> Where should MIDAS be installed?

I personally don't have any preference, as long as it's in accordance with "the standard"
(whatever this is). Maybe one should add a flag to the makefile to specify the
installation directory, either /opt or /usr/local, so people then have the choice. I have
seen that in other packages. As for the RPM, I leave the final proposal to the person
writing the spec file (Paul? Piotr? Konstantin?). We should then commonly agree on the
location based on that proposal. The person supplying the RPM will "officially" become the
RPM maintainer and be responsible for maintaining it.

> installed in /sbin/, /bin/, or /usr/. System administrators can build packages from
> source and install them into the /usr/local/ directory. However, third-party packages
> of add-on software must be installed in /opt/<package>/, where <package> is the name
> that describes a software suite.

Well, midas is kind of in the middle. On one hand it's a third-party package (-> /opt),
but it requires some compilation to allow meaningful work (frontend, analyzer). So maybe
the RPM should go to /opt, and if compiled from the TAR ball it should go to /usr/local?
But that means if someone has to maintain a large basis of midas machines, he/she has to
always search two locations. On the other hand one can alway do a "cd $MIDASSYS" ...

- Stefan

We had the problem that different experiments used different MAX_EVENT_SIZE
values (the MEG experiment actually 10 MB!). If each experiment changes the
value in midas.h and accidentally commits it, other experiments are affected.
Therefore I modified midas.h and the Makefile to accept a new environment
variable MIDAS_MAX_EVENT_SIZE. If this value is set, the Makefile passes it's
value to midas.h where it supersedes the default value which is currently at 4 MB.

PAA: Can you pleas add this to the documentation at the right spot? Thanks.

Hello, 
   Is there any example code for using midas for interrupt driven data
collection over VME? I am using a Struck SIS3100 PCI/VME setup to connect to my
VME crate.  Thanks,
  -Dan

I would like to store the address of 1-Wire temperature sensors in a device
driver. However, the supportet data types (as definded around
include/midas.h:311) do not foresee a type large enough.

Is there a good reason against this?

I know that other experiments use this kind of sensor, how do you store the
addresses? I've noticed that most of the address is just zeroes, but I wouldn't
like to store just half the address, assuming that half the address is always
zeroes.

> I would like to store the address of 1-Wire temperature sensors in a device
> driver. However, the supportet data types (as definded around
> include/midas.h:311) do not foresee a type large enough.
> 
> Is there a good reason against this?
> 
> I know that other experiments use this kind of sensor, how do you store the
> addresses? I've noticed that most of the address is just zeroes, but I wouldn't
> like to store just half the address, assuming that half the address is always
> zeroes.

Well, when this code was written, computers had 640kB  and operating systems had 16 bit. What 
you  can do for your 1-wire sensor is to store the address in two values, one 32-bit LSB and one 
32-bit MSB. Or store it in a string with hex representation.

Stefan 

> I would like to store the address of 1-Wire temperature sensors in a device
> driver. However, the supportet data types (as definded around
> include/midas.h:311) do not foresee a type large enough.
>

Hmm... you do not say what sensor you use and how many bits you actually need.

For up to 32 bits you can use TID_DWORD (uint32_t) (obviously)

For up to 48 bits (or so), you can use TID_DOUBLE (double) (wierd, but IEEE754 double precision variables would work as 48-bit (or so) integers).

For more, I would use arrays of TID_DWORD (64 bits, store low 32 bits into a[0], high bits into a[1]).

> 
> Is there a good reason against this?
> 

We had requests for implementing uint64_t 64-bit data types in MIDAS before. There are two problems:

a) in the MIDAS data banks, there is a problem with the bank header definition which only has 3 DWORDSs so causes
each alternating data bank to be 64-bit misaligned. And misaligned 64-bit data is very bad.

b) in ODB, 64-bit data support will need to be added from scratch and again it is not clear without doing it
if there will be any alignement problems. If one were to implement ODB from scratch, one would have everything
aligned to 64-bits or maybe even 128-bits, with uint64_t fully supported.

