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Tronotrond

Nov. 5, 2018 11:18:20

I'm trying to set up at working pipeline in a mixed environment, and the closest thing I can find to a good solution on absolute paths is the HOUDINI_PATHMAP.
I've set this up in the houdini.env to translate windows UNC paths to Linux mounted drives, but it doesn't seem to capture everything. Like sending a simulation job with output set to //server/share/file, the file cache seems to ignore the pathmap.

Intentional, bug? Or anyone got some advice here?
I do have a lot of variables defined to avoid absolute paths names, but it's so easy to miss one. I'm trying to make the setup that is a bit more fail-safe.

achtstudio

Feb. 11, 2019 03:45:16

I have a similar problem. We are using a mixed environment with Win10 workstations and a linux rendernode.
It seems like the HOUDINI_PATHMAP doesn't pick up all paths even when using fullpaths instead of $JOB or $HIP

Thinkbox Deadline support even suggested never using $JOB as according to them its not affected by HOUDINI_PATHMAP.

It would be great to know how to work with pathmapping in mixed environments in a streamlined way.
Using fullpaths on all nodes isn't really a clean thing.

Do we need a pre-submission script to get this to run?

pepemaracas

Dec. 9, 2019 18:17:17

Hey! Did anyone find a solution to this?

Cheers!

Tronotrond

Dec. 9, 2019 19:15:45

pepemaracas
Hey! Did anyone find a solution to this?

Cheers!

I have my solution working now, but I use a mix of tricks. I've set up my own variables ($ASSETS, $RND etc) on all computers in the Houdini.env file, mapping correctly on the local system.
Secondly, I added houdini_pathmap to the Linux Environment variables. That takes care of $JOB and most other variables.
Last I checked, it did not translate the output path in for example a Redshift ROP, and RS has it's own path mapping variables you can set up. It's a bit of a mess, so I just stick to my own $RND instead of relying on $JOB for render outputs.

Hope that helps!

Angel Fucaraccio

Dec. 10, 2019 04:30:35

Tronotrond
pepemaracas
Hey! Did anyone find a solution to this?

Cheers!
I have my solution working now, but I use a mix of tricks. I've set up my own variables ($ASSETS, $RND etc) on all computers in the Houdini.env file, mapping correctly on the local system.
Secondly, I added houdini_pathmap to the Linux Environment variables. That takes care of $JOB and most other variables.
Last I checked, it did not translate the output path in for example a Redshift ROP, and RS has it's own path mapping variables you can set up. It's a bit of a mess, so I just stick to my own $RND instead of relying on $JOB for render outputs.

Hope that helps!

Hi. Can you give tell me what variables you set in the windows 10 environment? If I understand correctly, you are adding variables in the system environment variables, right? If so, what variables are you adding?

Tronotrond

Dec. 10, 2019 09:56:11

Angel Fucaraccio
Tronotrond
pepemaracas
Hey! Did anyone find a solution to this?

Cheers!
I have my solution working now, but I use a mix of tricks. I've set up my own variables ($ASSETS, $RND etc) on all computers in the Houdini.env file, mapping correctly on the local system.
Secondly, I added houdini_pathmap to the Linux Environment variables. That takes care of $JOB and most other variables.
Last I checked, it did not translate the output path in for example a Redshift ROP, and RS has it's own path mapping variables you can set up. It's a bit of a mess, so I just stick to my own $RND instead of relying on $JOB for render outputs.

Hope that helps!

Hi. Can you give tell me what variables you set in the windows 10 environment? If I understand correctly, you are adding variables in the system environment variables, right? If so, what variables are you adding?

You add a new environment variable HOUDINI_PATHMAP
The content should be { “old_path1”: “new_path1”, “old_path2”: “new_path2” }

Here's a snipped from the help file. Now, I do see this is for the Linux Environment, and if it's the same as the houdini.env file, you might have to replace the colon with semi-colons. I would try both to see what works. I wish SideFX could clarify this one.

HOUDINI_PATHMAP

This string defines multiple mappings represented as a Python-style dictionary. Mappings can map one directory to another directory. The key is the directory to map and the value represents the destination directory. For example:

{ "c:/temp": "/tmp", "/mnt/render": "//storage/share/render" }