TrimCharts Program for InterMapper

TrimCharts is an add-on program for InterMapper that decreases the size of the Chart Data folder. It has the following benefits:

It speeds up startup because InterMapper doesn’t have to scan voluminous Chart Data files;
It reduces the amount of disk space consumed by InterMapper (the Chart Data folder on long-running installations can consume tens of gigabytes);
It makes chart data appear faster in RemoteAccess.

TrimCharts works by making a one-time pass over the Chart Data folder, trimming the old (unneeded) data values. The program takes a number of days as a parameter, and retains only the chart data in that time frame.

TrimCharts is commercial software written by Rich Brown of Blueberry Hill Software, co-founder of the company that produced InterMapper. For pricing and availability, please contact rich.brown@blueberryhillsoftware.com

How TrimCharts works

TrimCharts scans the InterMapper Chart Data folder and examines each of the files to determine how much data is newer than the cutoff date. It never modifies the actual Chart Data files in place. TrimCharts has two modes of operation:

Preflight – Scan the Chart Data, and determine how much space the trimmed files will occupy. No new files are created. This is the default.
Trimming the chart files – Scan the Chart Data folder and create a new Chart Data folder (on the Desktop, by default) containing the data to retain. Invoke with the “-t” argument on the command line.

If you have trimmed the chart files, you must manually replace the current Chart Data folder inside the InterMapper Settings folder with the newly trimmed files.

Usage

Save the TrimCharts program files and unzip it to a convenient place on your hard drive.
cd to the directory containing the TrimChart program files.
From a command line, copy/paste the command for your OS, listed below.
- To preflight the operation, simply invoke the program as shown below.
- To trim the files you must stop the InterMapper server before running TrimCharts. This ensures that the running server will not modify the chart data files during the trim/copy operation. Then add “-t” to the command you paste.
TrimCharts takes a few minutes (about 2 minutes per GByte) to copy and trim the files. Preflighting is somewhat faster.
If you have preflighted the operation, TrimCharts reports the size of the folder that would be produced.
If you have trimmed the charts, TrimCharts saves the new files in the destination folder (normally, a folder named “Chart Data” on the Desktop).

OS-Specific Commands

Use the Command Prompt/terminal, cd to the directory containing the trimcharts.py program and copy/paste the following command (including the quotes):

Note: The following commands use the “preflight” option. If you wish to trim the files, be sure to stop the InterMapper server and use the “-t” from the end of the line.

Windows – InterMapper 32-bit version

Use this command for InterMapper 5.7 or earlier, or a 32-bit version of InterMapper 5.8:

"c:\Program Files (x86)\InterMapper\dwf\core\python\imdc.exe" -OO trimcharts.py

Windows – InterMapper 64-bit version

Use this command for a 64-bit version of InterMapper 5.8:

"c:\Program Files\InterMapper\dwf\core\python\imdc.exe" -OO trimcharts.py

Mac OS X (any version supported by InterMapper)

TrimCharts must run as root (using sudo) to fix file permissions on the newly created chart data files.

sudo /usr/local/imdc/core/python/bin/imdc -OO trimcharts.py

Linux/Unix (any version supported by InterMapper)

/usr/local/imdc/core/python/bin/imdc -OO trimcharts.py

Options

-t,        --trim          Trim files, don't preflight (default: preflight)
-c CUTOFF, --cutoff CUTOFF Cutoff-number of days (default: retain 365 days)
-i INPUT,  --input INPUT   Source folder (default: IM Settings|Chart Data)
-d DEST,   --dest DEST     Dest folder (default: Desktop|Chart Data)
-v,        --verbose       Print verbose output
           --debug         Turn on full debugging checks and output.
-h,        --help          Show this help message and exit

Tips & Hints

Here are some hints for using TrimCharts:

Even though this is a safe operation, it is always a good idea to create a backup of your entire InterMapper Settings folder.
If you have the disk space, you can rename the current Chart Data folder (say, to “old Chart Data”), before copying in the new Chart Data folder. This preserves the original chart data until you assure yourself that things are working well. At that time, you can delete the “old Chart Data” folder.
InteMapper on Mac OS X adds a “.noindex” to the Chart Data folder name. This is a hint to the Spotlight file indexer not to scan the chart data files. The “Chart Data.noindex” folder works identically in every other respect.
To prevent corruption of the resulting Chart Data, it is critical that you stop the InterMapper server (using the InterMapper Control Center) before trimming files. Otherwise, the InterMapper server will continue to write data into the file that is being copied, the result will be incorrect data.