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Changing MAgPIE Configuration

Abhijeet Mishra ([email protected]) 12 October, 2019

1 Introduction

1.1 What is configuration

In computing, configuration files (or config files) are files used to configure the parameters and initial settings for some computer programs. In the MAgPIE context, a config file applies desired settings to the model. MAgPIE users may be expected to modify config files by hand using a simple text editor as these files are human-editable plain texts.

MAgPIE reads its configuration file just before starting a model run. Editing these config files by hand maybe practical in cases where a user is making one run at a time but more often than not, users may have to work with a combination of different settings for the model.

We’ll discuss writing your own start script in the next session which changes the model setting automatically.

1.2 Relevence to MAgPIE

Across Unix-like operating systems many different configuration-file formats exist, with each application or service potentially having a unique format, but there is a strong tradition of them being in human-editable plain text. Filename extensions of .cnf, .conf, .cfg, .cf or as well .ini and similar are often used. MAgPIE configuration file has a .cfg extension.

MAgPIE 4.1 is designed on a modular model structure. This means that the different components of the model interact with each other to act as a complete model. These components are called modules in MAgPIE terminology. These modules are individual entities and can be thought of as a switch(es) that can be turned on or off.

1.3 Learning objectives

The goal of this exercise is to make changes to the default configuration. After completion of this exercise, you’ll be able to:

  1. Understand how MAgPIE configuration works.

  2. Change the title and number of simulation steps for your runs.

  3. Select which outputs your model should generate.

  4. Run the model with updated configuration.

2 Getting started

As stated earlier, MAgPIE configuration (or settings) can be changed by hand using a normal text editor (notepad, notepad++ etc.). It is expected that the participants of the workshop have already set-up a MAgPIE clone[1] from the latest MAgPIE version available on GitHub[2].

The folder where MAgPIE is cloned should typically contain the files[3] as in Figure 1.

Contents of folder where MAgPIE is cloneds

Make sure that you have the following files and folders:

  1. Folders : config, core, doc, modules, scripts, standalone
  2. CITATION.cff
  3. LICENCS
  4. main.gms
  5. CHANGELOG.md, README.md
  6. output.R, scripts.R
  7. .Rprofile, .gitignore, .travis.yml

3 MAgPIE configuration

Users are requested to follow the following procedure in order to check the config file for MAgPIE:

1. Naviagte to the folder where you have cloned MAgPIE.

2. Look for the folder named config.

3. Within this config folder, look for the file default.cfg.

4. Right click on default.cfg file and open it with a text editor of your choice.

The first few lines of deafult.cfg file should look like the following (with licence text on top):

##################
#### SETTINGS ####
##################

cfg <- list()

#### Main settings ####

# short description of the actual run
cfg$title <- "default"

# path to the submodel to be used relative to main model folder
cfg$model <- "main.gms"   #def = "main.gms"

#### input settings ####

# which input data sets should be used?

cfg$input <- c("magpie4.1_default_apr19.tgz")

#Please add system or user specific repositories (such as repos with limited
#access for) through the R option "magpie_repos". Through the append command
#below it will get merged into cfg$repositories

cfg$repositories <- append(list("https://rse.pik-potsdam.de/data/magpie/public"=NULL),
                           getOption("magpie_repos"))

We can go through the contents of this file gradually but the description of core components from this file can be found in table 1 (as well as in the comments preceeding the respective settings in the config file).

No Config Description Focus
1 cfg$title Model title x
2 cfg$model Path to the submodel (relative to main model folder)
3 cfg$input Input data source
4 cfg$repositories Repository containing input data
5 cfg$force_download Should data be downloaded even if inputs didn’t change?
6 cfg$recalibrate Yield calibration
7 cfg$calib_accuracy Accuracy for yield calibration
8 cfg$calib_maxiter Max. iterations if precision goal is not met
9 cfg$damping_factor Factor determining new calibration factor’s influences on result
10 cfg$calib_cropland Switch for cropland calibration
11 cfg$recalc_npi_ndc Settings for NPI/NDC recalculation
12 cfg$policyregions National or Sub-national mapping
13 cfg$gms Module settings x
14 cfg$sequential How runs should be made
15 cfg$logoption Log information
16 cfg$output Generation of output files x
17 cfg$results_folder Results folder name
18 cfg$files2export Files copied to output folder
19 cfg$runstatistics Folder run statistics location
20 cfg$model_name Name of the overall model
21 cfg$model_version Model version
22 cfg$developer_mode Developer mode
23 cfg$debug Debugging mode

Description of MAgPIE configuration

MAgPIE is modular in structure and the various modules can be seen in the gms section (cfg$gms$*) of the config file. These modules in MAgPIE can be turned on to select a module realization (in case of multiple module realizations, an off setting is also available).

