production¶
Commands to manipulate Soar rules and analyze their usage.
Synopsis¶
Summary Screen¶
Using the production command without any arguments will display a summary of
how many rules are loaded into memory:
production break¶
Toggles the :interrupt flag on a rule at run-time, which stops the Soar
decision cycle when the rule fires. The break command can be used to toggle
the :interrupt flag on production rules which did not have it set in the
original source file, which stops the Soar decision cycle when the rule fires.
This is intended to be used for debugging purposes.
Synopsis Break¶
Options¶
| Parameter | Argument | Description |
|---|---|---|
-c, --clear |
<production-name> | Clear :interrupt flag from a production. |
-p, --print |
(none) | Print which production rules have had their :interrupt flags set. |
| (none) | (none) | Print which production rules have had their :interrupt flags set. |
-s, --set |
<production-name> | Set :interrupt flag on a production rule. |
| (none) | <production-name> | Set flag :interrupt on a production rule. |
production excise¶
This command removes productions from Soar's memory. The command must be called with either a specific production name or with a flag that indicates a particular group of productions to be removed.
Note: As of Soar 9.6, using the flag -a or --all no longer causes a soar init.
Synopsis Excise¶
Options¶
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-a, --all |
Remove all productions from memory and perform an init-soar command |
-c, --chunks |
Remove all chunks (learned productions) and justifications from memory |
-d, --default |
Remove all default productions (:default) from memory |
-n, --never-fired |
Excise rules that have a firing count of 0 |
-r, --rl |
Excise Soar-RL rules |
-t, --task |
Remove chunks, justifications, and user productions from memory |
-T, --templates |
Excise Soar-RL templates |
-u, --user |
Remove all user productions (but not chunks or default rules) from memory |
production_name |
Remove the specific production with this name. |
Examples¶
This command removes the production my*first*production and all chunks:
This removes all productions:
production find¶
Find productions by condition or action patterns.
Synopsis¶
Options¶
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-c, --chunks |
Look only for chunks that match the pattern. |
-l, --lhs |
Match pattern only against the conditions (left-hand side) of productions (default). |
-n, --nochunks |
Disregard chunks when looking for the pattern. |
-r, --rhs |
Match pattern against the actions (right-hand side) of productions. |
-s, --show-bindings |
Show the bindings associated with a wildcard pattern. |
pattern |
Any pattern that can appear in productions. |
Description¶
The production find command is used to find productions in production memory
that include conditions or actions that match a given pattern. The pattern
given specifies one or more condition elements on the left hand side of
productions (or negated conditions), or one or more actions on the right-hand
side of productions. Any pattern that can appear in productions can be used in
this command. In addition, the asterisk symbol, *, can be used as a wildcard
for an attribute or value. It is important to note that the whole pattern,
including the parenthesis, must be enclosed in curly braces for it to be parsed
properly.
The variable names used in a call to production find do not have to match the variable names used in the productions being retrieved.
The production find command can also be restricted to apply to only certain
types of productions, or to look only at the conditions or only at the actions
of productions by using the flags.
Production Find Examples¶
Find productions that test that some object gumby has an attribute alive
with value t. In addition, limit the rules to only those that test an operator
named foo:
Note that in the above command, <state> does not have to match the exact
variable name used in the production.
Find productions that propose the operator foo:
Find chunks that test the attribute ^pokey:
Examples using the water-jugs demo:
production firing-counts¶
Print the number of times productions have fired.
Synopsis¶
Options¶
If given, an option can take one of two forms -- an integer or a production name:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
n |
List the top n productions. If n is 0, only the productions which haven't fired are listed |
production_name |
Print how many times a specific production has fired |
-a, --all |
Print how many times all productions have fired (the default) |
-f, --fired |
Prints only rules that have fired |
-c, --chunks |
Print how many times chunks (learned rules) fired |
-j, --justifications |
Print how many times justifications fired |
-d, --default |
Print how many times default productions (:default) fired |
-r, --rl |
Print how many times Soar-RL rules fired |
-T, --templates |
Print how many times Soar-RL templates fired |
-u, --user |
Print how many times user productions (but not chunks or default rules) fired |
Description¶
The production firing-counts command prints the number of times each
production has fired; production names are given from most frequently fired to
least frequently fired. With no arguments, it lists all productions. If an
integer argument, n, is given, only the top n productions are listed. If n
is zero (0), only the productions that haven't fired at all are listed. If
--fired is used, the opposite happens. Only rules that have fired are listed. If
a production name is given as an argument, the firing count for that production
is printed.
Note that firing counts are reset by a call to [soar init] (cmd_soar).
Examples¶
This example prints the 10 productions which have fired the most times along with their firing counts:
This example prints the firing counts of production my*first*production:
This example prints all rules that have fired at least once:
production matches¶
The production matches command prints a list of productions that have
instantiations in the match set, i.e., those productions that will retract or
fire in the next propose or apply phase. It also will print partial match
information for a single, named production.
Synopsis¶
Options¶
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
production_name |
Print partial match information for the named production. |
-n, --names, -c, --count |
For the match set, print only the names of the productions that are about to fire or retract (the default). If printing partial matches for a production, just list the partial match counts. |
-t, --timetags |
Also print the timetags of the wmes at the first failing condition |
-w, --wmes |
Also print the full wmes, not just the timetags, at the first failing condition. |
-a, --assertions |
List only productions about to fire. |
-r, --retractions |
List only productions about to retract. |
Printing the match set¶
When printing the match set (i.e., no production name is specified), the default
action prints only the names of the productions which are about to fire or
retract. If there are multiple instantiations of a production, the total number
of instantiations of that production is printed after the production name,
unless --timetags or --wmes are specified, in which case each instantiation
is printed on a separate line.
