Re: st: Editing DO files while it is being executed

["Akihito Tokuhara" <akitoku4@hotmail.com>]

Hi Dave,

I often modified the DO file while it is running. I also recognized that 
part of the DO file
is read and run, not the whole file is read and then run.

But, more often what I had is that, I modify somewhere in the middle of the 
file, very rarely
my modification is at the end of the DO file. Once I save it while the 
pre-modified version is
running, Stata stopped at some point.

I just run the modified version again. I do not see Stata running only 
additional commands
while skipping everything before that. Or perhaps my experience is different 
in some aspects ?

Akihito

--------------------

> From: Dave Ewart <davee@ceu.ox.ac.uk>
> Reply-To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: st: Editing DO files while it is being executed
> Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 09:40:13 +0100
>
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> On Friday, 23.06.2006 at 12:08 +0100, Dave Ewart wrote:
>
> > Something one of our staff noticed is that 'strange things' can happen
> > if one edits a running DO file.  For example:
> >
> > 1. Start a Stata job with "do somefile.do";
> >
> > 2. While the job is still running, edit somefile.do in an editor, say,
> > by adding some additional commands to the end of it;
> >
> > 3. See the Stata job *execute those additional commands*, rather than
> > executing the contents of the DO file as it was when the job started!
> >
> > This behaviour happens on both Stata versions we have here: Stata 8
> > for Windows and Stata 9 for Linux.
> >
> > I used 'strace' to see what Stata was actually doing.  It appears that
> > Stata reads the DO file in 512-byte blocks and only reads the next
> > block when it needs to (and "when it needs to" can be minutes, hours
> > or even days later).  Each new block read involves reading the file in
> > its current state, which means that any editing of the DO file while
> > the job is running can cause problems with the running job.
> >
> > The workaround is simple of course, one just avoids editing DO files
> > which relate to running jobs.
> >
> > This behaviour of Stata seems strange: why doesn't it read the whole
> > DO file at the start (which will only happen if the whole DO file is
> > <512 bytes in size)?
> >
> > Any other comments?
>
> Just thought I'd 'bump' this message again: I take it no-one else has
> seen this behaviour, or at least no-one has seen it who is *worried*
> about it?
>
> Dave.
> - --
> Dave Ewart
> davee@ceu.ox.ac.uk
> Computing Manager, Cancer Epidemiology Unit
> Cancer Research UK / Oxford University
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