Frequently Asked Questions

Huh? What is Folding@home?

Check out folding.stanford.edu, pick an unused username (see checker on downloads page), and consider joining team 1971 (TeamMacOSX). Everyone is welcome. And our forums are open to anyone, regardless of team.

Why use InCrease?

With InCrease, you can easily have folding start when your machine boots, and if you have a multi-processor Mac, multiple clients can run. You can start, stop, pause, and continue easily from InCrease or its Dock menu. You can automatically pause while on laptop battery power, or while select applications are running.

Do I have to install?

No. There is no explicit install. What remains is performed when you use Commands > Create Local Group.

How do I configure existing units?

How do I uninstall?

Use menu item Tools > Uninstall InCrease. This should remove everything except the InCrease app itself and any folding units found/created.

The scan didn't find my pre-existing folding units. How do I add them?

Easiest way is to browse, via Finder, to any one client.cfg in your existing setup, control-click, and Open With... -> InCrease (double click may also work). You can also select the menu item Groups -> Add Group..., browse to a client.cfg, and open it.

What if I'm already folding manually, or using some other controlling application?

If you are already using the command line to run multiple clients, InCrease can take control for you, provided that your folding directories are in the same parent directory and are numbered 1 thru 8. The directory number should match the client.cfg machineid. Just disable whatever other app or script you're using to start the clients. InCrease will not control units that it thinks might belong to another controlling application. Currently, this is determined by the unit path. The owner is assumed to be Stanford's gui if the path contains "Folding@home". The owner is assumed to be finstall if it contains "foldingathome".

If you have a split setup, where you're using both the standard folder and another folder for unit 2 (machineid=2) with the command line client, you should manually stop folding and rearrange the directories similarly to this:
hypothetical old setup (note: tilde "~" means your home folder, usually /Users/yourname) 

	unit 1  ~/Library/Folding@home
	unit 2  ~/myfoldn
new setup (with group path ~/myfoldn/unit)
	unit 1  ~/myfoldn/unit1
	unit 2  ~/myfoldn/unit2
Then, when you launch InCrease again, select Add Group... and browse to select a client.cfg in your new group. Select this group as the "Local Group" in preferences (it would appear as "~/myfoldn/unit".

What files does InCrease install?

After a "Create Local Group" using InCrease's default settings, the following files and folders would exist: 

 ~/Library/Application Support/InCrease/bin/foldingctl
 ~/Library/Application Support/InCrease/bin/qd       (what InCrease uses to get most of the displayed data)
 ~/Library/Application Support/InCrease/bin/fah6         (the folding@home command line client for PowerPC)
 ~/Library/Application Support/InCrease/bin/smp/fah6         (the SMP, intel-only client)
 ~/Library/Application Support/InCrease/bin/smp/mpiexec
 ~/Library/Application Support/InCrease/data/foldingctl.conf
 ~/Library/Application Support/InCrease/data/qdinfo.dat  (data file for qd)
 ~/Library/Preferences/InCrease.plist
 ~/Library/InCrease/unit1/client.cfg
 ~/Library/InCrease/unit1/fah6 (copied into unit folder; on PowerPC you get the non-smp ppc client)
 ~/Library/InCrease/unit1/mpiexec (copied if using an Intel Mac)

Can I use any other Folding@home apps with InCrease?

Maybe. You can use any third-party monitor-only app. You should NOT use any other app or script which wants to start a client. Definitely DO NOT use Folding@home.app, NOR the Folding@home screen saver.

What other apps might be useful with InCrease?

fpd by rph & friends (a 3d molecule viewer for PPC Macs)
Bobo-X by fkuechmann (found useful by some dial-up users)
nFoldMan by Richard McDonald

How often should I get qd updates?

Perhaps weekly, but it's really only needed when the data is out-of-date. The usual indicator will be no Points known for a unit. While online, select menu Tools > Download qd updates.

How do I change the number of lines displayed by FAHlog tail?

You must currently use Terminal to do this. For example, to make it 80 lines, you would type 

	defaults write InCrease FAHlogTailLineCount 80

What other options are you hiding?

   defaults write InCrease UseAlternatingRowColors 1
   defaults write InCrease LogViewFont "Papyrus 14.0"
   defaults write InCrease AllowContextMenus 1   # only applies to osx 10.5

How do I add more units?

Stanford discourages the practice of running more units than you have true cpus. If you are running the SMP client, they would prefer you only run one. If the Local Group has fewer than the maximum number of units, you can create more: