Provided by: cnrun_1.1.14-1ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

            CNrun -- a neuronal network simulator

SYNOPSIS

            cnrun -h | -U | -e script [OPTION ...]

DESCRIPTION

       CNrun is a neuronal network simulator, similar to NEURON or GENESIS, but without provision
       for unit compartments.  It reads the network topology in NeuroML format as exported, f.i.,
       by  neuroConstruct.   Unit  types  are determined by the ‘cell_type’ attribute in the .nml
       definitions.

       Available neuron types, by the corresponding ‘cell_type’ string, include:

       •      HH and HHRate, conductance- and rate-based Hodgkin-Huxley neurons (Traub  &  Miles,
              1991);

       •      A simplified but fast, fixed-dt Map neurons mimicking the HH model;

       •      Poisson, Van der Pol (VdP) and simple Pulse oscillators;

       •      synapses as described in Rall et al, 1967 (Rall) and Destexhe et al, 1994 (AB).

       Unit  parameters  can be set via a set_parm_* command (see SCRIPTING below); values can be
       set once before the simulation, or continuously or periodically per user-defined schedule.

       A 6-5-order Runge-Kutta integration method is used  to  compute  state  variables.   These
       (membrane potential E or instantaneous firing rate R for neurons, neurotransmitter release
       S for synapses) as well as spike times can be logged.

       Scripting support in CNrun includes commands for creating and populating a model,  setting
       parameters  for  single units or groups selected based on regex matching.  Variables (‘a =
       1; b = a + 2’) and arithmetic expressions (‘-’, ‘+’, ‘*’, ‘/’, ‘()’ ) are supported.

OPTIONS

       -C dir chdir to dir before running.

       -D     Dump all unit types in the model and exit.

       -e [script]
              Execute script.  If this option is given without a file name (or not given at all),
              start an interactive interpreter.

       -s     Sort units (mostly useful with verbose output).

       -L[1dbxL]
              For all listeners:

           d      Defer  writing to disk until done rather than write continuously (speeds up the
                  simulation but you can’t watch the progress live with gnuplot)

           1      Only log the first variable (appropriate for the HH model, which units have  in
                  excess the three uninteresting gating parameters).

           b      Write  in  native binary form rather than in ASCII.  This will speed up viewing
                  the (now label.varx  files)  with  gnuplot.   Do  your  plotting  with  “binary
                  format="%lf%lf"” to achieve this.

                  These options can also be set using command listen_mode (which see, below).

           L      log integrator dt.

       -E double
              Listen  at this interval (default 1 msec; set to 0 to listen every cycle, which can
              slow cnrun down considerably).  Also available as command listen_dt.

       -k[l|0]
              Write a model-wide log of spiking neurons, using labels (‘l’) or unit ids (‘0’).

       -e uint
              Set precision for all output (default 8).

       -iTdouble
              dt_max (default 0.5).

       -itdouble
              dt_min (default 1e-05).

       -ixdouble
              Cap dt increase by current dt value x this (default 5).

       -nc    Disable synapse coalescing (for benchmarking).

       -v int Set verbosity level (default 1; values up to 7 are  meaningful).   Use  a  negative
              value  to  show  the  progress  percentage  only, indented on the line at -8 x this
              value.

       -U     List all available units.

       -h     Print the overview of command-line options.

              Space is optional between the option letter and argument for single-letter options.
              In all two-letter options taking an argument though, make sure there is no space in
              between.

SCRIPTING

       Commands are delimited by a colon or new-line.  Comments are lines starting with  #.   The
       following commands are available:

       new_model NAME
              Create a new model called NAME.  Existing model is deleted.

       use_nml NML_FILE
              Load network topology from NML_FILE, creating a model if necessary, or replacing an
              existing model” topology.

       merge_nml NML_FILE
              Merge in the topology from NML_FILE.

       add_neuron TYPE LABEL
              Add a new newron of type TYPE with label LABEL.

       add_synapse TYPE SOURCE TARGET G
              Connect the neuron labelled SOURCE to one labelled TARGET with a  synapse  of  type
              TYPE, with gsyn G.

       cull_deaf_synapses
              Remove synapses with zero weight.

       set_parm_neuron LABEL PARM VALUE
              Set parameter PARM for a specified group of neurons labelled matching LABEL.

       set_parm_synapse SRC TGT PARM VALUE
              Set parameter PARM for synapses between neurons labelled matching SRC and TGT.  The
              synaptic weight, itself not being a synapse parameter, can also be  set  with  this
              command: to do this, use ‘gsyn’ as PARM.

       reset  Reset  the  model.   Model  time  is  rewound  to  0 and all units have their state
              variables reset to stock defaults.  Any previously  assigned  unit  parameters  and
              attached data sources are preserved.

       reset_revert_params
              Reset  the model.  Model time is rewound to 0, all units have their state variables
              and parameters reset to stock defaults.

       reset_state_units REGEX
              Reset the units’ as above, keeping current model time.

       advance_until TIME
              Advance until TIME msec.

