What exactly is sent to the server?
 

Is it the floating point results of the sieve area from adding log(p), or the smooth (a,b) pairs? Also, is there a way get more information on what's exactly going on in lasieve, like a log output?

The pairs, which are called relations.

Here's a yafu sieve I have going with 8 threads, and the -v output from one lasieve thread when it finishes its chunk:

[code]nfs: commencing algebraic side lattice sieving over range: 12468000 - 12484000
nfs: commencing algebraic side lattice sieving over range: 12516000 - 12532000
nfs: commencing algebraic side lattice sieving over range: 12484000 - 12500000
nfs: commencing algebraic side lattice sieving over range: 12500000 - 12516000
nfs: commencing algebraic side lattice sieving over range: 12452000 - 12468000
nfs: commencing algebraic side lattice sieving over range: 12564000 - 12580000
nfs: commencing algebraic side lattice sieving over range: 12532000 - 12548000
nfs: commencing algebraic side lattice sieving over range: 12548000 - 12564000
gnfs-lasieve4I15e (with asm64): L1_BITS=15, SVN $Revision: 430 $
gnfs-lasieve4I15e (with asm64): L1_BITS=15, SVN $Revision: 430 $
gnfs-lasieve4I15e (with asm64): L1_BITS=15, SVN $Revision: 430 $
gnfs-lasieve4I15e (with asm64): L1_BITS=15, SVN $Revision: 430 $
gnfs-lasieve4I15e (with asm64): L1_BITS=15, SVN $Revision: 430 $
Warning: lowering FB_bound to 12451999.
Warning: lowering FB_bound to 12483999.
Warning: lowering FB_bound to 12515999.
Warning: lowering FB_bound to 12563999.
Warning: lowering FB_bound to 12467999.
gnfs-lasieve4I15e (with asm64): L1_BITS=15, SVN $Revision: 430 $
Warning: lowering FB_bound to 12499999.
gnfs-lasieve4I15e (with asm64): L1_BITS=15, SVN $Revision: 430 $
Warning: lowering FB_bound to 12547999.
gnfs-lasieve4I15e (with asm64): L1_BITS=15, SVN $Revision: 430 $
Warning: lowering FB_bound to 12531999.
FBsize 822174+0 (deg 6), 1424605+0 (deg 1)
FBsize 817262+0 (deg 6), 1424605+0 (deg 1)
FBsize 820272+0 (deg 6), 1424605+0 (deg 1)
FBsize 816180+0 (deg 6), 1424605+0 (deg 1)
FBsize 819224+0 (deg 6), 1424605+0 (deg 1)
FBsize 818158+0 (deg 6), 1424605+0 (deg 1)
FBsize 821200+0 (deg 6), 1424605+0 (deg 1)
FBsize 815176+0 (deg 6), 1424605+0 (deg 1)
total yield: 38823, q=12500003 (0.17486 sec/rel) ETA 0h00m)
902 Special q, 4859 reduction iterations
reports: 1052606414->10568263->9645975->6525629->5620838->4052921
Number of relations with k rational and l algebraic primes for (k,l)=:

Total yield: 38823
0/0 mpqs failures, 47188/38470 vain mpqs
milliseconds total: Sieve 4944590 Sched 0 medsched 531000
TD 849560 (Init 6420, MPQS 46900) Sieve-Change 463280
TD side 0: init/small/medium/large/search: 155920 40490 35000 159190 17810
sieve: init/small/medium/large/search: 49520 651010 38740 1534400 88610
TD side 1: init/small/medium/large/search: 140620 28280 30320 172230 13140
sieve: init/small/medium/large/search: 48430 809530 37210 1672300 14840[/code]

This is what the output written to file looks like. One line is one relation (I don't know what the exact format is). I can tell you that [url=http://sourceforge.net/p/yafu/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/factor/nfs/nfs_filemanip.c#l504]this code[/url] is what yafu uses to read the last special q sieved when resuming.

[code]186311877,6131341:1EBB,7F147F,5DFDE7,494347,2F7D57,154B4D:1636DAD,17C1607,C5B,7BBD07,2B1F89,184235,14CA7,BFF46B
727599293,4406429:2CADF93,CFA8DFF,1087,713,28A597,11ADBB,58FFD:151A9A05,6100F79,4BD,3067FD,81A63,13C93,6371,BFF46B
-81830591,3606839:1C94C25D,821,2B97,3AA26D,4BAA9,1702D:13EA8EF9,C2D61F,15F7,3B96EF,7E1F7,22F37,DDF5,BFF46B
-27657059,4468563:1471,3307,114DF55,88E93B,1A1CF7,10F391,F521:31358A2B,A63,2875,82D759,27C2D5,86B0D,23BCD,BFF46B
-197542209,2552299:3885F391,14397A3,10979F,4A16D,2BA77,7255:6BA9FCB,14917E7,4C7,E53ED,D018F,BFF46B
117581497,7875173:13A3D89F,215F,2F53DF,15B867,CAC7B,61C7:2395EF5,ABEE5AD,19A071,5E2CD,28C69,19865,BFF46B
656950809,1656337:160D9C89,1B59,198017,9C499,23FFB,13D15,57D1:1BA6E5B,1F57F3,1E2113,297A1,18569,165E5,100C3,6809,BFF46B[/code]

[QUOTE=Dubslow;397567]
This is what the output written to file looks like. One line is one relation (I don't know what the exact format is). I can tell you that [URL="http://sourceforge.net/p/yafu/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/factor/nfs/nfs_filemanip.c#l504"]this code[/URL] is what yafu uses to read the last special q sieved when resuming.

[code]186311877,6131341:1EBB,7F147F,5DFDE7,494347,2F7D57,154B4D:1636DAD,17C1607,C5B,7BBD07,2B1F89,184235,14CA7,BFF46B
727599293,4406429:2CADF93,CFA8DFF,1087,713,28A597,11ADBB,58FFD:151A9A05,6100F79,4BD,3067FD,81A63,13C93,6371,BFF46B
-81830591,3606839:1C94C25D,821,2B97,3AA26D,4BAA9,1702D:13EA8EF9,C2D61F,15F7,3B96EF,7E1F7,22F37,DDF5,BFF46B
-27657059,4468563:1471,3307,114DF55,88E93B,1A1CF7,10F391,F521:31358A2B,A63,2875,82D759,27C2D5,86B0D,23BCD,BFF46B
-197542209,2552299:3885F391,14397A3,10979F,4A16D,2BA77,7255:6BA9FCB,14917E7,4C7,E53ED,D018F,BFF46B
117581497,7875173:13A3D89F,215F,2F53DF,15B867,CAC7B,61C7:2395EF5,ABEE5AD,19A071,5E2CD,28C69,19865,BFF46B
656950809,1656337:160D9C89,1B59,198017,9C499,23FFB,13D15,57D1:1BA6E5B,1F57F3,1E2113,297A1,18569,165E5,100C3,6809,BFF46B[/code][/QUOTE]
The format is:
a,b:factors on rational side:factors on algebraic side
The factors are stored in hex rather than base 10 to save space. Factors less than 1000 are often excluded to save space.