UCI code

[Michel]

which seems like a much simpler setup than polyglot+xboard

You are exagerating. Zillions of UCI engines work without any problems with xboard (which uses PG internally). The problem in this case is likely a minor one which should be quickly resolved by inspecting the PG logfile.

[hgm]

you are right, my engine doesn't send any options. it just says it's name (id name and id author) and then it says uciok.

That it says uciok does not necessarily mean thet the GUI receives it. Are you sure you flush stdout after uciok?

The only way to get the behavior you describe is when Polyglot does not receive the uciok, and isstill waiting for it (or for options). As soon as it gets uciok it would send its own options and feature done=1 to XBoard, and the Engine Settings dialog would be full of Polyglot options...

At least, if you are not using an extremely obsolete Polyglot.

Btw, the easiest way to test if your engine works properly is to run UCI2WB from the command line with the engine. E.g.

./UCI2WB ENGINEBINARY

Then type protover, and you will see in real time what the engine responds to that, as UCI2WB prints everything it receives from the engine as a WB debug line. That is much easier than post-mortem interpretation of log files. E.g. for Fruit:

Code: Select all

$ ./UCI2WB C:/WinBoard-4.5-TM/Fruit/fruit_21.exe
# engine said: Fruit 2.1 UCI by Fabien Letouzey
protover
feature variants="normal,xiangqi" setboard=1 usermove=1 debug=1 reuse=0 done=0
# engine said: id name Fruit 2.1
feature myname="Fruit (UCI2WB)"
# engine said: id author Fabien Letouzey
# engine said: option name Hash type spin default 16 min 4 max 1024
# engine said: option name Ponder type check default false
feature option="Ponder -check 0"
# engine said: option name OwnBook type check default true
feature option="OwnBook -check 1"
# engine said: option name BookFile type string default book_small.bin
feature option="BookFile -string book_small.bin"
# engine said: option name NullMove Pruning type combo default Fail High var Alw
ays var Fail High var Never
feature option="NullMove Pruning -combo Always /// Fail /// Never"
# engine said: option name NullMove Reduction type spin default 3 min 1 max 3
feature option="NullMove Reduction -spin 3 1 3"
# engine said: option name Verification Search type combo default Endgame var Al
ways var Endgame var Never
feature option="Verification Search -combo Always /// Endgame /// Never"
# engine said: option name Verification Reduction type spin default 5 min 1 max
6
feature option="Verification Reduction -spin 5 1 6"
# engine said: option name History Pruning type check default true
feature option="History Pruning -check 1"
# engine said: option name History Threshold type spin default 60 min 0 max 100
feature option="History Threshold -spin 60 0 100"
# engine said: option name Futility Pruning type check default false
feature option="Futility Pruning -check 0"
# engine said: option name Futility Margin type spin default 100 min 0 max 500
feature option="Futility Margin -spin 100 0 500"
# engine said: option name Delta Pruning type check default false
feature option="Delta Pruning -check 0"
# engine said: option name Delta Margin type spin default 50 min 0 max 500
feature option="Delta Margin -spin 50 0 500"
# engine said: option name Quiescence Check Plies type spin default 1 min 0 max
2
feature option="Quiescence Check Plies -spin 1 0 2"
# engine said: option name Material type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="Material -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: option name Piece Activity type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="Piece Activity -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: option name King Safety type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="King Safety -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: option name Pawn Structure type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="Pawn Structure -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: option name Passed Pawns type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="Passed Pawns -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: uciok
feature smp=1 memory=1 done=1

[Sven]

Are you sure you flush stdout after uciok?

Due to turning off output buffering with that line:

Code: Select all

   setvbuf(stdout,NULL,_IONBF,0); 

in function main_loop() it is quite unlikely (i.e. almost impossible) that lines written to stdout by his engine are not flushed. He also uses puts() which implicitly adds a newline character at the end. So his C code looks quite plausible for me.

@Lucas: could you post your polyglot.ini file?

Sven

[lucasart]

Are you sure you flush stdout after uciok?

Due to turning off output buffering with that line:

Code: Select all

   setvbuf(stdout,NULL,_IONBF,0); 

in function main_loop() it is quite unlikely (i.e. almost impossible) that lines written to stdout by his engine are not flushed. He also uses puts() which implicitly adds a newline character at the end. So his C code looks quite plausible for me.

@Lucas: could you post your polyglot.ini file?

Sven

I don't even know where the polyglot.ini file would be. Nor how to build one. I am now using cutechess-cli, and it confirms the problemn:

Code: Select all

lucas@lucas-desktop:~$ cutechess-cli -both proto=uci cmd=./DoubleCheck tc=1+0.1
Started game 1 of 1 
Warning: Cannot start engine "./DoubleCheck" 
Finished match 

However, here's an example session, where I type manually the uci commands

Code: Select all

uci
id name BibiChess
id author Lucas Braesch
uciok
isready
readyok
ucinewgame
position startpos moves e2e4
isready
readyok
go btime 10 binc 10
(...a lot of info lines, for each depth * nb of root moves searched...)
info bestmove g8f6

and yes, I was careful about making sure everything is flushed. my setvbuf shouldn't be necessary as I always append a \n in printf or use puts.
the -debug command in cutechess-cli produces nothing, since it fails immediately before loading the engine

[lucasart]

EUREKA !!

