Ascii printer: several small fixes and improvements#591
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- Remove the unsupported 'print_debug_data' option from the example YAML (yaml_files/spartan.yaml). It was advertised but never read. - Implement the 'delete_file_on_restart' YAML option (default false). Previously the option was advertised in several example YAMLs but silently ignored, and the printer unconditionally truncated any pre-existing output_file/info_file. The option now mirrors the behaviour of the hdf5 printers: by default GAMBIT refuses to overwrite a pre-existing file and raises a printer_error with an informative message. - Use a single column width in dump_buffer so all rows align vertically. Previously numeric values used setw(colwidth+5) but 'none' placeholders and Suspicious/Invalidation-Code defaults used setw(colwidth), so any row containing a missing cell broke vertical alignment. - Let only MPI rank 0 write the metadata file. Previously all MPI ranks were appending unsynchronised to the same file. The setup metadata is identical across ranks anyway, and the per-rank lastPointID is only relevant for resume support (which the ascii printer does not have yet). - Stop double-appending the MPI rank to auxiliary printer file names. - Expose 'precision' as a YAML option (default 10). Previously the number of digits used by std::setprecision was hard-coded. - Add a 'write_header' YAML option (default false). When enabled, dump_buffer writes a single '#'-prefixed line at the top of the data file containing a shorthand name for each column. The shorthand is the substring of the full label after the last '::' (or the whole label if no '::'), with internal whitespace replaced by '_' and prefixed with the 1-based column number used in the info file (e.g. '5_mu', '6_sigma'). This makes it easier to read the data file directly and parse it with e.g. numpy.loadtxt or pandas.read_csv. The full labels remain in the _info file.
carlmfe
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May 7, 2026
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Yes, it all looks sound.
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We typically don't use the ascii printer for large GAMBIT runs, but it's useful for smaller projects, tutorials and quick tests. So this PR has a bunch of small fixes that aim to improve the usability of the ascii printer:
Remove the unsupported 'print_debug_data' option from the example YAML (yaml_files/spartan.yaml). It was advertised but never read.
Implement the 'delete_file_on_restart' YAML option (default false). Previously the option was advertised in several example YAMLs but silently ignored, and the printer unconditionally truncated any pre-existing output_file/info_file. The option now mirrors the behaviour of the hdf5 printers: by default GAMBIT refuses to overwrite a pre-existing file and raises a printer_error with an informative message.
Use a single column width in dump_buffer so all rows align vertically. Previously numeric values used setw(colwidth+5) but 'none' placeholders and Suspicious/Invalidation-Code defaults used setw(colwidth), so any row containing a missing cell broke vertical alignment.
Let only MPI rank 0 write the metadata file. Previously all MPI ranks were appending unsynchronised to the same file. The setup metadata is identical across ranks anyway, and the per-rank lastPointID is only relevant for resume support (which the ascii printer does not have yet).
Stop double-appending the MPI rank to auxiliary printer file names.
Expose 'precision' as a YAML option (default 10). Previously the number of digits used by std::setprecision was hard-coded.
Add a 'write_header' YAML option (default false). When enabled, dump_buffer writes a single '#'-prefixed line at the top of the data file containing a shorthand name for each column. The shorthand is the substring of the full label after the last '::' (or the whole label if no '::'), with internal whitespace replaced by '_' and prefixed with the 1-based column number used in the info file (e.g. '5_mu', '6_sigma'). This makes it easier to read the data file directly and parse it with e.g. numpy.loadtxt or pandas.read_csv. The full labels remain in the _info file.