EPICS: Software IOC

Software IOC is the process running on Linux or Solaris. For initial setting do following:

 ssh boiarino@clonpc1
 cd $CLAS/R3.14.8.2
 source .setup (usually done by $CLAS/.setup)
 cd $CLAS/R3.14.8.2/EPICS (this is the 'epicsB' directory)
 source .setup (usually done by $CLAS/R3.14.8.2/.setup above)
 cd baseB (or 'cd $BASEB')

New application can be done using 'makeBaseApp.pl' script (More detailed explained here and nicer here). To see possible application types use following:

 makeBaseApp.pl -l

It will show:

 Valid application types are:
       support
       ioc
       example
       caClient
       caServer
 Valid iocBoot types are:
       example
       ioc

Following command will create new type 'example' application named 'test1' (it will NOT create new Makefile and configure/ directory if they exists already, otherwise it will !):

 makeBaseApp.pl -b $EPICS_BASE -t example test1
   to make 'default' ioc: makeBaseApp.pl -b $EPICS_BASE -t ioc iocCore

It will create subdirectory test1App with appropriate contents; do following:

 cd test1App
 make

To make boot script do following:

 makeBaseApp.pl -b $EPICS_BASE -i -t example test1

Following dialog:

 The following target architectures are available in base:
   solaris-sparc
   vxWorks-ppc604_long
   solaris-x86
   linux-x86
 What architecture do you want to use? linux-x86
 The following applications are available:
   test1
 What application should the IOC(s) boot?
 The default uses the IOC's name, even if not listed above.
 Application name? test1

It will do following:

 create iocBoot/ and iocBoot/Makefile if do not exists already
 create iocBoot/iostest1 with appropriate contents
 creade db/ if does not exist already (?)
 copy *.db files from test1App/Db/ to db/ 
 create dbd/ if does not exist already (?)
 copy some (?) *.dbd files from test1App/ to dbd/ (xxxRecord.dbd, xxxSupport.dbd)
 create dbd/test1.dbd (copies some templete from base ???)
 create include/ if does not exist (?)
 copy xxxRecord.h file to include/ (from some templete ?) (corresponds to some dbd file ?)
 copy libxxxSupport.a and libxxxSupport.so to lib/linux-x86/ (or whatever platform is)

To create environment envPaths:

 cd iocBoot
 make

It will create ioctest1/envPaths

To start IOC:

 cd ioctest1/
 chmod 755 st.cmd
 ./st.cmd

Following output:

 #!../../bin/linux-x86/test1
 ## You may have to change test1 to something else
 ## everywhere it appears in this file
 < envPaths
 epicsEnvSet(ARCH,"linux-x86")
 epicsEnvSet(IOC,"ioctest1")
 epicsEnvSet(TOP,"/usr/local/clas/devel/R3.14.8.2/EPICS/baseB")
 cd /usr/local/clas/devel/R3.14.8.2/EPICS/baseB
 ## Register all support components
 dbLoadDatabase("dbd/test1.dbd")
 test1_registerRecordDeviceDriver(pdbbase)
 ## Load record instances
 dbLoadRecords("db/dbExample1.db","user=boiarinoHost")
 dbLoadRecords("db/dbExample2.db","user=boiarinoHost,no=1,scan=1 second")
 dbLoadRecords("db/dbExample2.db","user=boiarinoHost,no=2,scan=2 second")
 dbLoadRecords("db/dbExample2.db","user=boiarinoHost,no=3,scan=5 second")
 dbLoadRecords("db/dbSubExample.db","user=boiarinoHost")
 ## Set this to see messages from mySub
 #var mySubDebug 1
 cd /usr/local/clas/devel/R3.14.8.2/EPICS/baseB/iocBoot/ioctest1
 iocInit()
 Starting iocInit
 ############################################################################
 ###  EPICS IOC CORE built on Sep 21 2006
 ###  EPICS R3.14.8.2 $R3-14-8-2$ $2006/01/06 15:55:13$
 ############################################################################
 iocInit: All initialization complete
 ## Start any sequence programs
 #seq sncExample,"user=boiarinoHost"
 epics>

To list all available channels:

 epics> dbl
 boiarinoHost:aiExample
 boiarinoHost:aiExample1
 boiarinoHost:aiExample2
 boiarinoHost:aiExample3
 boiarinoHost:calcExample
 boiarinoHost:calcExample1
 boiarinoHost:calcExample2
 boiarinoHost:calcExample3
 boiarinoHost:compressExample
 boiarinoHost:subExample
 boiarinoHost:xxxExample
 epics>

Use 'help' on 'epics>' prompt to get full list of commands.

Channels can be accessed now, for example type on another machine:

 caget boiarinoHost:aiExample

It will return digit from 0 to 9 every time it called.

Existing IOCs have different structure, they can be found in baseB/src/, for example see inside CAEN_HV/. To make it realy useful *.db files and medm GUI must be generated - see corresponding sections. For example: EPICS: generation of DBs and GUIs for HV

To run IOC as service on Linux '/etc/init.d/softioc' script must be provided. An example of such script for gamma profiler can be found on clonpc1. Copy it and change clonpc1 to your machine name.

That script calls startup scripts from directory $EPICSB/ioc/clonpc1 or whatever your computer name is (if directory does not exist, create it, copy examples from another directory and modify). You can call startup script from another location but it is better to keep everything in one place (with one exception: clonpc3 is running test versions so corresponding line in /etc/init.d/softioc looks as following:

 ###SoftIocBin="cd $EPICSB/ioc/clonpc1; sleep 1000d | $BASEB/bin/linux-x86/iocCore ./softIoc"
 SoftIocBin="cd $BASEB/src/CAEN_HV/IocShell; sleep 1000d | $BASEB/bin/linux-x86/ioccaen ./startup.all"

Following commands can be used to start and stop softioc:

 /etc/init.d/softioc start
 /etc/init.d/softioc stop

To start softioc at boot time do following:

 /sbin/chkconfig --add softioc
 /sbin/chkconfig --list softioc