It is unlikely this kind of work will ever be done on ODB, but who knows.

> I know that other experiments use this kind of sensor, how do you store the
> addresses? I've noticed that most of the address is just zeroes, but I wouldn't
> like to store just half the address, assuming that half the address is always
> zeroes.

Cannot answer without knowing what sensor you use, but certainly you can use an array of bytes
or an array of integers to store arbitrarily long addresses. You can also use a TID_STRING
and store the address as a text string "0xabcdabcdabcdabcd" of arbitrary length.

K.O.

Hi,

I run into problems while trying to install Midas on Slackware 14.0. In the past
I have easily installed Midas on many other versions of Slackware. I have a new
computer set up with Slackware 14.0 and I just got the Midas latest version from 
https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas

Apparently there is a problem with a shared library which should be on the
system, I think make checks for /usr/include/mysql and then supposes that
libodbc.so should be on disk. I don't know why on my system it is not.

But I was wondering if I have some other problems (configuration problem?)
because I get a very large number of warnings. My last installation of Midas is
like from two years ago but I don't remember getting many warnings. Do I do
something obviously wrong? Here is uname -a output and I attached a file with
the output from make in midas folder (GNU Make 3.82 Built for
x86_64-slackware-linux-gnu). Thanks a lot!

Linux lheppc83 3.2.29 #2 SMP Mon Sep 17 14:19:22 CDT 2012 x86_64 Intel(R)
Xeon(R) CPU           E5520  @ 2.27GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Seems to me a problem with the ODBC library, so maybe Konstantin can comment.

/Stefan

> I run into problems while trying to install Midas on Slackware 14.0.

Thank you for reporting this. We do not have any slackware computers so we cannot see these message usually.

We use SL/RHEL 5/6 and MacOS for most development, plus we now have an Ubuntu test machine, where I see a 
whole different spew of compiler messages.

Most of the messages are:

a) useless compiler whining:

src/midas.c: In function 'cm_transition2':
src/midas.c:3769:74: warning: variable 'error' set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]

b) an actual error in fal.c:

src/fal.c:131:0: warning: "EQUIPMENT_COMMON_STR" redefined [enabled by default]

c) actual error in fal.c: assignment into string constant is not permitted: char*x="aaa"; x[0]='c'; // core dump

src/fal.c:383:1: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to 'char*' [-Wwrite-strings]

these are fixed by making sure all such pointers are "const char*" and the corresponding midas functions are 
also "const char*".

d) maybe an error (gcc sometimes gets this one wrong)

./mscb/mscb.c: In function 'int mscb_info(int, short unsigned int, MSCB_INFO*)':
./mscb/mscb.c:1682:8: warning: 'size' may be used uninitialized in this function [-Wuninitialized]
 
> Apparently there is a problem with a shared library which should be on the
> system, I think make checks for /usr/include/mysql and then supposes that
> libodbc.so should be on disk. I don't know why on my system it is not.

g++  -g -O2 -Wall -Wno-strict-aliasing -Wuninitialized -Iinclude -Idrivers -I../mxml -I./mscb -Llinux/lib -
DHAVE_FTPLIB -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -DHAVE_MYSQL -I/usr/include/mysql -DHAVE_ODBC -DHAVE_SQLITE 
-DHAVE_ROOT -pthread -m64 -I/home/exodaq/root_5.35.10/include -DHAVE_ZLIB -DHAVE_MSCB -DOS_LINUX 
-fPIC -Wno-unused-function -o linux/bin/mhttpd linux/lib/mhttpd.o linux/lib/mgd.o linux/lib/mscb.o 
linux/lib/sequencer.o linux/lib/libmidas.a linux/lib/libmidas.a -lodbc -lsqlite3 -lutil -lpthread -lrt -lz -lm
/usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-slackware-linux/4.7.1/../../../../x86_64-slackware-linux/bin/ld: cannot find -lodbc

The ODBC library is not found (shared .so or static .a).

