I am updating TWIST to the latest MIDAS and when I load a saved .odb file, I get
these messages. Their text ought to say where and what strings it does not like.
K.O.



[twistonl@midtwist ~/online]$ odbedit
Please define environment variable 'MIDASSYS'
pointing to the midas installation directory.
[local:twist:S]/>load /twist/data_onl/current/run17548.odb
[odb.c:5600:db_paste] found string exceeding MAX_STRING_LENGTH
[odb.c:5600:db_paste] found string exceeding MAX_STRING_LENGTH
[odb.c:5600:db_paste] found string exceeding MAX_STRING_LENGTH

>    A lot of programs have a commandline option, such as "--version", where they return the program version number then exit.  As well as the
> program version number, the version number of the midas library it's linked with could also be returned (There can be more than one
> libmidas.so on a system and this would show which one was currently being linked)

This would solve the versioning problem for midas built from versionned tarballs, and I am considering a similar scheme for midas installed from
RPMs. But what do I do for midas built from CVS?!? K.O.

> > For one thing, looking at a given midas-using executable, how do I tell what version of midas it has inside?
> 
> Ther is a function cm_get_version() returning the version. As for the executable, all you can do is a
> 
> strings <executable> | grep 1.9

   A lot of programs have a commandline option, such as "--version", where they return the program version number then exit.  As well as the
program version number, the version number of the midas library it's linked with could also be returned (There can be more than one
libmidas.so on a system and this would show which one was currently being linked)

   Something I would find useful would be for the version number to identify precisely which version you have, i.e. not to have different
versions of midas given the same version number.  I've had problems earlier this year due to midas-1.9.3 changing several times between
January and July, while keeping the same number.  I think if "in-between" versions of midas are to be made available, they should contain a
revision number or date or something in the version number to identify them.

> For remote connections (through mserver), there is already a version check. If the minor version differs, you get a warning, if the major
> versions differ (1.>>9<<.4), the client won't start. So at least for remote connection you get a clue.

   Safety measures like these can sometimes get in the way, if you know what you're doing.  So unless there is absolutely no possibility of
success, I think checks such as this one should be overrideable (by a client option).

Chris

> Right. We cannot fix the past, but we should fix the future. BTW, "do not mix versions" is hard to enforce and mismatches did, do and
> will happen

For remote connections (through mserver), there is already a version check. If the minor version differs, you get a warning, if the major
versions differ (1.>>9<<.4), the client won't start. So at least for remote connection you get a clue.

> For one thing, looking at a given midas-using executable, how do I tell what version of midas it has inside?

Ther is a function cm_get_version() returning the version. As for the executable, all you can do is a

strings <executable> | grep 1.9

> However, we are planning to make a new release 1.9.5 soon (next week), so can can people tell not to "mix" 1.9.5 with pre-1.9.5 programs.

Right. We cannot fix the past, but we should fix the future. BTW, "do not mix versions" is hard to enforce and mismatches did, do and
will happen. For one thing, looking at a given midas-using executable, how do I tell what version of midas it has inside?

K.O.

> Stefan, to avoid confusion from crashes caused by incompatible ODBs would it be possible to add a "version number" to ODB,
together with a check and an error message 
> saying "oops... incompatible ODB, please rebuild your programs"? We tend to have different versions of midas floating around and
users have old executables stashed away, 
> and all this makes it rather difficult to manually keep track on what ODB is compatible with what midas.

I fully agree that a version number in ODB is a good thing, and I certainly will put one there, but this won't help for old
applications. If I add new code which checks in cm_connect_experiment() if the version number matches, this will only help for new
applications connecting to old ODBs. If old applications (prior to invention of the version number) connect to a new ODB, they still
will crash.

However, we are planning to make a new release 1.9.5 soon (next week), so can can people tell not to "mix" 1.9.5 with pre-1.9.5
programs.

