A new feature has been implemented in revision 4561 which allows runs with a 
certain duration. To use this, one has to set the variaable

/Logger/Run Duration

to a non-zero value in seconds. After a run lasted for this duration, it gets 
stopped automatically by the logger. If the auto-restart flag is on, this allows 
sequences of automatically started and stopped runs with all then have the same 
duration.

> A new feature has been implemented in revision 4561 which allows runs with a 
> certain duration. To use this, one has to set the variaable
> 
> /Logger/Run Duration
> 
> to a non-zero value in seconds. After a run lasted for this duration, it gets 
> stopped automatically by the logger. If the auto-restart flag is on, this allows 
> sequences of automatically started and stopped runs with all then have the same 
> duration.

A similar scheme has been implemented to pose a certain duration on subruns. This can 
be controlled by the variable

/Logger/Subrun duration

when set to a non-zero value in seconds.

> Documentation for writing midas history data to SQL (mysql) is now documented in midas doxygen files 
> (make dox; firefox doxfiles/html/index.html). The corresponding logger and mhttpd code has been 
> committed for some time now and it is used in production environment by the t2k/nd280 slow controls 
> daq system at TRIUMF.
> svn rev 4487


An updated version of the SQL history code is now committed to midas svn.

The new code is in history_sql.cxx. It implements a C++ interface to the MIDAS history (history.h),
and improves on the old code history_odbc.cxx by adding:
- an index table for remembering MIDAS names of SQL tables and columns (our midas users like to use funny characters in history 
names that are not permitted in SQL table and column names),
- caching of database schema (event names, etc) with a noticeable speedup of mhttpd (there is a new button on the history panel editor 
"clear history cache" to make mhttpd reload the database schema.

The updated documentation for using SQL history is committed to midas svn doxfiles/internal.dox (svn up; make dox; firefox 
doxfiles/html/index.html), or see my copy on the web at
http://ladd00.triumf.ca/~olchansk/midas/Internal.html#History_sql_internal

svn rev 4595
K.O.

> When using remote midas clients with mserver, you may have noticed the zero-size .RPC.SHM files 
> these clients create in the directory where you run them.

Well, RPC.SHM bites. Please reread the parent message for full details, but in the nutshell, it is a global
semaphore that permits only one midas rpc client to talk to midas at a time (it was intended for local
locking between threads inside one midas application).

I have about 10 remote midas frontends started by ssh all in the same directory, so they all share the same
.RPC.SHM semaphore and do not live through the night - die from ODB timeouts because of RPC semaphore contention.

In a test version of MIDAS, I disabled the RPC.SHM semaphore, and now my clients live through the night, very
good.

Long term, we should fix this by using application-local mutexes (i.e. pthread_mutex, also works on MacOS, do
Windows have pthreads yet?).

This will also cleanup some of the ODB locking, which currently confuses pid's, tid's etc and is completely
broken on MacOS because some of these values are 64-bit and do not fit into the 32-bit data fields in MIDAS
shared memories.

Short term, I can add a flag for enabling and disabling the RPC semaphore from the user application: enabled
by default, but user can disable it if they do not use threads.

Alternatively, I can disable it by default, then enable it automatically if multiple threads are detected or
if ss_thread_create() is called.

Could also make it an environment variable.

Any preferences?

K.O.

The custom and alias links in the standard midas status page were shown as HTML 
links so far. If there are many links with names having spaces in their names, 
it's a bit hard to distinguish between them. Therefore, they are packed now into 
individual buttons (see attachment) starting from SVN revision 4633 on. This makes 
also the look more homogeneous. If there is any problem with that, please report.

Since the column on the main midas status page with fraction of analyzed events is 
barely used, I decided to drop it. Anyhow it does not make sense for all slow 
control events. If this feature is required in some experiment, I propose to move it 
into a custom page and calculate this ratio in JavaScript, where one has much more 
flexibility. 

This modification frees up more space on the status page for the "Status" column, where 
front-end programs can report errors etc.

