The log files#

The log files are files in the format $model.log.*

  • When the model is running, it produces the log files in the run directory: RUNDIR.

  • When the run completes successfully, the model moves the log files into the archive directory: DOUT_S_ROOT

  • When the model fails, the log files remains in the run directory RUNDIR

CESM directories and namelists

Figure: Overview of the CESM directories and the log files.

What to do when a run fails?#

First, check the latest cpl.log.*, which will often tell you when the model failed. If a run completed successfully, the last several lines of the cpl.log.* file will have a string like SUCCESSFUL TERMINATION OF CESM. If you don’t see this message, it means the run has failed.

Check these things first when a job fails:

  • Did the model time out?

  • Was a disk quota limit hit?

  • Did a machine go down?

  • Did a file system become full? If any of those things happened, take appropriate corrective action and resubmit the job.

If it is not clear that any of the above caused a case to fail, check the rest of the component log files $model.log.* for error messages. It takes a bit of practice to interpret message errors. We will look at an example in this chapter exercices.