The Makefile check is for /usr/include/sql.h (usually part of the ODBC package). On the command line above, 
HAVE_ODBC is set, and the rest of MIDAS compiled okey, so the ODBC header files at least are present. But why 
the library is not found?

I do not know how slackware packages this stuff the way they do and I do not have a slackware system to check 
how it should look like, so I cannot suggest anything other than commenting out "HAVE_ODBC := ..." in the 
Makefile.


> But I was wondering if I have some other problems (configuration problem?)
> because I get a very large number of warnings. My last installation of Midas is
> like from two years ago but I don't remember getting many warnings.

There are no "many warnings". Mostly it's just one same warning repeated many times that complains about 
perfectly valid code:

src/midas.c: In function 'cm_transition':
src/midas.c:4388:19: warning: variable 'tr_main' set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]

They complain about code:
 { int i=foo(); ... } // yes, "i" is not used, yes, if you have to keep it if you want to be able to see the return value 
of foo() in gdb.



> Do I do something obviously wrong?

No you. GCC people turned on one more noisy junk warning.

> Thanks a lot!

No idea about your missing ODBC library, I do not even know how to get a package listing on slackware (and 
proud of it).

But if you do know how to get a package listing for your odbc package, please send it here. On RHEL/SL, I would 
do:

rpm -qf /usr/include/sql.h ### find out the name of the package that owns this file
rpm -ql xxx ### list all files in this package

K.O.

> > I run into problems while trying to install Midas on Slackware 14.0.
> 
> b) an actual error in fal.c:
> 
> src/fal.c:131:0: warning: "EQUIPMENT_COMMON_STR" redefined [enabled by default]
> 
> c) actual error in fal.c: assignment into string constant is not permitted: char*x="aaa"; x[0]='c'; // core dump
> 
> src/fal.c:383:1: warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to 'char*' [-Wwrite-strings]
> 
> these are fixed by making sure all such pointers are "const char*" and the corresponding midas functions are 

the warnings in fal.c are now fixed.

K.O.

The warnings with the set but unused variables are real. While John O'Donnell proposed:

==========

somewhere I long the way I found an include file to help remove this kind of message.  try something like:

#include "use.h"
int foo () { return 3; }
int main () {
 { USED int i=foo(); }
 return 0;
}

with -Wall, and you will see the unused messages are gone.

==========

I would rather go and remove the unused variables to clean up the code a bit. Unfortunately my gcc version does 
not yet bark on that. So once I get a new version and I got plenty of spare time (....) I will consider removing all 
these variables.

/Stefan

> > I run into problems while trying to install Midas on Slackware 14.0.
> 
> Thank you for reporting this. We do not have any slackware computers so we cannot see these message usually.
> 
> 
> src/midas.c: In function 'cm_transition2':
> src/midas.c:3769:74: warning: variable 'error' set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
> 

got around to look at compile messages on ubuntu: in addition to "variable 'error' set but not used" we have these:

warning: ignoring return value of 'ssize_t write(int, const void*, size_t)'
warning: ignoring return value of 'ssize_t read(int, void*, size_t)'
warning: ignoring return value of 'int setuid(__uid_t)'
and a few more of similar

K.O.

> got around to look at compile messages on ubuntu: in addition to "variable 'error' set but not used" we have these:
> 
> warning: ignoring return value of 'ssize_t write(int, const void*, size_t)'
> warning: ignoring return value of 'ssize_t read(int, void*, size_t)'
> warning: ignoring return value of 'int setuid(__uid_t)'
> and a few more of similar

Arghh, now it is getting even more picky. I can understand the "variable xyz set but not used" and I'm willing to remove all the variables. But checking the 
return value from every function? Well, if the disk gets full, our code will silently ignore this for write(), so maybe it's not a bad idea to add a few checks. Also 
for the read(), there could be some problem, where an explicit cm_msg() in case of an error would help.