The mhttpd program shows some standard buttons in the top row for 
starting/stopping runs, accessing the ODB, Alarms, etc. Since not all experiments 
make use of all buttons, they have been customized. By default mhttpd creates 
following entry in the ODB:

/Experiment/Menu Buttons = Start, ODB, Messages, ELog, Alarms, Programs, History, 
Config, Help

Which is the standard set (except the old CNAF). People can customize this now by 
removing unnecessary buttons or by changing their order. The "Start" entry above 
actually causes the whole set of Start/Stop/Pause/Resume buttons to appear, 
depending on the current run state. 

/Experiment/Menu Buttons = Start, ODB, Messages, ELog, Alarms, Programs, History, MSCB, Config, Help

[local:MEG:R]/MSCB>ls -r
MSCB
    Submaster
        mscb004
            Pwd                 xxxxx
            Comment             BTS
            Address             1
        mscb034
            Pwd                 xxxxx
            Comment             XEC HV & LED
            Address
                                0
                                1
                                2

/Equipment/<name>/Settings/Devices/Input/Device

/Equipment/<name>/Settings/Devices/<name>/MSCB Device

Notes on the implementation of the MIDAS alarm system.

Alarms are checked inside alarm.c::al_check(). This function is called by
cm_yield() every 10 seconds and by rpc_server_thread(), also every 10 seconds.

For remote midas clients, their al_check() issues an RPC_AL_CHECK RPC call into
the mserver, where rpc_server_dispatch() calls the local al_check().

As result, all alarm checks run inside a process directly attached to the local
midas shared memory (inside a local client or inside an mserver process for a
remote client).

Each and every midas client runs the alarm checks. To prevent race conditions
between different midas clients, access to al_check() is serialized using the
ALARM semaphore.

Inside al_check(), alarms are triggered using al_trigger_alarm(), which in turn
calls al_trigger_class(). Inside al_trigger_class(), the alarm is recorded into
an elog or into midas.log using cm_msg(MTALK).

Special note should be made of the ODB setting "/Alarm/Classes/xxx/System
message interval", which has a surprising effect - after an alarm is recorded
into system messages (using cm_msg(MTALK)), no record is made of any subsequent
alarms until the time interval set by this variable elapses. With default value
of 60 seconds, after one alarm, no more alarms are recorded for 60 seconds.
Also, because all the alarms are checked at the same time, only the first
triggered alarm will be recorded.

As of alarm.c rev 4683, "System message interval" set to 0 ensures that every
alarm is recorded into the midas log file. (In previous revisions, this setting
may still miss some alarms).

There are 3 types of alarms:

1) "program not running" alarms.

These alarms are enabled in ODB by setting "/Programs/ppp/Alarm class". Each
time al_check() runs, every program listed in "/Programs" is tested using
"cm_exist()" and if the program is not running, the time of first failure is
remembered in "/Programs/ppp/First failed".

If the program has not been running for longer than the time set in ODB
"/Programs/ppp/Check interval", an alarm is triggered (if enabled by
"/Programs/ppp/Alarm class" and the program is restarted (if enabled by
"/Programs/ppp/Auto restart").

The "not running" condition is tested every 10 seconds (each time al_check() is
called), but the frequency of "program not running" alarms can be reduced by
increasing the value of "/Alarms/Alarms/ppp/Check interval" (default value 60
seconds). This can be useful if "System message interval" is set to zero.

2) "evaluated" alarms
3) "periodic" alarms

There is nothing surprising in these alarms. Each alarm is checked with a time
period set by "/Alarm/xxx/Check interval". The value of an evaluated alarm is
computed using al_evaluate_condition().

K.O.

> The mhttpd program shows some standard buttons in the top row for 
> starting/stopping runs, accessing the ODB, Alarms, etc. Since not all experiments 
> make use of all buttons, they have been customized. By default mhttpd creates 
> following entry in the ODB:
> 
> /Experiment/Menu Buttons = Start, ODB, Messages, ELog, Alarms, Programs, History, 
> Config, Help
> 
> Which is the standard set (except the old CNAF). People can customize this now by 
> removing unnecessary buttons or by changing their order. The "Start" entry above 
> actually causes the whole set of Start/Stop/Pause/Resume buttons to appear, 
> depending on the current run state. 

