Odbedit

Introduction

The MIDAS odbedit utility is primarily an Online Database (ODB) Editor. It also acts as a run control and has limited run monitoring features, so is an alternative to the web-based run control program mhttpd. On the other hand, mhttpd has limited editing capability, and does not support all of the features of odbedit.

The features of odbedit include

• create the ODB of the desired size
• save all or part of the ODB onto disk and reload from a saved file
• list/create/rename/re-order/delete ODB keys
• edit contents of ODB keys
• create (soft)links to ODB keys
• start/stop runs
• list and shutdown active clients
• create a c-structure from the ODB
• change a key's access mode (e.g. read-only)
• execute a list of commands from a file
• connect to corrupted ODB

odbedit treats the hierarchical online database very much like a file system. Most commands are similar to UNIX file commands, e.g. ls, cd, chmod, ln etc. The help command displays a short description of all commands.

The odbedit commands and mode of operation are described fully in the following sections.

Starting odbedit utility

Arguments
   [ -h hostname ]
   [ -e exptname ]
   [-c command ]      : Perform a single command. See using an external command
   [-c @commandFile ] : Perform commands in sequence found in the commandFile. See using an external command file
   [-s size ]         : Size in bytes (for ODB creation). See creating the ODB.
   [-d ODB Subtree]   : Specify the initial entry ODB path to go to. See Specifying the ODB entry path.
   [-g]               : Debug
   [-C ]              : Connect to corrupted ODB
Usage
   >odbedit

Command Line Interpreter

ODBedit has a simple command line interface with command line editing similar to the UNIX tcsh shell. The following edit keys are implemented:

[Backspace]          Erase the character left from cursor
[Delete/Ctrl-D]      Erase the character under cursor
[Ctrl-W/Ctrl-U]      Erase the current line
[Ctrl-K]             Erase the line from cursor to end
[Left arrow/Ctrl-B]  Move cursor left
[Right arrow/Ctrl-F] Move cursor right
[Home/Ctrl-A]        Move cursor to beginning of line
[End/Ctrl-E]         Move cursor to end of line
[Up arrow/Ctrl-P]    Recall previous command
[Down arrow/Ctrl-N]  Recall next command
[Ctrl-F]             Find most recent command which starts with current line
[Tab/Ctrl-I]         Complete the path. The command ls /Sy <tab> becomes ls /System.

Creating the ODB

When odbedit is started for the first time, if there is no existing ODB for the experiment (see Common Parameters to MIDAS Utilities #Midas experiment (exptname)) the ODB will be created with the default size of 128KB, unless overruled by the -s <size> argument.

Using an external command

In the simplest case, a single odbedit command can be entered on the command line using the -c argument, e.g.

[pol@isdaq01 src]$ odbedit -c start
Starting run #401
Run #401 started
[pol@isdaq01 src]$ odbedit -c stop
Run #401 stopped

Using an external command file

Perform commands in sequence found in the specified commandFile e.g.

[pol@isdaq01 pol]$ odbedit -d /Equipment/TDC/Settings/ -c @testfile.com 

where the file "testfile.com" contains odbedit commands, such as

set testval 4 
ls testval
start

This external command feature allows for sophisticated shell scripts to be created that can manipulate the odb. Such scripts can for example

• check ODB parameters prior to beginning of run
• send run parameters to the electronic logbook

Scripts using the external command feature are often used at begin and end of run, see also /Programs/execute on start run

Specifying the initial ODB entry path

The odbedit -d argument is used in conjunction with the -c argument to specify the initial path, e.g.

[pol@isdaq01 pol]$ odbedit -d /test -c "set testval 3"
[pol@isdaq01 pol]$ odb
[local:pol:S]/>ls test
testval