Template directory not found when path contains spaces

For OPAL sampler runs, the template file is not found when the path contains spaces. This could be easily solved by adding quotes " around the template directory path.

Quotes are already recognized.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. But I was more thinking if it would be possible to automatically recognise spaces in paths and add the quotes. This requires less knowledge of implementation details.

To understand correctly: The spaces are really part of your file path, i.e. single directories contain whitespace characters?

Yes. Example:

this is my directorythe directory where my config files are stored/tmpl/fullBeamline.tmpl

I'd like that OPAL recognises this and transforms it internally in one of the following ways:

• this\ is\ my\ directorythe\ directory\ where\ my\ config\ files\ are\ stored/tmpl/fullBeamline.tmpl
• "this is my directorythe directory where my config files are stored/tmpl/fullBeamline.tmpl"

I think both versions would solve the problem.

@bellotti_r : what happens right now when you have no quotes?

As far as I could see in the manual all examples with strings have quotes around them. Unfortunately, there is not so much documentation on this point. Strings without quotes seem allowed, however according to http://amas.web.psi.ch/opal/Documentation/master/OPAL_Manual.html#sec.format.label :

When a name is not quoted, it is converted to upper case;

I guess to implement your request, it would need changes to the parser, something I don't really have knowledge about, and proper testing. Not sure how difficult it is. Perhaps @kraus can comment here?

All in all, I am not sure we should support it. Having quotes consistently for strings makes input clearer to read (imho), and could avoid confusion (what is and should be the output of the following? ):

STRING A = "B";
STRING D = A;
WHAT, NAME="D";

I totally agree to what you just said. I was a bit unclear on the issue.

I have a directory where I store the input file for a sampler run. The directory is called evaluate_optimisation_minimise_emittance_and_energy_spread different low charge(with space in it). Inside, I have a subdirectoy tmpl containing the tempalte file.

The sample command looks something like this:

SAMPLE,
    RASTER          = false,
    DVARS           = {dv0, dv1, dv2, dv3, dv4, dv5, dv6, dv7, dv8},
    SAMPLINGS       = {sdv0, sdv1, sdv2, sdv3, sdv4, sdv5, sdv6, sdv7, sdv8},
    KEEP            = {STAT},
    INPUT           = "fullBeamline.tmpl",
    OUTPUT          = "output",
    OUTDIR          = "output",
    TEMPLATEDIR     = "tmpl",
    FIELDMAPDIR     = "fieldmaps",
    NUM_MASTERS     = 1,
    NUM_COWORKERS   = 4;
QUIT;

When I try to run this, I get an error that the template was not found:

OPAL{0}> opal evaluate.in --inputfile=fullBeamline.tmpl --outfile=output --outdir=output --num-masters=1 --num-coworkers=4 --restartstep=-2147483648 --jsonDumpFreq=18446744073709551616 --nsamples=200 --simtmpdir=/data/user/bellotti_r/awa_masters/renato/evaluate_optimisation_minimise_emittance_and_energy_spread different low charge/output --templates=/data/user/bellotti_r/awa_masters/renato/evaluate_optimisation_minimise_emittance_and_energy_spread different low charge/tmpl

I'd suggest to add quotes around the paths in the command above.

Adding quotes didn't solve the problem. The way we process the argument list in the optimizer causes the file paths to be split at spaces.

mentioned in merge request !310 (merged)

created merge request !310 (merged) to address this issue

closed via commit 60d0264f

mentioned in commit ce4666cf

mentioned in merge request !311 (merged)

added Bug label

assigned to @kraus

changed milestone to %OPAL 2.4.0

added 1 deleted label