is identical across all three varieties. The figures below show how each variety looks when first started. Figure 2-1shows ski, which uses a terminal-oriented, curses-based, character user interface. Figure 2-2shows xski, using an X Window System, Motif-based, graphical user interface. Figure 2-3shows bski, which provides a batch-ori- ented, command-line-driven environment and no user interface. Ski command line flags, some of which are shown in Figure 2-3,are described in Section 2.5.1, “Command Line Flags”.

The three varieties understand the same command language. There are a few, unavoidable differences and they are pointed out where appropriate in this manual. Most examples and sample screen displays are taken from xski sessions. All exam- ples have been verified in actual use.

2.4.1Using bski for Batch Simulations

Because bski has no user interface, you typically control it using a command file (see Chapter 9, “Command Files”) and the -icommand line flag (see Section 2.5.1, “Command Line Flags”). ski and xski are intended for you to use interac- tively, while bski excels at batch simulations that might run for a long time as background jobs on your workstation or on a higher-powered remote simulation server. The cron and make programs work well with bski. With cron, you can schedule simulations to run at night and on remote servers. With make, you can execute complex networks of tests quickly, letting make keep track of the dependencies between the tests. These programs are documented in man pages.

Figure 2-1. The Curses-based ski Interface

2-2 Overview Copyright © 2000 Hewlett-Packard Co.