connection stalls in CuteChess

[tissatussa]

a few times i used HeadsUp to play engine-vs-engine in CuteChess (on Linux) .. HeadsUp seems to work fine, but once stopped with a "White's connection stalls" message .. see game PGN and log below. Could some extra / other settings be needed ? I use a simple cfg.

NOTE: the CuteChess comment of the last move shows the other engine took 108 sec to return its best move Re7 and this is the longest thinking time in this game : was HeadsUp still idle to receive UCI commands ? btw. in the Python code i see a simple infinite "while True" construction .. is this a common / robust way ?

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2021.08.01"]
[Round "?"]
[White "HeadsUp"]
[Black "SF asmFish"]
[Result "0-1"]
[FEN "2rqr1k1/pp1bbp1p/4p1pB/4P3/1Q1pN3/P4N2/5PP1/3RR1K1 b - - 0 2"]
[GameDuration "00:13:50"]
[PlyCount "39"]
[SetUp "1"]
[Termination "stalled connection"]
[TimeControl "720+5"]

1... Bxb4 {+2.38/30 23s} 2. axb4 {+0.01/39 86s} f5 {+0.13/35 0s}
3. Nf6+ {-0.02/41 35s} Kh8 {0.00/37 4.6s} 4. Rxd4 {+0.01/40 21s}
Re7 {0.00/37 0s} 5. Red1 {+0.01/44 61s} Rc7 {-0.15/39 0s} 6. b5 {0.00/41 23s}
b6 {0.00/33 9.9s} 7. Ng5 {+0.01/39 22s} Qc8 {-0.97/33 26s} 8. Kh2
Rb7 {-1.11/34 52s} 9. Kg1 {1.0s} Rc7 {-1.10/34 21s} 10. Rd6 {/40 1.1s}
Rb7 {-1.30/35 41s} 11. R6d2 {/44 5.1s} Rc7 {-1.62/30 20s}
12. Rd4 {+3.11/30 7.3s} Rb7 {-1.09/30 7.8s} 13. Kh2 {+3.51/31 5.4s}
Rc7 {-1.65/36 61s} 14. f4 {+4.01/40 0.77s} Qd8 {-2.78/39 63s}
15. Nxe6 {+4.99/42 2.9s} Rxe6 {-3.45/40 16s} 16. Rxd7 {+5.07/39 5.5s}
Rxd7 {-3.80/40 22s} 17. Rxd7 {+5.15/40 0.80s} Qxd7 {-3.12/40 14s}
18. Nxd7 {+5.23/38 9.4s} Kg8 {-4.07/39 10s} 19. Nf6+ {+5.30/35 4.5s}
Kf7 {-4.10/41 14s} 20. Nxh7 {+5.31/37 9.7s}
Re7 {-4.56/44 108s, White's connection stalls} 0-1

log_headsup.zip

[fsmosca]

According to the log the engine received position command, but did not received go command. There are still more time left, so something is wrong with the engine-cutechess communication. Do you have the cutechess log? Does it happen when ponder is off?

The move Re7 is done by SF asmFish it has nothing to do with HeadsUp. I believe while True is fine.

[tissatussa]

i have no cutechess log, the pgn is my only cutechess output .. i searched the cutechess install folder for any newly touched file with "log" or "debug" in its name .. and i don't see a way to set logging ON in cutechess ? (did i ever see a log file of my cutechess?) I find https://gist.github.com/zz4032/7af71a696cb2a0f2bc6116a3d27cb0bb as some cutechess debug log, but where on my Linux can i find such file ?

yes, i use ponder .. i almost never have problems with cutechess with the many different engines i use .. exception is Ethereal, many versions : it often breaks the connection, most of the time at the end of the game, when its lost (!?) .. I can try with ponder OFF but i don't want to wait until a connection DOES stall then ..

is there a next step ? is there a problem anyhow ? when it sometimes occurs, suddenly, it can hardly be tested ? Indeed a good log file would help ..

thanks for the other info.

[tissatussa]

We're lucky : i just did another game in cutechess against the same engine and now the error occurs very quickly .. i saved the debug log text from its window pane (should THAT be the only way in cutechess?) .. what do you say ?

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2021.08.01"]
[Round "?"]
[White "HeadsUp"]
[Black "Andscacs v0.95-123"]
[Result "0-1"]
[FEN "3qr2k/pp1b1p1p/4pNpB/4P3/1PrpR3/5N2/5PP1/3R2K1 b - - 0 3"]
[GameDuration "00:04:28"]
[PlyCount "5"]
[SetUp "1"]
[Termination "stalled connection"]
[TimeControl "720+5"]

1... Ba4 {+1.27/26 57s} 2. Ng5 {+0.01/40 91s} Qc7 {+0.57/30 57s} 3. Rh4 {9.2s}
a6 {+0.01/30 40s, White's connection stalls} 0-1

conn_stalls_andscacs.zip

[tissatussa]

and here's my cfg file .. the SF binary is a newly compiled version 14 with default NNUE, also Berserk .. should i set more options ? btw. i'm now testing with ponder OFF ..

headsup.cfg.zip

[fsmosca]

Cutechess GUI only shows log in view->engine debug.

I see the log on conn_stalls_andscacs.zip. It does not say HeadsUp stalled or White stalled. Which version of Cutechess did you use?

Another way to test is by using cutechess-cli. Here you can save the cutechess log in a file. Also save the HeadsUp log file. Lets see them.

Note I have not tested this in Linux, only tested this in Windows.

[tissatussa]

Cute Chess 1.2.0 Using Qt version 5.12.8 Running on Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS/x86_64

must be the latest (stable) version .. i know the -cli version exists but i never used it .. what's wrong with the debug log of the GUI ? I think it will be the same as a -cli log ? Can we be sure a stalled message is UCI output by the engine ? Is that normal / optional ?

[fsmosca]

In cutechess-cli log, it should mention the stalled message.