4 Exercises

4.1 Changing the title

Let us try to see what is the default title of MAgPIE runs. This can be seen by looking for the following text in default.cfg file (line 17):

cfg$title

As you can see, the model is titled default for obvious reasons. Usually the title setting helps in creating the name of the results folder inside the output folder of the model. You can see this setting by searching for the following test in default.cfg file (line 619).

cfg$results_folder

output/:title::date: tells us that the results from a MAgPIE run are stored within the output folder where another sub-folder is created automatically for each run. The name of this results folder is a combination of model title and the current date. Usually you can use any character string for the results folder name but it is important to remember that the model execution stops if a result folder by the same name exists.

Question:

If you happen to start a MAgPIE run right now, can you guess the name of the 
results folder within the output folder?

In order to change the default tile, users are requested to edit the setting so as to contain their affiliation within the quotations and save the file after editing. The default setting of title:

cfg$title <- "default"

Should be changed in the following format:

cfg$title <- "mag4workshop_<affiliation>"

For example:

cfg$title <- "mag4workshop_PIK"

4.2 Changing the time step

MAgPIE, being a recursive dynamic model, can run with various levels of time steps.

These time steps are usually in five year time intervals but you can also run MAgPIE with ten year time steps (or a combination thereof).

A full set of time-step settings[4] can be found in the core sets defined in the model code under core/sets.gms.

Current time-step setting can be found by looking for the following text in deafult.cfg file (line 80):

cfg$gms$c_timesteps

“coup2100” refers to time steps y1995, y2000, y2005, y2010,y2015, y2020, y2025, y2030, y2035, y2040, y2045, y2050, y2055, y2060, y2070, y2080, y2090 and y2100.

In this exercise, we’ll try to change this default time-step setting to 5 which corresponds to the years y1995, y2000, y2010, y2020 and y2030. Note that MAgPIE starts simlations in y1995.

Similar to how we updated the title, you can simply delete “coup2100” from the line containing

cfg$gms$c_timesteps <- "coup2100"

and set it to 5

cfg$gms$c_timesteps <- 5

4.3 Changing the ouputs generated

MAgPIE is also capable of generating some stylized outputs which can be created automatically once the model run is finished. To see the current output generation settings, look for the following text in the default.cfg file (line 614):

cfg$output

These ouputs[5] can be based on single run of the model or can also be comparative in nature where the comparison is made between two or more runs.

The default MAgPIE configuration runs rds_report (to be used in appResults), validation (as a pdf) and interpolation scripts after a model run is finished. Usually, the creation of validation pdf takes quite some time, generating a pdf file of about 1500 pages.

In this exercise, we’ll exclude the creation of validation pdf (after a model run) due to time constraints. To do so, you can delete “rds_report”,“validation”,“interpolation” from

cfg$output <- c("rds_report","validation","interpolation")

and replace it with “rds_report”,“interpolation”

cfg$output <- c("rds_report","interpolation")

5 Running the model with updated configuration

So far, we have successfully changed:

  1. Title of MAgPIE runs

  2. Time steps of simulation

  3. Outputs desired

Now, lets try to run the model with this updated configuration.

To do so, windows users can go to the folder where MAgPIE was cloned and open a command line prompt there. For windows users, this can be done by typing cmd or powershell at the address bar of the folder where MAgPIE was cloned and then pressing return/enter.

For mac users (if right click -> open terminal setting is not enabled), Head into System Preferences and select Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services. Find “New Terminal at Folder” in the settings and click the box. Now, when you’re in Finder, just right-click a folder and you’re shown the open to open Terminal.

In the command prompt (or powershell or terminal) you just opened, use the following command:

Rscript start.R

You’ll now see a bunch of R scripts on your command prompt, based on which the model can be run.

We are only focusing on the default script at the moment[6] which uses the default.cfg file as starting settings. We have edited this default.cfg file during the course of this exercise and changed some basic settings.

In order to start the run, Select option 1 (default) to tell the model that we want to make a default settings run (using the updated default.cfg) and then option 1 again (Direct execution).

This will start[7] the model run on your local machine.

  1. Cloning a repository: https://help.github.com/en/articles/cloning-a-repository

  2. MAgPIE repo: https://github.com/magpiemodel/magpie

  3. Users may or may not see the .git folder in their model folder depending on their hidden files and folder settings.

  4. The time step settings are within the gms component of the cfg list.

  5. Complete list of output R scripts can be found in scripts/output/single or scripts/output/comparison folders.

  6. Complete list of starting R scripts can also be found in the scripts/start folder.

  7. To stop a run you can use the key combination ctrl + c on windows machines.