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Today.ini: Difference between revisions
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The files '''today.ini''' and '''[[yesterday.ini]]''' are used by Cumulus to store some counts, plus the Highs and Lows (and their timestamps) for key parameters as reached on each of the two days, for Cumulus 1 these are source for figures that appear on the main screen, for Cumulus 2 and 3(MX) they appear on the dashboard you can view. These files are normally located in the "Data" sub-folder of the path where your Cumulus.exe is installed. See [[FAQ#I_can.E2.80.99t_find_my_data_files.21| FAQ on location of data log files]] for where else to look. | The files '''today.ini''' and '''[[yesterday.ini]]''' are used by Cumulus to store some counts, plus the Highs and Lows (and their timestamps) for key parameters as reached on each of the two days, for Cumulus 1 these are source for figures that appear on the main screen, for Cumulus 2 and 3(MX) they appear on the dashboard you can view. These files are normally located in the "Data" sub-folder of the path where your Cumulus.exe is installed. See [[FAQ#I_can.E2.80.99t_find_my_data_files.21| FAQ on location of data log files]] for where else to look. | ||
= Format of the file = | |||
This is as described at [[:Category:Ini_Files]], where some differences between the legacy Cumulus and MX are noted. For '''today.ini''', it is important to be aware that MX can read a file created by Cumulus 1 (MX can read the time format in the value for '''Timestamp=''' parameter whether it is in Cumulus 1 or MX format), but Cumulus 1 cannot read a file that has been updated by MX. MX adds sections '''[FeelsLike]''' and '''[Records]''' that Cumulus 1 does not recognise, and MX changes the time format in the value for '''Timestamp=''' parameter so that Cumulus 1 cannot understand it. | |||
The today.ini contains a number of sections, also headed with something in square brackets [], then a number of parameters in format "attribute=value". | |||
The sections (after the first [General]) can be in any order, Cumulus will maintain whatever order the sections are currently in. For readability you can insert blank lines into this file, Cumulus will not mind. Do not however introduce any punctuation nor change the format of any parameter line. Remember Cumulus needs to read and update this log file throughout the day, so do not attempt to edit it while Cumulus is running, as that could conflict with an edit by Cumulus. | The sections (after the first [General]) can be in any order, Cumulus will maintain whatever order the sections are currently in. For readability you can insert blank lines into this file, Cumulus will not mind. Do not however introduce any punctuation nor change the format of any parameter line. Remember Cumulus needs to read and update this log file throughout the day, so do not attempt to edit it while Cumulus is running, as that could conflict with an edit by Cumulus. | ||
* The [General] section stores current date and time. | |||
* The [Wind} section stores the highest wind speed and highest gust, it holds the sum of wind speeds as wind run, and details for the dominant wind. | |||
* The [Temp], or temperature, section stores the highest and lowest temperature, the sum of all temperatures from every minute (Total), and the number of Samples in that total, the Cumulative Chill Hours in the season, and the cumulative Heating and Cooling Degree Days for the current day. | |||
* The [Pressure], [Humidity], [AppTemp], or apparent temperature, and [Dewpoint] sections just hold Highs and Lows. | |||
* The [WindChill] section only holds lowest, the [HeatIndex] section only has highest. | |||
* The [Rain] section holds a lot of different parameters, including the Start count that derives most rain outputs, and the LastTip date-time. | |||
Other sections always present are [ET], [Solar], and [FineOffset] whether these are updated depends on whether your weather station supplies the necessary information. | |||
All the | All today.ini also have [NOAA] which will only be populated if you have set up NOAA reports, once you have enabled NOAA reporting, this section shows the file names of the latest monthly and yearly reports. | ||
== Differences between Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX == | |||
All the sections listed above are found in both flavours of the software, and ap[art from time-stamps the contents are identically formatted. | |||
Please see the examples later on this page for more information about time-stamp formats, as it varies depending on weather station type as well as Cumulus flavour. | |||
