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= Driver script =

We recommend using the {{{src/fast-downward.py}}} script for running Fast Downward. It supports running all three planner steps or a subset of them and automatically chooses the right steps depending on the given input. To see the list of options run

{{{
./fast-downward.py --help
}}}

Below are the instructions for running individual steps without the driver script.
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Note: Creates a file called `output`. Note: Creates a file called [[PreprocessorOutputFormat|output]].

Back to HomePage.

Usage

Running the planner is a three-step process as explained in Section 3 (pp. 202-203) of the JAIR paper on Fast Downward. The following instructions show how to run these three steps, in sequence, assuming that the preprocessor and search component have been compiled and that you are currently located in the src directory.

If you want to run any of the planners based on Fast Downward that participated in IPC 2011, please also check IpcPlanners.

Driver script

We recommend using the src/fast-downward.py script for running Fast Downward. It supports running all three planner steps or a subset of them and automatically chooses the right steps depending on the given input. To see the list of options run

./fast-downward.py --help

Below are the instructions for running individual steps without the driver script.

Translator

translate/translate.py [DOMAIN] PROBLEM
  • DOMAIN (filename): PDDL domain file

  • PROBLEM (filename): PDDL problem file

If the domain file is not given, the planner will try to infer a likely name from the problem file name, using the conventions used at the various IPCs. (If in doubt if this will work for you, just try it out.)

Note: Creates a file called output.sas.

Preprocessor

preprocess/preprocess < OUTPUT.SAS
  • OUTPUT.SAS (filename): translator output

Note: Creates a file called output.

Search component

search/downward OPTIONS < OUTPUT

Exit codes

The list of exit codes for the search component is defined in src/search/utilities.h and explained below:

Code

Symbol

Meaning

0

EXIT_PLAN_FOUND

Solution found.

1

EXIT_CRITICAL_ERROR

Something went wrong that should not have went wrong (e.g. planner bug).

2

EXIT_INPUT_ERROR

Wrong command line options or SAS+ file.

3

EXIT_UNSUPPORTED

Requested unsupported feature.

4

EXIT_UNSOLVABLE

Task is provably unsolvable with current bound. Currently unused (see issue377).

5

EXIT_UNSOLVED_INCOMPLETE

Search ended without finding a solution.

6

EXIT_OUT_OF_MEMORY

Memory exhausted.

7

EXIT_TIMEOUT

Timeout occured. Currently only returned by portfolios.

8

EXIT_TIMEOUT_AND_MEMORY

In portfolio configurations both timeouts and out-of-memory conditions occurred.

Examples

A* search:

   1 # landmark-cut heuristic (previously configuration "ou")
   2  ./downward --search "astar(lmcut())" < output
   3 
   4 # merge-and-shrink heuristic with default settings (previously configuration "oa50000")
   5  ./downward --search "astar(merge_and_shrink())" < output
   6 
   7 # blind heuristic (previously configuarion "ob")
   8  ./downward --search "astar(blind())" < output

Lazy greedy best first search with preferred operators and the queue alternation method:

   1 ## using FF heuristic and context-enhanced additive heuristic (previously: "fFyY")
   2  ./downward --heuristic "hff=ff()" --heuristic "hcea=cea()" \
   3             --search "lazy_greedy([hff, hcea], preferred=[hff, hcea])" \
   4             < output
   5 
   6 ## using FF heuristic (previously: "fF")
   7  ./downward --heuristic "hff=ff()" \
   8             --search "lazy_greedy(hff, preferred=hff)" \
   9             < output
  10 
  11 ## using context-enhanced additive heuristic (previously: "yY")
  12  ./downward --heuristic "hcea=cea()" \
  13             --search "lazy_greedy(hcea, preferred=hcea)" \
  14             < output

Q: Is it possible to make the planner behave like "old" LAMA (the IPC 2008 version)?

A: We recommend against doing that and suggest you run the planner in "LAMA 2011 mode" instead (see next question). Still, here is the information for a LAMA-2008-like configuration:

The following configuration has all the ingredients of LAMA: it uses the landmark and FF heuristics in a lazy alternation search with preferred operators for both heuristics, uses iterated search with the appropriate set of options, and performs LAMA's +1 action cost adjustment on the heuristic for problems with non-unit-cost actions. It also uses the same mechanism for computing landmarks as LAMA. (There are, however, a number of implementation differences that make the behaviour of the planner different from original LAMA, e.g. slightly different tie-breaking in the FF heuristic computation.)

./downward --heuristic "hlm=lmcount(lm_rhw(reasonable_orders=true,lm_cost_type=2,cost_type=2),pref=true)"
           --heuristic "hff=ff()"
           --search "iterated([lazy_greedy([hff,hlm],preferred=[hff,hlm]),
                               lazy_wastar([hff,hlm],preferred=[hff,hlm],w=5),
                               lazy_wastar([hff,hlm],preferred=[hff,hlm],w=3),
                               lazy_wastar([hff,hlm],preferred=[hff,hlm],w=2),
                               lazy_wastar([hff,hlm],preferred=[hff,hlm],w=1)],
                              repeat_last=true)" < output

The following is the corresponding call to just find a first solution (i.e., not doing iterated search):

 ./downward --heuristic "hlm=lmcount(lm_rhw(reasonable_orders=true,lm_cost_type=2,cost_type=2),pref=true)"
            --heuristic "hff=ff()"
            --search "lazy_greedy([hlm, hff], preferred=[hlm, hff])" 
            < output

Q: What do I need to do to run LAMA 2011?

All planners in the Fast Downward family that participated in IPC 2011 use exactly the same code and only differ in the command-line options used for the search component of the planner. LAMA 2011 is a bit special in that it uses two different parameter settings depending on whether the input planning task uses unit-cost actions only or general action costs. To enable this automatic switching, run the planner with:

 ./downward ipc seq-sat-lama-2011 < output

To find out which actual search options this corresponds to, check the source code of the downward script. Please also check the comments below on 32-bit vs. 64-bit mode.

32-bit mode or 64-bit mode?

Our current codebase (as of November 2011) differs from the IPC versions of our planners in one way: by default, planner executables are compiled in 32-bit mode, while 64-bit was used at IPC 2011. The main differences between 32- vs. 64-bit mode are as follows:

  • 64-bit mode is faster than 32-bit mode (in our limited experiments typically by a factor of ~1.1)
  • 64-bit mode needs more memory than 32-bit mode (in our limited experiments typically by a factor of ~1.5)
  • 64-bit mode can use essentially unbounded amounts of memory, while 32-bit mode can only use 3 GB of user space memory (on typical Linux systems -- numbers may differ on other operating systems and depending on kernel options)

In our experiments, the memory advantage of 32-bit mode tends to outweigh the speed disadvantage, which is why we enable 32-bit mode by default. See http://issues.fast-downward.org/issue213 for details. However, for memory limits substantially beyond 4 GB, you should use 64-bit mode due to the address space limitations of 32-bit mode.

To enable 64-bit, compile the planner with the option DOWNWARD_BITWITH=64, e.g. by running

./build_all distclean
./build_all DOWNWARD_BITWIDTH=64

in the src directory. (If VAL is not currently compiled, the first line may give you an error, which you can ignore.)

Other questions?

Please get in touch! See the HomePage for various contact options.

FastDownward: PlannerUsage (last edited 2023-10-12 12:14:59 by GabiRoeger)