When printing the match set, the --assertions and --retractions arguments
can be specified to restrict the output to print only the assertions or
retractions.
Printing partial matches for productions¶
In addition to printing the current match set, the matches command can be used
to print information about partial matches for a named production. In this case,
the conditions of the production are listed, each preceded by the number of
currently active matches for that condition. If a condition is negated, it is
preceded by a minus sign -. The pointer >>>> before a condition indicates
that this is the first condition that failed to match.
When printing partial matches, the default action is to print only the counts of
the number of WME's that match, and is a handy tool for determining which
condition failed to match for a production that you thought should have fired.
At levels --timetags and --wmes the matches command displays the WME's
immediately after the first condition that failed to match -- temporarily
interrupting the printing of the production conditions themselves.
Notes¶
When printing partial match information, some of the matches displayed by this command may have already fired, depending on when in the execution cycle this command is called. To check for the matches that are about to fire, use the matches command without a named production.
In Soar 8, the execution cycle (decision cycle) is input, propose, decide, apply
output; it no longer stops for user input after the decision phase when
running by decision cycles (run -d 1). If a user wishes to
print the match set immediately after the decision phase and before the apply
phase, then the user must run Soar by phases (run -p 1).
Examples¶
This example prints the productions which are about to fire and the WMEs that match the productions on their left-hand sides:
This example prints the WME timetags for a single production.
production memory-usage¶
Print memory usage for partial matches.
Synopsis¶
Options¶
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-c, --chunks |
Print memory usage of chunks. |
-d, --default |
Print memory usage of default productions. |
-j, --justifications |
Print memory usage of justifications. |
-u, --user |
Print memory usage of user-defined productions. |
production_name |
Print memory usage for a specific production. |
number |
Number of productions to print, sorted by those that use the most memory. |
-T, --template |
Print memory usage of Soar-RL templates. |
Description¶
The memory-usage command prints out the internal memory usage for full and
partial matches of production instantiations, with the productions using the
most memory printed first. With no arguments, the memory-usage command prints
memory usage for all productions. If a production_name is specified, memory
usage will be printed only for that production. If a positive integer number
is given, only number productions will be printed: the number productions
that use the most memory. Output may be restricted to print memory usage for
particular types of productions using the command options.
Memory usage is recorded according to the tokens that are allocated in the Rete network for the given production(s). This number is a function of the number of elements in working memory that match each production. Therefore, this command will not provide useful information at the beginning of a Soar run (when working memory is empty) and should be called in the middle (or at the end) of a Soar run.
The memory-usage command is used to find the productions that are using the
most memory and, therefore, may be taking the longest time to match (this is
only a heuristic). By identifying these productions, you may be able to rewrite
your program so that it will run more quickly. Note that memory usage is just a
heuristic measure of the match time: A production might not use much memory
relative to others but may still be time-consuming to match, and excising a
production that uses a large number of tokens may not speed up your program,
because the Rete matcher shares common structure among different productions.
As a rule of thumb, numbers less than 100 mean that the production is using a small amount of memory, numbers above 1000 mean that the production is using a large amount of memory, and numbers above 10,000 mean that the production is using a very large amount of memory.
production optimize-attribute¶
Declare a symbol to be multi-attributed so that conditions in productions that test that attribute are re-ordered so that the rule can be matched more efficiently.
Synopsis¶
Options¶
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
symbol |
Any Soar attribute. |
n |
Integer greater than 1, estimate of degree of simultaneous values for attribute. |
Description¶
This command is used to improve efficiency of matching against attributes that can have multiple values at once.
If you know that a certain attribute will take on multiple values,
optimize-attribute can be used to provide hints to the production condition
reorderer so that it can produce better orderings that allow the Rete network to
match faster. This command has no effect on the actual contents of working
memory and is only used to improve efficiency in problematic situations.
optimize-attribute declares a symbol to be an attribute which can take on
multiple values. The optional n is an integer (greater than 1) indicating an
upper limit on the number of expected values that will appear for an attribute.
If n is not specified, the value 10 is used for each declared multi-attribute.
More informed values will tend to result in greater efficiency.
Note that optimize-attribute declarations must be made before productions are
loaded into soar or this command will have no effect.
Example¶
Declare the symbol "thing" to be an attribute likely to take more than 1 but no more than 4 values:
production watch¶
Trace firings and retractions of specific productions.
Synopsis¶
Options¶
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-d, --disable, --off |
Turn production watching off for the specified production. If no production is specified, turn production watching off for all productions. |
-e, --enable, --on |
Turn production watching on for the specified production. The use of this flag is optional, so this is watch's default behavior. If no production is specified, all productions currently being watched are listed. |
production name |
The name of the production to watch. |
Description¶
The production watch command enables and disables the tracing of the firings
and retractions of individual productions. This is a companion command to
trace, which cannot specify individual productions by name.
With no arguments, production watch lists the productions currently being
traced. With one production-name argument, production watch enables tracing the
production; --enable can be explicitly stated, but it is the default action.
If --disable is specified followed by a production-name, tracing is turned off
for the production. When no production-name is specified, --enable lists all
productions currently being traced, and --disable disables tracing of all
productions.
Note that production watch now only takes one production per command. Use
multiple times to watch multiple functions.