       advance TIME
              Advance TIME msec.

       putout REGEX
              Delete units matching REGEX by label.

       decimate REGEX FRAC
              Randomly delete FRAC units of a population of units selected by REGEX.

       start_listen REGEX
              Make matching units listen.

       stop_listen
              Make matching units stop listening.

       listen_dt [VALUE]
              Set listening interval to VALUE, or show current value if VALUE not given.

       listen_mode [SPEC]
              Print (if argument is omitted) the current listening mode (one var  only,  deferred
              write,  and/or binary); otherwise, enable the corresponding mode if ‘1’, ‘d’ or ‘b’
              occurs in SPEC, or disable it if it does and is  immediately  followed  by  a  ‘-’.
              Note  that those units already listening will be unaffected; to change the mode for
              them, issue start_listen for them after the new mode has been set.

       start_log_spikes REGEX
              Make neurons matching REGEX log spikes.

       stop_log_spikes REGEX
              Make neurons matching REGEX stop log spikes.

       sxf_params DELAY:PERIOD:SIGMA
              Set spike density function initial delay, sampling period and sigma as specified.

       describe_model
              Print a summary of model topology and unit types.

       show_units REGEX
              Print parameters and state of units matching REGEX.

       new_source TYPE ID ARG ...
              Create a new source of type and with an id as indicated.  Sources can be  connected
              to  unit  parameters  as  a  means to set up a dynamically changing behaviour.  See
              DYNAMIC SOURCES below.

       connect_source SOURCE_ID LABEL PARM
              Connect this source to matching units’ parameter.

       show_sources
              Show the currently active sources (both connected and idle).

       exec [SCRIPT]
              Execute a script.  If SCRIPT not specified, start an interactive interpreter.

       verbosity [LEVEL]
              Set/show verbosity level.

       show_vars [REGEX]
              Print variables matching REGEX, or all variables if REGEX omitted.

       clear_vars [REGEX]
              Clear variables matching REGEX, or all if REGEX omitted.

       pause [DELAY]
              Pause for DELAY sec if specified, or until user presses Enter otherwise.

       quit   Exit current interpreter if called by exec; exit the program otherwise.

       When you use the interpreter interactively,  TAB  will  list  completions  approproiately,
       depending on the context.

DYNAMIC SOURCES

       In  addition  to static unit parameter/variable assignment with set_parm_{neuron,synapse},
       units can have a data source attached to any of their parameters or variable (even  though
       variables will get overwritten in the next cycle).

       Data  sources  are  of three types (a fourth one is available for developers, an arbitrary
       user function of time, but not exposed as an  interpreter  command).   Where  data  for  a
       source  are read from a file, values are read using a ‘>>’ operator (from <ifstream>) into
       a double variable.  The corresponding new_source arguments are:

       Tape FILE
              Read “time value” pairs from FILE and set the parameter’s value accordingly.

       Periodic FILE
              FILE is expected to contain, as the first number value read by scanf("%lg"), a time
              period  at  which  the following values are sequentially assigned to the parameter.
              Values are assigned at the beginning of each integration cycle.

       Noise MIN:MAX
              Generate (irrespective of  time)  a  uniformly  distributed  random  number  within
              MIN:MAX.

       Similarly to the parameters, state variables can also be set in this manner; in this case,
       the values read, will override whatever the inner workings  of  the  unit  assign  to  it.
       Where  a  Tape  has a gap between assignment times larger than current dt, assignments are
       still made; this, however, does not apply to Periodic  sources  (chiefly  for  performance
       reasons).

SYNAPSE COALESCING

       Coalesced  synapses  are  those  having  identical  parameters and having the same source.
       Coalescing reduces, per divergence rate, the number of times the S variable is  recomputed
       with  identical  parameters  per  cycle; additionally for hosted synapses, the integration
       vector is shrunk to fit towards further performance gain.

       Coalescing happens automatically between two synapses from same  source  when,  after  all
       parameter  assignments,  they  are  found to be identical (disregarding synaptic weights).
       Conversely, when the user changes a parameter to one coalesced synapses that is  different
       from that parameter’s value in the others, that synapse becomes independent.

       Note  that a synapse units’s label is dynamically formed of the label of the source with a
       semicolon and the current number of targets.  Another consequence of  coalescing  is  that
       there can be more than one synapse units labelled identically (hence, uniquely to identify
       a synapse, you need to specify its source and target).

       The command-line option -nc can be used to disable coalescing.

FILES

       .cnrun-history, a per-directory history of entered commands.

EXAMPLE

       In /usr/share/doc/cnrun/ratiocoding, there is a  working  example  of  cnrun  setup  which
       reproduces some of the results presented in Zavada et al (2011) PLoS paper.

BUGS

       The oscillator units other than Poisson, have not been tested.

SEE ALSO

       spike2sdf(1), varfold(1).

AUTHOR

       CNRun and the underlying library libcn is written by Andrei Zavada <johnhommer@gmail.com>,
       building on the original code by Thomas Nowotny, while at Sussex University in 2008-10.