Upon request the set of Menu Buttons has been extended to

/Experiment/Menu Buttons = Start, Pause, ODB, Messages, ELog, Alarms, Programs, 
History, Config, Help

by adding the additional "Pause" string. Without "Pause" being present in the list of 
menu buttons, the run cannot be paused/resumed, but only started/stopped. This is 
required by some experiments. If "/Experiment/Menu Buttons" is not present in the ODB, 
it gets created with the above default. If it is there from the previous update, the 
"Pause" string might be missing, so it must be added by hand if required. The 
modification is committed as revision #4684.

As of svn rev 4794, midas builds, runs and should be fully usable on MacOS 10.6.4. Previous revisions did 
not compile due to assorted Linuxisms and did not run because of a sizeof() problem in ss_gettid(). Also 
one of the system header files (mtio.h?) present in MacOS 10.5 vanished from 10.6.

Please continue reporting all problems with midas on macos to this forum.
K.O.

As of svn rev 4800, YBOS support was made optional, disabled by default. (But note that ybos.c is still used 
by mdump). See HAVE_YBOS in the Makefile.
K.O.

> As of svn rev 4800, YBOS support was made optional, disabled by default. (But note that ybos.c is still used 
> by mdump). See HAVE_YBOS in the Makefile.


It looks like some example drivers in .../drivers/class want to link against YBOS libraries. This fails because ybos.o is missing from the MIDAS library.

After discussions with SR and PAA, we think YBOS support can be removed or made optional, but there are too many of these drivers for me to fix 
them all right now in five minutes. Please accept my apology and use these workarounds:

If you get linker errors because of missing YBOS functions:

1) enable YBOS suport in the Makefile (uncomment HAVE_YBOS=1), or
2) "#ifdef HAVE_YBOS" all places that call YBOS functions

Solution (2) is preferable as it permits us to eventually remove YBOS completely. If you fix files from MIDAS svn, please do send me patches or diffs (or 
post them here).


K.O.

As of svn rev 4807, src/system.c has an experimental implementation of POSIX shared memory. It is 
similar to the already existing implementation of MMAP shared memory, but uses POSIX shm_open() 
instead of directly mmapping the .xxx.SHM file.

There are several benefits to using POSIX shared memory:
1) on MacOS, the (unchangable?) maximum SYSV shared memory is about 2 Mbytes, too small for most 
MIDAS experiments. POSIX shared memory does not seem to have such a limit;
2) on Linux, when using SYSV shared memory, the .xxx.SHM files are tied to the shared memory keys 
using ftok(). If the .xxx.SHM files are located on an NFS-mounted filesystem, ftok() has been observed 
to malfunction and return the same key for different shared memory buffers, causing mighty confusing 
behaviour of MIDAS. (while "man ftok" discusses a theoretical possibility for such collisions, I have 
observed ftok() collisions first hand on a running experiment and it cost us several hours to understand 
why all the events go into the wrong event buffers). The present POSIX shared memory implementation 
does not have such a problem.

This implementation has received limited testing on Linux and MacOS, and it is now the default shared 
memory implementation on MacOS. Linux continues to use SYSV shared memory (ipcs & co). Windows 
uses it's own implementation of shared memory (same as mmap, the best I can tell).

svn 4807
K.O.

> As of svn rev 4794, midas builds, runs and should be fully usable on MacOS 10.6.4. Previous revisions did 
> not compile due to assorted Linuxisms and did not run because of a sizeof() problem in ss_gettid(). Also 
> one of the system header files (mtio.h?) present in MacOS 10.5 vanished from 10.6.

It turns out that on MacOS 10.6 the default maximum SYSV shared memory size is about 2 Mbytes, too small even for the default MIDAS SYSTEM 
event buffer.

Svn revision 4807 implements POSIX shared memory, which does not seem to have such a small size limit and makes it the default on MacOS.

This update fixes the last issue that I am aware of for running MIDAS on MacOS.

svn rev 4807
K.O.

> It looks like some example drivers in .../drivers/class want to link against YBOS libraries. 
> This fails because ybos.o is missing from the MIDAS library.

I fixed the class drivers in meantime (SVN 4814).