MX adds an additional section '''[Records]''' that contains entries denoting when extreme records were last revised. For example "Alltime=2020-03-06T06:42:13", indicates when the all-time extreme records was last updated. In the example file, there were various extreme records broken at that time on 6 March (lowest temperature, lowest apparent temperature, and greatest wind chill), but none have been broken since. | MX adds an additional section '''[Records]''' that contains entries denoting when extreme records were last revised. For example "Alltime=2020-03-06T06:42:13", indicates when the all-time extreme records was last updated. In the example file, there were various extreme records broken at that time on 6 March (lowest temperature, lowest apparent temperature, and greatest wind chill), but none have been broken since. | ||
MX adds another new section '''[Feels like]''' which stores highest and lowest feel like temperatures (and time-stamps) for the day. | |||
=== Changes to this file at particular releases === | === Changes to this file at particular releases === | ||
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**New: Added (to [Temp]) GrowingDegreeDaysThisYear1=, and GrowingDegreeDaysThisYear2=. | **New: Added (to [Temp]) GrowingDegreeDaysThisYear1=, and GrowingDegreeDaysThisYear2=. | ||
*3.7.0 - build 3089 (released on 28 July 2020) | *3.7.0 - build 3089 (released on 28 July 2020) | ||
**Canadian Humidity Index (Humidex) added for highest extreme | **Canadian Humidity Index (Humidex) added for highest extreme monitoring in today.ini (and other longer period extreme log files) | ||
*Release 3.6.6 build 3082 (released on 1 June 2020) | *Release 3.6.6 build 3082 (released on 1 June 2020) | ||
**Values in the file had been stored (in all previous builds) using 15 decimal places (because of difficulty in representing decimal parts of numbers in binary), from this release revised so all values stored using 17 significant figures | **Values in the file had been stored (in all previous builds) using 15 decimal places (because of difficulty in representing decimal parts of numbers in binary), from this release revised so all values stored using 17 significant figures | ||
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** added '''Feels Like''' to daily high and low extremes monitored in today.ini (and other longer period extreme log files) | ** added '''Feels Like''' to daily high and low extremes monitored in today.ini (and other longer period extreme log files) | ||
*From version 1.9.4 build 1089 to release 3.10.5 build 3122 | *From version 1.9.4 build 1089 to release 3.10.5 build 3122 | ||
** The '''today.ini''' stored in the daily backup contains the position as at start of day (or in MX releases, up to one UPDATE interval later), so it does not contain any information (except Cumulative Chill Hours) that relates to day that has just ended. | ** The '''today.ini''' stored in the daily backup contains the position as at '''start of day''' (or in specified older MX releases, up to one UPDATE interval later), so it does not contain any information (except Cumulative Chill Hours) that relates to day that has just ended. | ||
*Up to version 1.9.4 build 1088 (released 28 Jan 2014) | *Up to version 1.9.4 build 1088 (released 28 Jan 2014) | ||
**The '''today.ini''' stored in the ''cumulus\backup\daily\FOLDER_NAME'' ((where FOLDER_NAME is based on date and time of creation) represented the end of day (including on last day of month) extremes | **The '''today.ini''' stored in the ''cumulus\backup\daily\FOLDER_NAME'' ((where FOLDER_NAME is based on date and time of creation) represented the end of day (including on last day of month) extremes | ||
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**Only dealt with current conditions handling, there was no tracking of daily extremes | **Only dealt with current conditions handling, there was no tracking of daily extremes | ||
=== When Cumulus is running | =General information= | ||
The highs and lows, as held in memory while Cumulus is running, are constantly re-written to ''today.ini''. At the end of a day [either midnight, or 9am (or 10am) depending on your configuration and season], the final values and timestamps written to today.ini file are rolled-over. Many are written as a new line appended onto [[dayfile.txt]] and most become values and timestamps in yesterday.ini; then a new today.ini is created. The three files have a few differences in content, so rolling-over does involve a little editing work, for example the 'Total' and 'Samples' values in today.ini become the single 'AvgTemp' in yesterday.ini and dayfile.txt; another example is the multiple lines in the [General] section of today.ini shrink to just one item in yesterday.ini (Date) and one item in dayfile.txt (abbreviated date). When Cumulus is left running, a daily backup of all the files is created as part of this rollover in a subfolder 'daily' of the backup folder. Equally, if you close Cumulus during the day it will write the final values for highs and lows and their timestamps to today.ini as part of the close down process. | |||