I looked at Fruit, and did exactly the same as Fabien:
* the setvbuf just in case
* use fprintf(stdout,...) instead of puts

It is *not logical at all*, but that actually works !

[lucasart]

EUREKA !!

I looked at Fruit, and did exactly the same as Fabien:
* the setvbuf just in case
* use fprintf(stdout,...) instead of puts

It is *not logical at all*, but that actually works !

by the way cutechess-cli is simply awesome. with the debug command and pgnout command i can see straight away what is happenning

[lucasart]

EUREKA !!

I looked at Fruit, and did exactly the same as Fabien:
* the setvbuf just in case
* use fprintf(stdout,...) instead of puts

It is *not logical at all*, but that actually works !

by the way cutechess-cli is simply awesome. with the debug command and pgnout command i can see straight away what is happenning

I'm going to test it a little and see some pathetic games of my engine playing itself now

[lucasart]

you are right, my engine doesn't send any options. it just says it's name (id name and id author) and then it says uciok.

That it says uciok does not necessarily mean thet the GUI receives it. Are you sure you flush stdout after uciok?

The only way to get the behavior you describe is when Polyglot does not receive the uciok, and isstill waiting for it (or for options). As soon as it gets uciok it would send its own options and feature done=1 to XBoard, and the Engine Settings dialog would be full of Polyglot options...

At least, if you are not using an extremely obsolete Polyglot.

Btw, the easiest way to test if your engine works properly is to run UCI2WB from the command line with the engine. E.g.

./UCI2WB ENGINEBINARY

Then type protover, and you will see in real time what the engine responds to that, as UCI2WB prints everything it receives from the engine as a WB debug line. That is much easier than post-mortem interpretation of log files. E.g. for Fruit:

Code: Select all

$ ./UCI2WB C:/WinBoard-4.5-TM/Fruit/fruit_21.exe
# engine said: Fruit 2.1 UCI by Fabien Letouzey
protover
feature variants="normal,xiangqi" setboard=1 usermove=1 debug=1 reuse=0 done=0
# engine said: id name Fruit 2.1
feature myname="Fruit (UCI2WB)"
# engine said: id author Fabien Letouzey
# engine said: option name Hash type spin default 16 min 4 max 1024
# engine said: option name Ponder type check default false
feature option="Ponder -check 0"
# engine said: option name OwnBook type check default true
feature option="OwnBook -check 1"
# engine said: option name BookFile type string default book_small.bin
feature option="BookFile -string book_small.bin"
# engine said: option name NullMove Pruning type combo default Fail High var Alw
ays var Fail High var Never
feature option="NullMove Pruning -combo Always /// Fail /// Never"
# engine said: option name NullMove Reduction type spin default 3 min 1 max 3
feature option="NullMove Reduction -spin 3 1 3"
# engine said: option name Verification Search type combo default Endgame var Al
ways var Endgame var Never
feature option="Verification Search -combo Always /// Endgame /// Never"
# engine said: option name Verification Reduction type spin default 5 min 1 max
6
feature option="Verification Reduction -spin 5 1 6"
# engine said: option name History Pruning type check default true
feature option="History Pruning -check 1"
# engine said: option name History Threshold type spin default 60 min 0 max 100
feature option="History Threshold -spin 60 0 100"
# engine said: option name Futility Pruning type check default false
feature option="Futility Pruning -check 0"
# engine said: option name Futility Margin type spin default 100 min 0 max 500
feature option="Futility Margin -spin 100 0 500"
# engine said: option name Delta Pruning type check default false
feature option="Delta Pruning -check 0"
# engine said: option name Delta Margin type spin default 50 min 0 max 500
feature option="Delta Margin -spin 50 0 500"
# engine said: option name Quiescence Check Plies type spin default 1 min 0 max
2
feature option="Quiescence Check Plies -spin 1 0 2"
# engine said: option name Material type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="Material -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: option name Piece Activity type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="Piece Activity -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: option name King Safety type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="King Safety -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: option name Pawn Structure type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="Pawn Structure -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: option name Passed Pawns type spin default 100 min 0 max 400
feature option="Passed Pawns -spin 100 0 400"
# engine said: uciok
feature smp=1 memory=1 done=1

So, yes, you are right. It does send uciok but Polyglot does not recieve it. This is very strange, but "puts" seems to flush (append a \n) when using in normal console mode and typing the comande, but not when it's being used by Polyglot or cutechess-cli (the two i've tested). Incredibly, fprintf(stdout,...) works but not puts.
If anyone has a clue why, I would be interested (out of curiosity)

[Michel]

Actually I thought puts was suspicious.

According to MSDN puts adds \n to the string.

However on windows the line terminator is \r\n

Polyglot (and presumable cutechess-cli) do line input (fgets).

So they never get to see a string terminated with only \n.

[hgm]

by the way cutechess-cli is simply awesome. with the debug command and pgnout command i can see straight away what is happenning

Well, as I said, UCI2WB already shows you that without giving it any commands. And when debugging, seeing what happens in practice is infinitely more important than what you think should happen in theory...

But none of it was actually needed, as xboard+polyglot already revealed from the very start that your engine did not flush the uciok.