There is however another problem: The lazylogger needs YBOS support compiled in if the FTP transfer mode is used. 
At PSI we are stuck at the moment to FTP, so we still need YBOS there (although none of the data is in YBOS format). 
Maybe there is a chance that this will be fixed some time and we can get rid of YBOS.

mhttpd.c svn rev 4823 implements a modified history planel editor. all previous functions should work 
as before (minus new bugs).

New experimental functions added:

a) there is a new column "Order" containing numbers 10, 20, 30, etc. If you change "30" to (say) "15" 
and press "refresh", the history variables will be reordered according to the new values. If you change 
(say) "10" to "" (empty) or "0" and press "refresh", this variable will be deleted. (But there is a UI wart - if 
you accidentally change the order value to something non-numeric (i.e. "aaa1" or " 1" (leading space) 
and press "enter", the variable will be immediately deleted from odb - "enter" works as "refresh + save" 
- should probably work as "refresh" requiring explicit press on the "save" button).

b) there is a new button "List all" to list all existing variables - next to each variable is a checkbox - 
select any checkboxes and press "add selected" to add selected variables to the history plot. You may 
find this function useful (or not), depending on how many variables you have in your history. For 
T2K/ND280 this is still not good enough (there are still too many variables) and I want to change this to 
a 3 level (equipment, history event, history tag) expandable/collapsable tree (or whatever is simplest to 
implement) - to permit the user to quickly zoom on the interesting variables.

I may still tweak with the UI of these new functions, but the basic functionality (reorder+delete and 
selection of multiple variables from a list) seems to be solid. Comments and suggestions on how to 
make it work the best for your experiment are very welcome.

K.O.

> mhttpd.c svn rev 4823 implements a modified history planel editor. all previous functions should work 
> as before (minus new bugs). New experimental functions added:
> 
> a) there is a new column "Order" containing numbers 10, 20, 30, etc. ...

While this seems to work well enough, it might remain a function for "advanced users". For novice
users, a simpler gui, i.e. with "move up" and "move down" buttons, would have been "better", or
at least more familiar. (However I have double plus negative experience using nice
looking "move up and down buttons" to rearrange something I actually need to rearrange,
so I have no interest in implementing something I do not want to use. Think about moving
an item all the way from the bottom of a 10 item list to the very top. No do this not as a mental
exercise, but on a slow loading mhttpd web page running somewhere in Japan).

> b) there is a new button "List all variables" to list all existing variables

Some improvement here (mhttpd.c svn 4823): variables are organized by equipment and by history event
into an expandable list. (I already know that this list expansion does not play well with web page
scrolling, same problem exists in the ODB inline editor).

Again, midas users who have a small number of history events may find this new function
not so useful, but the old way was pretty much unusable for T2K/ND280.

Also, for users with a large number of history events, there 2 new ODB variables
/History/MaxDisplayEvents and /History/MaxDisplayTags which limit the maximum
number of events and tags listed in the old scrollable "option" selector history editor.
For the T2K/ND280 case, this reduces the size of the web page and reduces the page load
time quite substantially. (I picked default values of 20 events and 200 tags quite arbitrary,
perhaps the default should have been "no limit", but then nobody would benefit from this
possibility to substantially reduce web page load times - unless they read documentation (yea, right!)
that is not yet written).

K.O.

In svn rev 4825, I added host based access control to mserver (the MIDAS RPC server). The implementation 
is a verbatim copy mhttpd host based access control list (-a command line switch).

Same as for mhttpd, "mserver -a hostname" enables access control and only permits access from listed 
host names (supply multiple -a switches for multiple hostnames).

This access control does not apply yet for the MIDAS RPC socket connections between MIDAS clients used 
to do RPC callbacks, i.e. to request run transitions. Each MIDAS program is listening for MIDAS RPC 
connections on a high TCP port and at present accepts connections from anybody. To implement access 
controls one could add "-a" switches to every midas application (lot of work) or fill the access control list 
automatically from ODB. mserver still has to use the "-a" command line switches because there is no ODB 
connection when it has to accept or reject remote sockets.

svn rev 4825
K.O.