Introduction

This guide will walk you through the process of setting up and using the file tailing feature in Bêta HPC. This feature allows you to monitor ongoing computations by displaying the content of files generated by the simulation, helping you decide if the simulation is proceeding correctly.

Prerequisites

Access to the Bêta HPC simulation form.
Basic understanding of regular expressions (or regex - find out more about regexes here).
If you have access to any LLM (e.g. chatgpt) they are usually quite good at turning search into regex

Step 1: Configure File Tailing

Locate the File Tailing Section

Open the simulation form and navigate to page 4 to set up the feature.
Go to the "File Tailing" subsection under the advanced settings.

Set Up File Filtering Using Regex

In the field provided, enter a regular expression (regex) to whitelist the files you want to monitor.
- Here are some examples of regex patterns you can use:

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Regular Expression

What filter does it apply ?

Regex break down

^.*\.out$

Only authorizes files ending in “.out”

^ - Asserts the start of the string.
.* - Matches zero or more of any character (except newline).
\.out - Matches the literal string .out. The \ escapes the dot to ensure it’s treated as a literal dot.
$ - Asserts the end of the string.

.*iteration\d+.*

Only authorizes files containing the word “iteration” followed by a number

.* - Matches zero or more of any character (before or after the desired pattern).
iteration - Matches the literal word "iteration".
\d+ - Matches one or more digits (numbers).
.* - Matches zero or more of any character after the number.

.*iteration[0-9]*0\b.*

Does the same as above, but only considers every 10 iteration

.* - Matches zero or more of any character (before or after the desired pattern).
iteration - Matches the literal word "iteration".
[0-9]*0 - Matches zero or more digits ([0-9]*) followed by a 0, ensuring the number ends in 0 (a multiple of 10).
\b - Asserts a word boundary to ensure we match whole numbers (e.g., "10", "120") and avoid partial matches like "1000abc".
.* - Matches zero or more of any character after the number.

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Important Note

If no regex is provided, only the standard output and standard error will be available.

Step 2: Use the File Tailing Feature

Access the File Tailing Tab

Once the feature configuration is completed, open an ongoing simulation.
The file tailing tab will be the first tab you see.

Navigate Through Files and Folders

Left Section: This section allows you to navigate through files and folders that match the filter applied via the regex.
- Use arrows to:
  - Go back to the previous page.
  - Undo the return to the previous page.
  - Access the parent folder
- An icon is available to refresh the content on demand.
Right Section: This section displays a preview of the selected file.

Navigate Through Files and Folders

Left Section: This section allows you to navigate through files and folders that match the filter applied via the regex.
- Use arrows to:Go back to the previous page.
- An icon is available to refresh the content on demand.
Right Section: This section displays the preview of the selected file.

Access Standard and Error Outputs

Standard and error outputs remain accessible at all times, located between the navigation arrows and the list of files to monitor.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can effectively set up and use the file tailing feature in Bêta HPC to monitor your simulations in real-time, ensuring you can quickly identify any issues or confirm that the simulation is proceeding as expected.

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