Hi, Thanks a lot for the response! Yes to search packages and list their content in Slackware it is pretty similar to your illustration. Slackware seems to use iODBC in which case it would link with -liodbc I guess.

root@lheppc83:~# slackpkg file-search sql.h

Looking for sql.h in package list. Please wait... DONE

The list below shows the packages that contains "sql\.h" file.

[ installed ] - libiodbc-3.52.7-x86_64-2

You can search specific packages using "slackpkg search package".

root@lheppc83:~# cat /var/log/packages/libiodbc-3.52.7-x86_64-2
PACKAGE NAME:     libiodbc-3.52.7-x86_64-2
COMPRESSED PACKAGE SIZE:     255.0K
UNCOMPRESSED PACKAGE SIZE:     1.0M
PACKAGE LOCATION: /var/log/mount/slackware64/l/libiodbc-3.52.7-x86_64-2.txz
PACKAGE DESCRIPTION:
libiodbc: libiodbc (Independent Open DataBase Connectivity)
libiodbc:
libiodbc: iODBC is the acronym for Independent Open DataBase Connectivity,
libiodbc: an Open Source platform independent implementation of both the ODBC
libiodbc: and X/Open specifications.  It allows for developing solutions
libiodbc: that are language, platform and database independent.
libiodbc:
libiodbc:
libiodbc:
libiodbc: Homepage: http://iodbc.org/
libiodbc:
FILE LIST:
./
usr/
usr/share/
usr/share/libiodbc/
usr/share/libiodbc/samples/
usr/share/libiodbc/samples/iodbctest.c
usr/share/libiodbc/samples/Makefile
usr/man/
usr/man/man1/
usr/man/man1/iodbc-config.1.gz
usr/man/man1/iodbctestw.1.gz
usr/man/man1/iodbctest.1.gz
usr/man/man1/iodbcadm-gtk.1.gz
usr/bin/
usr/bin/iodbctest
usr/bin/iodbcadm-gtk
usr/bin/iodbctestw
usr/bin/iodbc-config
usr/include/
usr/include/iodbcinst.h
usr/include/sqlext.h
usr/include/iodbcunix.h
usr/include/isqltypes.h
usr/include/sql.h
usr/include/iodbcext.h
usr/include/isql.h
usr/include/odbcinst.h
usr/include/isqlext.h
usr/include/sqlucode.h
usr/include/sqltypes.h
usr/lib64/
usr/lib64/libiodbc.la
usr/lib64/libdrvproxy.so.2.1.19
usr/lib64/libiodbcinst.la
usr/lib64/libiodbcadm.so.2.1.19
usr/lib64/libiodbcinst.so.2.1.19
usr/lib64/libiodbcadm.la
usr/lib64/pkgconfig/
usr/lib64/pkgconfig/libiodbc.pc
usr/lib64/libiodbc.so.2.1.19
usr/lib64/libdrvproxy.la
usr/doc/
usr/doc/libiodbc-3.52.7/
usr/doc/libiodbc-3.52.7/ChangeLog
usr/doc/libiodbc-3.52.7/README
usr/doc/libiodbc-3.52.7/COPYING
usr/doc/libiodbc-3.52.7/AUTHORS
usr/doc/libiodbc-3.52.7/INSTALL
install/
install/doinst.sh
install/slack-desc

# slackpkg file-search sql.h
[ installed ] - libiodbc-3.52.7-x86_64-2
...
# slackpkg search package
...
# cat /var/log/packages/libiodbc-3.52.7-x86_64-2
            usr/include/sql.h
...
            usr/lib64/libiodbc.so.2.1.19
...

Thanks, I am saving the slackpkg commands for future reference. Looks like the immediate problem is 
with the library name: libiodbc instead of libodbc. But the header file sql.h is the same.

I am not sure if it is worth making a generic solution for this: on MacOS, all ODBC functions are now 
obsoleted, to be removed, and since we are stanardized on MySQL anyway, so I think I will rewrite the SQL 
history driver to use the MySQL interface directly. Then all this ODBC extra layering will go away.