After a felicitous confuence of stellar bodies (Stefan, myself, some mscb hardware
and a mac laptop all in the same room for a few days), I wrote some MacOSX
code to support the MSCB-USB dongle using the native IoKit USB API. During testing,
I was able to communicate with an MSCB High voltage regulator module. I am now
commiting this code to CVS, warts and all (we can clean it up when somebody actually
uses it). Tested compilation on Linux (with libusb) and MacOSX (native
IoKit. MacOSX+libusb is possible but untested), Win32 should be unaffected by my changes,
but I could not test it.
K.O.

> It is important to note that clients compiled
> with the old limits cannot coexist with clients compiled with the new limits. You will get
> ODB corruption notifications and everything will crash, and you wonder where this comes from.
> 
> So once you CVS update midas.h, revision 1.139, please make sure to recompile *ALL* your
> midas applications with the new midas.h.

Stefan, to avoid confusion from crashes caused by incompatible ODBs would it be possible to add a "version number" to ODB, together with a check and an error message 
saying "oops... incompatible ODB, please rebuild your programs"? We tend to have different versions of midas floating around and users have old executables stashed away, 
and all this makes it rather difficult to manually keep track on what ODB is compatible with what midas.

K.O.

A new transition scheme has been implemented and committed. Previously, one had the
possibility to register for PRE/POST transitions, which was necessary in order to first
stop the frontends, then stop the logger to close the data file. While this scheme
long time has proven to be successful, it was now concluded that three levels
(PRESTROP/STOP/POSTSTOP for example) are not suffucient in some cases. Therefore,
a true sequence-based scheme has been introduced, implemented and committed.

The PRE/POST transition have been removed and an extra parameter "sequence_number"
has been added to cm_register_transition. If clients register with different
sequence numbers, their RPC transition function is executed according to their
sequnce number, smaller numbers being executed prior to larger numbers.

The frontends register at sequence number 500 for example, while the logger
registers with 200 for start and 800 for stop, making sure it's called after the
frontend(s) when stopping a run. The default numbers can be changed from within
the user code with the new function cm_set_transition_sequence(). This way, it is
for example possible to have all frontends being called in a certain sequence
when starting and stopping runs.

The modification will (hopefully) not have any influence of existing experiemnts,
as long as they don't call cm_register_transition directly. If so however, one has
to add the additional parameter to this function.

Due to some request several limitations like the maximal number of clients to the ODB have 
been increased in midas.h and committed to CVS. It is important to note that clients compiled
with the old limits cannot coexist with clients compiled with the new limits. You will get
ODB corruption notifications and everything will crash, and you wonder where this comes from.

So once you CVS update midas.h, revision 1.139, please make sure to recompile *ALL* your
midas applications with the new midas.h.

Stefan

Hi,
 has anyone tried runnning midas frontend on a Linux running 
on a Motorola MVME167 motorola embedded CPU?
I have seen people running Linux on a MV167 
(http://www.sleepie.demon.co.uk/linuxvme/)
so in principle this can be done.

The reason I am asking is that we have a lot of them in house 
and we would like to avoid paying for VxWorks
(I have succesfully run Midas on a mvme167/VxWorks node)

Or maybe one has come up with a much better solution 
[short of dumping mv167 into a sewer :)]

Piotr

- remove ss_tape_get_blockn from lazylogger.c
- add ss_tape_get_blockn to system.c
- add ss_tape_get_blockn prototype into midas.h
- fix buffer size for "dir" in mtape.c
- add block# for "dir" in mtape if command successful.
- handle TID_STRUCT bank type by display as 8bit in ybos.c (mdump)

I have added ROOT support to midas\examples\experiment\makefile.nt. To 
compile the example experiment under Windows, one needs

1) Installed version of ROOT
2) Having ROOTSYS environment variable defined
3) Invoke "nmake -f makefile.nt" in the midas\examples\experiment directory

Please note that in the current release 3.05 of ROOT, sockets are not yet 
working under Windows, so the histogram server built into the analyzer 
cannot be accessed. It is however possible to output the analyzed data into 
a .root file and visualize it with the root browser like

analyzer -i run00001.mid -o run00001.root

Added ss_create_thread support for Linux in system.c
Added pthread library in main make file

Add more checks to db_validate_key() for pkey->total_size, item_size and
num_values. Automatically correct total_size to be item_size*num_values (we
saw this corruption and tested this fix).

