[developers] [pet] problems with rmrs output using tsdb

[Stephan Oepen]

hi sergio,

[incr tsdb()] currently has no built-in support for characterization.

looking at how you invoke cheap as an [incr tsdb()] client, plus the
following

> after using  the export script provided with lkb,  i get an output
> without character spans like this:

--- i assume your profiles do not record (R)MRSs, hence do not contain
information about characterization.  during an export, there is no way
of filling that information back in (currently).  i have plans to work
on this, but it requires enriching the format used in [incr tsdb()] for
the storage of derivations.  i hope i might get to that in may, but not
any sooner i am afraid (and quite possibly even later).

however, if you want to use [incr tsdb()] and record characterization,
it should work fine to include (R)MRSs in your profiles.  i expect if
you just add the `-mrs=rmrx' option to your cpu definition, then each
result that gets recorded will include its RMRS, just the way it comes
out in interactive mode.  this will greatly increase profile size (and
potentially make tsdb(1) DB operations a lot slower), but at least you
should be able to preserve characterization.  note, however, that there
is no [incr tsdb()] support to read back RMRSs and operate on them, so
you cannot use the export facilities.  instead, you could simply read
the ASCII files comprising the tsdb(1) databases directly.

                                                         best  -  oe

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