Cfx file

Cfx file

Cfx files are a method of avoiding the need for a plethora of .cfg files by allowing the specification of many workloads in a single file. Cfx files are actually scripts written in Perl. Awb’s standard workload setup tools (awb-shell and awb) detect files with the .cfx extension and automatically invoke Perl in order to retrieve the list of workloads defined by that .cfx file. Both awb-shell and awb treat these scripts something like a directory. The .cfx file appears as a node in a path, followed by the name of the virtual cfg file defined in the script. E.g.

config/bm/smips/6_375.cfx/benchmarks/towers.cfg

Command line parsing and generation of the .cfg files is handled by a Perl module in the core library. Cfg scripts tend to be quite simple.

The basic structure of most .cfx files is:

• Include the Asim core libraries.
• Allocate a new instance of an Asim::GenCFG().
• Define one or more workloads with calls to GenCFG’s add() method.
• Call GenCFG’s action() method, passing @ARGV.

Here is an example:

: # -*-Perl-*-
eval 'exec perl -w "$0" ${1+"$@"}'
   if 0;

use Asim;
use strict;

##
## Generate cfg files for 6.375 benchmarks.
##

my $gcfg = Asim::GenCFG->new();

my @bmarks = ("median",
              "multiply",
              "towers",
              "qsort",
              "vvadd");
	      
foreach my $bmark (@bmarks) {
    $gcfg->add(name => $bmark,
               tree => [ "benchmarks" ],
               setup => "tools/scripts/bmark/setup-bmark --isa smips $bmark",
               feeder => "vcs",
               feedflags => "program/${bmark}.smips.vmh",
              );
}

$gcfg->action(@ARGV);

Anyone familiar with writing .cfg files will find the arguments to the add() method familiar. With a few exceptions, they translate almost directly into lines of the .cfg file. The “tree” parameter is an array of names representing the directory hierarchy in which a .cfg file will appear to be stored.

Although .cfx files are usually invoked automatically through awb-shell and awb, it is executable, but you must use asimstarter to run it. E.g.:

    asimstarter -- ./6_375.cfx --emit config/bm/smips/6_375.cfx/benchmarks/towers.cfg

Without arguments a .cfx file will print a help message with legal arguments.

Usage:  GenCFG [--emit <CFG>] [--list <path>] [--dir <path>]

    Must specify one of --emit, --list or --dir

    --emit <CFG>
      Emit CFG file.

    --list <path>
      List all available CFG files under path.

    --listflags <path>
      List all available CFG files under path along with the genflags field.
      This is used by awb as a quick method of finding whether a workload
      has multiple regions.

    --dir <path>
      Treat path like a directory and list the level below it.