K.O.

For your enjoyment, here is the diff:

RCS file: /usr/local/cvsroot/midas/src/odb.c,v
retrieving revision 1.64
diff -r1.64 odb.c
718a719,744
>   /* check key sizes */
>   if ((pkey->total_size < 0)||(pkey->total_size > pheader->key_size))
>     {
>     cm_msg(MERROR, "db_validate_key", "Warning: invalid key \"%s\"
total_size: %d", path, pkey->total_size);
>     return 0;
>     }
> 
>   if ((pkey->item_size < 0)||(pkey->item_size > pheader->key_size))
>     {
>     cm_msg(MERROR, "db_validate_key", "Warning: invalid key \"%s\"
item_size: %d", path, pkey->item_size);
>     return 0;
>     }
> 
>   if ((pkey->num_values < 0)||(pkey->num_values > pheader->key_size))
>     {
>     cm_msg(MERROR, "db_validate_key", "Warning: invalid key \"%s\"
num_values: %d", path, pkey->num_values);
>     return 0;
>     }
> 
>   /* check and correct key size */
>   if (pkey->total_size != pkey->item_size*pkey->num_values)
>     {
>     cm_msg(MINFO,  "db_validate_key", "Warning: corrected key \"%s\" size:
total_size=%d, should be %d*%d=%d", path, pkey->total_size, pkey->item_size,
pkey->num_values, pkey
->item_size*pkey->num_values);
>     pkey->total_size = pkey->item_size*pkey->num_values;
>     }
> 

Add switch "-C" to odbedit to allow it to connect to corrupted ODB. Then,
depending on corruption, the user can manually remove or correct the
corrupted entries. Also, some corruption is automatically fixed by "odbedit"
itself. I use this functionality to debug and fix broken ODBs.

K.O.

For your enjoyment, here is the diff:

diff -r1.64 odbedit.c
3058a3059
> BOOL          corrupted;
3063c3064
<   debug = cmd_mode = FALSE;
---
>   debug = corrupted = cmd_mode = FALSE;
3077a3079,3080
>     else if (argv[i][0] == '-' && argv[i][1] == 'C')
>       corrupted = TRUE;
3104c3107,3108
<         printf("               [-c Command] [-c @CommandFile] [-s size]
[-g (debug)]\n\n");
---
>         printf("               [-c Command] [-c @CommandFile] [-s size]\n");
>         printf("               [-g (debug)] [-C (connect to corrupted
ODB)]\n\n");
3123c3127,3133
<   if (status != CM_SUCCESS)
---
>   else if ((status == DB_INVALID_HANDLE)&&corrupted)
>     {
>     cm_get_error(status, str);
>     puts(str);
>     printf("ODB is corrupted, connecting anyway...\n");
>     }
>   else if (status != CM_SUCCESS)

The change is required to support implementation of pthreads in the Linux
compile of Midas. This was added recently. I believe pthreads is also needed
for ROOT based compiles.

David

> It appears that all midas applications are now required to link with the
> pthreads library even if they do not use threads. This is caused by a
> pthread_create() call from ss_thread_create() in system.c.
> 
> Is this the intended behaviour?
> 
> K.O.

It appears that all midas applications are now required to link with the
pthreads library even if they do not use threads. This is caused by a
pthread_create() call from ss_thread_create() in system.c.

Is this the intended behaviour?

K.O.

- add pthread lib to examples/... makefile
- fix ybos_simfe.c for max_event_size
- fix camacnul.c for cam_inhibit_test(), cam_interrupt_test()
- update documentation (1.9.3)
- made midas-1.9.3-1.tar.gz on Triumf site

- makefile.nt (/examples/experiment, /hbook)
  adjusted for local hmana.obj build  as for rmana.obj, add cvs tag for
  revision comment entry.
- drivers/class/hv.c
  change comment // to /* */