== Important Note== | |||
<div style="background: LemonChiffon;padding:5px; margin:2px;"> | |||
[[File:Crystal Clear info.png|40px]] This page was written for the (legacy) Cumulus 1 software. It has been partially updated to cover MX, but that was for a MX release that is no longer latest! | |||
Please can a contributor update content, so it is more friendly for those using latest release, while still helping those using older MX releases and the legacy Cumulus software. | |||
</div> | |||
== When Cumulus is running == | |||
The highs and lows, as held in memory while Cumulus is running, are constantly re-written to ''today.ini''. | |||
At the end of a day [either midnight, or 9am (or 10am) depending on your configuration and season], the final values and timestamps written to today.ini file are rolled-over. Many are written as a new line appended onto [[dayfile.txt]] and most become values and timestamps in yesterday.ini; then a new today.ini is created. The three files have a few differences in content, so rolling-over does involve a little editing work, for example the 'Total' and 'Samples' values in today.ini become the single 'AvgTemp' in yesterday.ini and dayfile.txt; another example is the multiple lines in the [General] section of today.ini shrink to just one item in yesterday.ini (Date) and one item in dayfile.txt (abbreviated date). When Cumulus is left running, a daily backup of all the files is created as part of this rollover in a subfolder 'daily' of the backup folder. Equally, if you close Cumulus during the day it will write the final values for highs and lows and their timestamps to today.ini as part of the close down process. | |||
== Restart and Catch-up == | |||
If you restart Cumulus during the day it will read the ''today.ini'' file at startup, so it can resume tracking extremes of the key parameters starting from latest stored values in today.ini. On restart it also writes a backup of today.ini (and some of the other | If you restart Cumulus during the day it will read the ''today.ini'' file at startup, so it can resume tracking extremes of the key parameters starting from latest stored values in today.ini. On restart it also writes a backup of today.ini (and some of the other Cumulus files) into the sub folder 'backup' below the folder with the cumulus.exe. Because Cumulus software does it changes first in an internally stored area before writing out to today.ini, if you try to edit today.ini while Cumulus is running, you may find your edit is lost next time Cumulus itself outputs an updated file, even if your edit is not lost, you may lose a Cumulus edit by saving your own edited version to overwrite the Cumulus edit. So never edit without stopping Cumulus first. (yesterday.ini is created at rollover and then not updated, so that file can be edited while Cumulus is running provided you are several minutes away from rollover time). | ||
If your weather station type supports it, while Cumulus is doing a catch-up, after being restarted, ''today.ini'' will be updated with revised highs and lows as it processes the station's memory; and if necessary it will do a roll-over as it processes the readings for the relevant time (this roll-over process takes a bit longer to create the daily backup than that when Cumulus is left running). As explained on support forum, there can be problems if Cumulus is started/stopped just before or just after (i.e. close to) its roll-over time, the problems were worse for earlier versions of Cumulus 1, but have been reduced in newer builds of C1 and therefore for MX. You should not start or stop it within whatever time you have set as interval between logs. | If your weather station type supports it, while Cumulus is doing a catch-up, after being restarted, ''today.ini'' will be updated with revised highs and lows as it processes the station's memory; and if necessary it will do a roll-over as it processes the readings for the relevant time (this roll-over process takes a bit longer to create the daily backup than that when Cumulus is left running). As explained on support forum, there can be problems if Cumulus is started/stopped just before or just after (i.e. close to) its roll-over time, the problems were worse for earlier versions of Cumulus 1, but have been reduced in newer builds of C1 and therefore for MX. You should not start or stop it within whatever time you have set as interval between logs. | ||
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[[Cumulus.ini_(Cumulus_1)#Section:_NOAA | NOAA]]. | [[Cumulus.ini_(Cumulus_1)#Section:_NOAA | NOAA]]. | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Ini Files]] | ||