K.O.

> #include "use.h"
>  { USED int i=foo(); }

Sounds nifty, but google does not find use.h.

As for unused variables, some can be removed, others not so much, there is some code in there:

int i = blah...
#if 0
if (i=42) printf("wow, we got a 42!\n");
#endif
and
if (0) printf("debug: i=%d\n", i);

(difference is if you remove "i" or otherwise break the disabled debug code, "#if 0" will complain the next time you need that debugging code, "if (0)" will 
complain right away).

Some of this disabled debug code I would rather not remove - so much debug scaffolding I have added, removed, added again, removed again, all in the same 
places that I cannot be bothered with removing it anymore. I "#if 0" it and it stays there until I need it next time. But of course now gcc complains about it.

K.O.

Hi,

I don't know if this actually fits the Bug Report category. I've been trying to install Midas on my Mac OS 
Mavericks and I keep getting errors like "conflicting types for '___builtin____strlcpy_chk' ..." and similarly for 
strlcat. I googled a bit and I think the problem might be that in Mavericks strlcat and strlcpy are already 
defined in string.h, and so there might be a redundant definition somewhere. I'm not sure what the best 
way to fix this would be though. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Andre

> 
> I don't know if this actually fits the Bug Report category. I've been trying to install Midas on my Mac OS 
> Mavericks and I keep getting errors like "conflicting types for '___builtin____strlcpy_chk' ..." and similarly for 
> strlcat. I googled a bit and I think the problem might be that in Mavericks strlcat and strlcpy are already 
> defined in string.h, and so there might be a redundant definition somewhere. I'm not sure what the best 
> way to fix this would be though. Any help would be appreciated.
> 

We have run into this problem - MacOS 10.9 plays funny games with definitions of strlcpy() & co - and it has been fixed since last Summer.

For the record, current MIDAS builds just fine on MacOS 10.9.2.

For a pure test, try the instructions posted at midas.triumf.ca:

cd $HOME
mkdir packages
cd packages
git clone https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas
git clone https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/mscb
git clone https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/mxml
cd midas
make

K.O.

> > 
> > I don't know if this actually fits the Bug Report category. I've been trying to install Midas on my Mac OS 
> > Mavericks and I keep getting errors like "conflicting types for '___builtin____strlcpy_chk' ..." and similarly for 
> > strlcat. I googled a bit and I think the problem might be that in Mavericks strlcat and strlcpy are already 
> > defined in string.h, and so there might be a redundant definition somewhere. I'm not sure what the best 
> > way to fix this would be though. Any help would be appreciated.
> > 
> 
> We have run into this problem - MacOS 10.9 plays funny games with definitions of strlcpy() & co - and it has been fixed since last Summer.
> 
> For the record, current MIDAS builds just fine on MacOS 10.9.2.
> 
> For a pure test, try the instructions posted at midas.triumf.ca:
> 
> cd $HOME
> mkdir packages
> cd packages
> git clone https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas
> git clone https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/mscb
> git clone https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/mxml
> cd midas
> make
> 
> K.O.

Thanks, it works like a charm now! I must have obtained an outdated version of Midas.

Andre

All,

I am performing a fresh install of MIDAS on an Ubuntu linux box. I follow the 
usual installation procedure:

1) git clone https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas --recursive
2) cd midas
3) git checkout release/midas-2020-08
4) mkdir build
5) cd build
6) cmake ..
7) make

Step 3 warns me that 
"warning: unable to rmdir 'manalyzer': Directory not empty" and 
"warning: unable to rmdir 'midasio': Directory not empty"

Step 7 fails.
Compilation fails with an mhttp error related to mscb:
mhttpd.cxx:8224:59: error: too few arguments to function 'int mscb_ping(int, 
short unsigned int, int, int)'
 8224 |             status = mscb_ping(fd, (unsigned short) ind, 1);


I was able to get around this by rolling mscb back to some old version (commit 
74468dd), but am extremely nervous about mix-and-matching the code this way.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Richard