AutoTuner - sweep mode assumes that the start directory is writable

[jeffng-or]

Subject

[Stage]: Other. Please describe below.

Describe the bug

When using sweep mode, the AutoTuner writes the SDC file to the current directory, which might not be writable. If running within Docker with a starting directory of /OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src that is part of the image, the directory is not writable. Might want to be writing the file to somewhere under ORFS/flow instead.

Expected Behavior

Write the file to a writable location

Environment

aad91813f6449c7015dc05fa71156bb3da2ed9d2 - git commit tag

To Reproduce

Build docker image with:

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
#
# Installs ORFS from docker image 
#

FROM openroad/orfs:v3.0-3615-ge01db632

# install AT required packages
RUN pip3 install -U -r /OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/requirements.txt

# ORFS installation dir
WORKDIR /OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src

In docker:

python3 -m autotuner.distributed --design gcd --platform asap7 --config /OpenROAD-flow-scripts/flow/designs/asap7/gcd/autotuner.json sweep

Relevant log output

I have no name!@a79f50fb145a:/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src$ python3 -m autotuner.distributed --design gcd --platform asap7 --config /OpenROAD-flow-scripts/flow/designs/asap7/gcd/autotuner_freq.json sweep
/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/flow/designs/asap7/gcd/constraint.sdc
[INFO TUN-0012] Log folder /OpenROAD-flow-scripts/flow/logs/asap7/gcd.
2025-08-21 16:05:48,784	WARNING services.py:2072 -- WARNING: The object store is using /tmp instead of /dev/shm because /dev/shm has only 67108864 bytes available. This will harm performance! You may be able to free up space by deleting files in /dev/shm. If you are inside a Docker container, you can increase /dev/shm size by passing '--shm-size=10.24gb' to 'docker run' (or add it to the run_options list in a Ray cluster config). Make sure to set this to more than 30% of available RAM.
2025-08-21 16:05:48,845	INFO worker.py:1832 -- Started a local Ray instance. View the dashboard at 127.0.0.1:8265 
[INFO TUN-0009] Waiting for results.
(consumer pid=383) [INFO TUN-0007] Scheduling run for parameter /OpenROAD-flow-scripts.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 196, in _run_module_as_main
    return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src/autotuner/distributed.py", line 649, in <module>
    main()
  File "/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src/autotuner/distributed.py", line 645, in main
    sweep()
  File "/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src/autotuner/distributed.py", line 580, in sweep
    ray.get(workers)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/ray/_private/auto_init_hook.py", line 21, in auto_init_wrapper
    return fn(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/ray/_private/client_mode_hook.py", line 103, in wrapper
    return func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/ray/_private/worker.py", line 2771, in get
    values, debugger_breakpoint = worker.get_objects(object_refs, timeout=timeout)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/ray/_private/worker.py", line 919, in get_objects
    raise value.as_instanceof_cause()
ray.exceptions.RayTaskError(PermissionError): ray::consumer() (pid=383, ip=172.17.0.2)
  File "/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src/autotuner/utils.py", line 655, in consumer
    ray.get(openroad_distributed.remote(*next_item))
ray.exceptions.RayTaskError(PermissionError): ray::openroad_distributed() (pid=386, ip=172.17.0.2)
  File "/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src/autotuner/utils.py", line 625, in openroad_distributed
    config = parse_config(
  File "/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src/autotuner/utils.py", line 257, in parse_config
    write_sdc(sdc, path, sdc_original, constraints_sdc)
  File "/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src/autotuner/utils.py", line 116, in write_sdc
    with open(file_name, "w") as file:
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/OpenROAD-flow-scripts/tools/AutoTuner/src/constraint.sdc'
(consumer pid=397) [INFO TUN-0007] Scheduling run for parameter /OpenROAD-flow-scripts. [repeated 2x across cluster] (Ray deduplicates logs by default. Set RAY_DEDUP_LOGS=0 to disable log deduplication, or see https://docs.ray.io/en/master/ray-observability/user-guides/configure-logging.html#log-deduplication for more options.)

Screenshots

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Additional Context

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