workload-automation/doc/source/changes.rst

=================================
What's New in Workload Automation
=================================

-------------
Version 3.0.0
-------------

WA3 is a more or less from-scratch re-write of WA2. We have attempted to
maintain configuration-level compatibility wherever possible (so WA2 agendas
*should* mostly work with WA3), however some breaks are likely and minor tweaks
may be needed.

It terms of the API, WA3 is completely different, and WA2 extensions **will not
work** with WA3 -- they would need to be ported into WA3 plugins.

For more information on migrating from WA2 to WA3 please see the
:ref:`migration-guide`.

Not all of WA2 extensions have been ported for the initial 3.0.0 release. We
have ported the ones we believe to be most widely used and useful. The porting
work will continue, and more of WA2's extensions will be in the future releases.
However, we do not intend to port absolutely everything, as some things we
believe to be no longer useful.

.. note:: If there a particular WA2 extension you would like to see in WA3 that
          is not yet there, please let us know via the GitHub issues. (And, of
          course, we always welcome pull requests, if you have the time to
          do the port yourselves :-) ).

New Features
~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Python 3 support. WA now runs on both Python 2 and Python 3.

  .. warning:: Python 2 support should now be considered deprecated. Python 2
               will still be fully supported up to the next major release
               (v3.1). After that, Python 2 will be supported for existing
               functionality, however there will be no guarantee that newly
               added functionality would be compatible with Python 2. Support
               for Python 2 will be dropped completely after release v3.2.

- There is a new Output API which can be used to aid in post processing a
  run's output. For more information please see :ref:`output_processing_api`.
- All "augmentations" can now be enabled on a per workload basis (in WA2 this
  was available for instruments, but not result processors).
- More portable runtime parameter specification. Runtime parameters now support
  generic aliases, so instead of specifying ``a73_frequency: 1805000`` in your
  agenda, and then having to modify this for another target, it is now possible
  to specify ``big_frequency: max``.
- ``-c`` option can now be used multiple times to specify several config files
  for a single run, allowing for a more fine-grained configuration management.
- It is now possible to disable all previously configured augmentations from an
  agenda using ``~~``.
- Offline output processing with ``wa process`` command. It is now possible to
  run processors on previously collected WA results, without the need for a
  target connection.
- A lot more metadata is collected as part of the run, including much more
  detailed information about the target, and MD5 hashes of all resources used
  during the run.
- Better ``show`` command. ``wa show`` command now utilizes ``pandoc`` and
  ``man`` to produce easier-to-browse documentation format, and has been
  enhanced to include documentation on general settings, runtime parameters, and
  plugin aliases.
- Better logging. The default ``stdout`` output is now more informative.
  The verbose output is much more detailed. Nested indentation is used for
  different phases of execution to make log output easier to parse visually.
- Full ``ChromeOS`` target support. Including support for the Android container
  apps.
- Implemented on top of devlib_. WA3 plugins can make use of devlib's enhanced
  target API (much richer and more robust than WA2's Device API).
- All-new documentation. The docs have been revamped to be more useful and
  complete.

.. _devlib: https://github.com/ARM-software/devlib

Changes
~~~~~~~

- Configuration files ``config.py`` are now specified in YAML format in
  ``config.yaml``. WA3 has support for automatic conversion of the default
  config file and will be performed upon first invocation of WA3.
- The "config" and "global" sections in an agenda are now interchangeable so can
  all be specified in a "config" section.
- "Results Processors" are now known as "Output Processors" and can now be ran
  offline.
- "Instrumentation" is now known as "Instruments" for more consistent naming.
- Both "Output Processor" and "Instrument" configuration have been merged into
  "Augmentations" (support for the old naming schemes have been retained for
  backwards compatibility)