FRED Exercises

3. THE run_fred COMMAND

Run FRED using the command

% run_fred -p params

This will create a directory called OUT and write some output files
there.  All FRED output files are plain text files. Use a text editor to
examine the files out1.txt and LOG1.  The file out1.txt contains a daily
report on the epidemic, incluidng the current values of several output
variables.  The file LOG1 contains log messages that show the progress
of FRED as it runs.  You can get a sense of the steps taken by FRED by
examining the LOG file. This file also contains any warnings or error
messages.

You can performed multiple runs of FRED using the same parameters. Each
run uses a different seed for the FRED random number generator,
providing different initial starting conditions for each epidemic.  For
example, the initial cases are selected at random from the population.
An example of multiple runs is as follows:

% run_fred -p params -n 5

The OUT directory now contians multiple out<n>.txt, one for each run.

You will not normally use run_fred directly; instead, you will use
fred_job (below) which uses run_fred and also creates additional files
that help you manage your work.  But it is a good idea to use run_fred
when initially developing or debugging models.  If you have errors,
check the LOG files.

NOTES: