midas-2020-12-a is here.

new features and notable updates since midas-2020-03:

- new C++ ODB interface odbxx.h
- image history
- much improved history plots
- new sequencer pages
- UTF-8 clean ODB (complains if any TID_STRING is invalid UTF-8)
- mhttpd update to mongoose 6.16 with much improved mulththreading
- mhttpd update to use MBEDTLS in preference to problematic OpenSSL
- MidasConfig.cmake contributed by Mathieu Guigue

plans for next development: major update of mlogger to simplify channel 
configuration in odb, improvements to mhttpd multithreading, new history plot 
configuration page, more c++ification.

To obtain this release, either checkout the top of branch release/midas-2020-08 
(recommended) or checkout the tag midas-2020-08-a.

K.O.

This turned out to be a tricky problem. I am adding a warning about it in mlogger. This should go into midas-
2020-07. Closing bug #193. K.O.


> We should fix this for midas-2019-10.
> 
> https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas/issues/193/confusion-in-history-event-ids
> 
> K.O.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > Hi Konstantin,
> > 
> > > > [local:e666:S]History>ls -l /History/Events
> > > > Key name                        Type    #Val  Size  Last Opn Mode Value
> > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > 1                               STRING  1     10    2m   0   RWD  FeDummy02
> > > > 0                               STRING  1     16    2m   0   RWD  Run transitions
> > > 
> > > Something is very broken. There should be more entries here, at least
> > > there should be entries for "FeDummy01" and usually there is also an entry
> > > for "FeDummy" because one invariably runs fedummy without "-i" at least once.
> > 
> > This is a fresh experiment that I started just to test this this issue, that is why there are not many 
> > entries in /History/Events. I agree though that we should expect to see a FeDummy01 entry.
> >  
> > > The fact that changing from "midas" storage to "file" storage makes no difference
> > > also indicates that something is very broken.
> > > 
> > > I want to debug this.
> > > 
> > > Since you tried the "file" storage, can you send me the output of "ls -l mhf*.dat" in the directory
> > > with the history files? (it should have the "*.hst" files from the "midas" storage and "mhf*.dat" 
> > files
> > > from the "file" storage.
> > 
> > When I started this experiment yesterday(?) I disabled the Midas history when I enbled the file 
> > history. Jsut now I reenabled the Midas history, so they are currently both active.
> > 
> > % ls -l work/online/{*.hst,mhf*.dat}
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 hastings hastings  14996 Sep 17 10:21 work/online/190917.hst
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 hastings hastings   3292 Sep 18 16:29 work/online/190918.hst
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 hastings hastings 867288 Sep 18 16:29 work/online/mhf_1568683062_20190917_fedummy01.dat
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 hastings hastings 867288 Sep 18 16:29 work/online/mhf_1568683062_20190917_fedummy02.dat
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 hastings hastings    166 Sep 17 10:17 
> > work/online/mhf_1568683062_20190917_run_transitions.dat
> > 
> > And again, just as a sanity check:
> > 
> > % odbedit -c 'ls -l /History/Events'
> > Key name                        Type    #Val  Size  Last Opn Mode Value
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 1                               STRING  1     10    1m   0   RWD  FeDummy02
> > 0                               STRING  1     16    1m   0   RWD  Run transitions
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> > Nick.

> 1. Is it possible to get "Running time" using, for example, jsonrpc? (please see 
> the attached file)

You have in the ODB "/Runinfo/Start time binary" which is measured in seconds since 
1970. By subtracting this from the current time, you get the running time.

> 2. Is it possible to configure "Start time" and "Stop time" with time zone? For 
> example when I start a new run, value of "Start time" key is automatically changed 
> to "Fri Aug 21 12:38:36 2020" without time zone. 

"Start time binary" and "Stop time binary" are in seconds since the 1970 in UTC, so no 
time zone involved there. The ASCII versions of the start/stop time are derived from 
the binary time using the server's local time zone. If you want to display them in a 
different time zone, you have to create a custom page and convert it to another time 
zone using JavaScript like

var d = new Date(start_time_binary);

Stefan

Hello,

I have a few questions about time information:
1. Is it possible to get "Running time" using, for example, jsonrpc? (please see 
the attached file)
2. Is it possible to configure "Start time" and "Stop time" with time zone? For 
example when I start a new run, value of "Start time" key is automatically changed 
to "Fri Aug 21 12:38:36 2020" without time zone. 

Thank you.

Thank you!

Yan

> > Hello,
> > 
> > I am wondering if there is a function that checks the access mode for a key? I 
> > found the db_set_mode() function that allows me to set the access mode for a key, 
> > but failed to find its counterpart get function.
> > 
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Yan
> 
> 
>   KEY k;
>   db_get_key(hDB, handle, &k);
>   std::cout << k.access_mode << std::endl;
> 
> /Stefan

> Hello,
> 
> I am wondering if there is a function that checks the access mode for a key? I 
> found the db_set_mode() function that allows me to set the access mode for a key, 
> but failed to find its counterpart get function.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Yan


  KEY k;
  db_get_key(hDB, handle, &k);
  std::cout << k.access_mode << std::endl;

/Stefan

Hello,

I am wondering if there is a function that checks the access mode for a key? I 
found the db_set_mode() function that allows me to set the access mode for a key, 
but failed to find its counterpart get function.

Thanks in advance,
Yan

> It would be good to pin point there the data is lost. This is the sequence:
> 
> frontend user code -> mfe.c code -> SYSTEM buffer -> mlogger -> disk
> 
> To see if correct data arrives to the SYSTEM buffer, run:
> mdump -z SYSTEM
> 
> To see if mlogger is receiving events from the SYSTEM buffer, run:
> mlogger -v ### mlogger should report all events, history and data
> 
> To see if mlogger writes events to disk, examine the disk file (in this case, you already did, data is not there).
> 
> I would guess that your data does not make it out from the frontend (mdump shows "nothing"),
> if data were to arrive into the SYSTEM buffer, it would make it to disk, unless
> mlogger is misconfigured (but you already checked that).
> 
> If you have trouble with the frontend framework code, you can try to switch from the mfe.c frontend
> to the newer c++ tmfe frontend (see progs/fetest_tmfe.cxx and progs/fetest_tmfe_thread.cxx).
> 
> K.O.

Good evening

I tried to reproduce the behavior in a very simple FE but it did not work out. The next thing for me would be to take the FE that is producing this behavior, replace all the device communication and data with dummies. If the problem is still there I would start to simplify as much as possible. 

Following the inputs of KO, I pin-pointed the data loss. The system buffer still gets the data but the mlogger does not write the data event. Then of course the data is also not anymore present in the data file. Therefore, I checked the logger settings again, Event ID and Trigger Mask still -1. Nothing else, at least from my point of view, that is misconfigured. Nevertheless, if it helps I can send my ODB settings. 

When doing the tests just before I found something else that probably can give a hint to the problem. The data is only lost if the time between two runs is long (a few seconds). As an example: If I run a sequence with a loop and after the FE stops the run the loop ends and the next run is started automatically, then only the first run has no data, which is the one after a longer time of no data taking. When I add a "WAIT Seconds 5" after the run before starting the next, not data is written to the disk for any run. I also found this once when adding a sleep(1) at the end of the FE readout function but back then did not think about it any further. 

Best, Ivo

> I have to reproduce the problem to fix it. Why don't you go and modify midas/examples/experiment/frontend.cxx in such a way that 
> it creates exactly the banks you have, just with random data. If you see the same problem, send me your frontend file so that I 
> can reproduce it.

It would be good to pin point there the data is lost. This is the sequence:

frontend user code -> mfe.c code -> SYSTEM buffer -> mlogger -> disk

To see if correct data arrives to the SYSTEM buffer, run:
mdump -z SYSTEM

To see if mlogger is receiving events from the SYSTEM buffer, run:
mlogger -v ### mlogger should report all events, history and data

To see if mlogger writes events to disk, examine the disk file (in this case, you already did, data is not there).

I would guess that your data does not make it out from the frontend (mdump shows "nothing"),
if data were to arrive into the SYSTEM buffer, it would make it to disk, unless
mlogger is misconfigured (but you already checked that).

If you have trouble with the frontend framework code, you can try to switch from the mfe.c frontend
to the newer c++ tmfe frontend (see progs/fetest_tmfe.cxx and progs/fetest_tmfe_thread.cxx).

K.O.

I have to reproduce the problem to fix it. Why don't you go and modify midas/examples/experiment/frontend.cxx in such a way that 
it creates exactly the banks you have, just with random data. If you see the same problem, send me your frontend file so that I 
can reproduce it.

> Have you tried longer files? Maybe a few 100 MB or so. Maybe a buffer is not flushed correctly at the end of a run.

Hi,

If the online mdump is correct (by default using the -1, -1 filter), the data are in the main SYSTEM buffer. 

by the way, similar to the dump - mdump -x file.mid -m raw -d x will show you the events.

The fact that the analyzer doesn't see the banks would indicate a buffer handling issue as mentioned by Stefan.
To confirm, I would check at the end of a run that the sum of the equipment "events sent" matches the logger "Events written".

> > > Dear all
> > > 
> > > We just started our beam time at ILL and just found yesterday that for certain 
> > > settings of our detector the data is not saved into the .mid files. Running "mdump 
> > > -l 10" online we see the data coming in as they should. Nevertheless, if we run 
> > > "mdump -x runXXXXXX.mid" offline, the data file has no events and the banks are 
> > > missing. Any ideas where the data could go lost?
> > > 
> > > Thanks in advance,
> > > Ivo
> > 
> > Have you checked 
> > 
> > /Logger/Channels/0/Settings/Event ID = -1
> > /Logger/Channels/0/Settings/Trigger mask = -1
> > 
> > If these settings are not -1, they filter the data stream for certain events and trigger 
> > masks.
> > 
> > Stefan
> 
> Good morning Stefan
> 
> Both set to -1. We only have one logging channel. If we run a sequence with a few runs and the 
> same settings, sometimes data is in the .mid file and sometimes it is not.
> 
> Best,
> Ivo 


Hi,

If the online mdump is correct (by default using the -1, -1 filter), the data are in the main SYSTEM buffer. 
Similar to the dump -
The fact that the analyzer doesn't see the banks would indicate a buffer handling issue as mentioned by Stefan.
To confirm, I would check at the end of a run that the sum of the equipment "events sent" matches the logger "Events written".

> Have you tried longer files? Maybe a few 100 MB or so. Maybe a buffer is not flushed correctly at the end of a run.

Yes, I did. This 7 KB of the data bank is about the limit. If we go only 1 KB higher it seems that we save all data. In 
our specific case, this is the number of time bins (256 pixels with 7 time bins results in data loss, with 8 time bins it 
seems to be okay, data type is DWORD). 

Of course, a workaround for us is to save at least 8 time bins and throw 7 of them away later on. Nevertheless, since we 
are only in the commissioning phase now this is okay, I would just like to avoid data loss in the data taking phase of the 
experiment so knowing where the problem origins could help. 

I did another test with another FE running that produces a lot of data. The behavior is the same though. If the bank size 
is less than about 8 KB, the bank is not saved anymore. But probably this is anyway the expected behavior since it is a 
different FE that produces the data. 

So if it is coming from the buffer, is there something I could change to test or solve the problem?

Best, Ivo

As the Midas software is installed using CMake, it can be easily integrated into 
other CMake projects using the MidasConfig.cmake file produced during the Midas 
installation.

This file points to the location of the include and libraries of Midas using three 
variables:
- MIDAS_INCLUDE_DIRS
- MIDAS_LIBRARY_DIRS
- MIDAS_LIBRARIES

Then the CMakeLists file of the new project can use the CMake find_package 
functionalities like:
```
find_package (Midas REQUIRED)
if (MIDAS_FOUND)
    MESSAGE(STATUS "Found midas: libraries ${MIDAS_LIBRARIES}")
    pbuilder_add_ext_libraries (${MIDAS_LIBRARIES})
else (MIDAS_FOUND)
    message(FATAL "Unable to find midas")
endif (MIDAS_FOUND)
include_directories (${MIDAS_INCLUDE_DIR})
```
pbuilder_add_ext_libraries is a CMake macro allowing to automatically add the 
libraries into the project: this macro can be found here: 
https://github.com/project8/scarab/blob/master/cmake/PackageBuilder.cmake
If such macro doesn't exist, the linkage to each executable/library can be done 
similarly to https://midas.triumf.ca/elog/Midas/1964 using: 

```
target_link_libraries(crfe ${MIDAS_LIBARIES} ${LIBS})
```

The current version of the MidasConfig.cmake is minimal and could for example 
include a version number: this would allow to define a e.g. minimal version of 
Midas needed by the new project.

Have you tried longer files? Maybe a few 100 MB or so. Maybe a buffer is not flushed correctly at the end of a run.

> with "dump" I meant a true object dump like "hexdump -C run000001.mid". I produced a file with ADC0 and TDC0 
> banks (that's the example from the distribution under exampels/experiments/frontend.cxx), and I get
> 
> ....
> 00024220  01 00 00 00 41 44 43 30  04 00 08 00 eb 06 35 04  |....ADC0......5.|
> 00024230  31 09 4f 06 54 44 43 30  04 00 08 00 93 04 fb 07  |1.O.TDC0........|
> 00024240  5c 09 88 0b 01 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 2a 0b 31 5f  |\...........*.1_|
> 00024250  28 00 00 00 20 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 41 44 43 30  |(... .......ADC0|
> 00024260  04 00 08 00 c3 09 24 05  85 05 f3 06 54 44 43 30  |......$.....TDC0|
> 00024270  04 00 08 00 88 08 2d 03  3b 0d d6 02 01 00 00 00  |......-.;.......|
> 00024280  02 00 00 00 2a 0b 31 5f  28 00 00 00 20 00 00 00  |....*.1_(... ...|
> 00024290  01 00 00 00 41 44 43 30  04 00 08 00 a5 0a 69 09  |....ADC0......i.|
> 
> where you clearly see the ADC0 and TDC0 banks.
> 
> Stefan

So at least I learned something new. I tried it with the hexdump and the banks are not existent in the .mid file. I 
only have the ODB inside the file. The 7K difference in size is actually just about what I expect to be the data 
(1792 x 4 bytes)

Best, Ivo

> So I did a quick check. The file size is about the same (322K and 329K). When I dump the .mid I don't see 
> the banks. It only prints two lines with "------ Event# 0 ------" and "------ Event# 1 ------" whereas for 
> the file with data I get the two banks with all the data. Our online analyzer also fails to see the banks. 
> Is there another way to check what is in the .mid file?

with "dump" I meant a true object dump like "hexdump -C run000001.mid". I produced a file with ADC0 and TDC0 
banks (that's the example from the distribution under exampels/experiments/frontend.cxx), and I get

....
00024220  01 00 00 00 41 44 43 30  04 00 08 00 eb 06 35 04  |....ADC0......5.|
00024230  31 09 4f 06 54 44 43 30  04 00 08 00 93 04 fb 07  |1.O.TDC0........|
00024240  5c 09 88 0b 01 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 2a 0b 31 5f  |\...........*.1_|
00024250  28 00 00 00 20 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 41 44 43 30  |(... .......ADC0|
00024260  04 00 08 00 c3 09 24 05  85 05 f3 06 54 44 43 30  |......$.....TDC0|
00024270  04 00 08 00 88 08 2d 03  3b 0d d6 02 01 00 00 00  |......-.;.......|
00024280  02 00 00 00 2a 0b 31 5f  28 00 00 00 20 00 00 00  |....*.1_(... ...|
00024290  01 00 00 00 41 44 43 30  04 00 08 00 a5 0a 69 09  |....ADC0......i.|

where you clearly see the ADC0 and TDC0 banks.

Stefan

> Then I'm running out of ideas. Things I would check:
> 
> - Are the file sizes about the same? 
> 
> - When you dump the .mid file, you do you see your bank names? 
> 
> This would tell you if the events are really missing or if mdump would just not find them.
> 
> But I guess without being able to debug the system at ILL I cannot be of any more help. You are the 
> first one reporting such a problem, so it must have to do with your local setup.
> 
> Stefan

So I did a quick check. The file size is about the same (322K and 329K). When I dump the .mid I don't see 
the banks. It only prints two lines with "------ Event# 0 ------" and "------ Event# 1 ------" whereas for 
the file with data I get the two banks with all the data. Our online analyzer also fails to see the banks. 
Is there another way to check what is in the .mid file?

Best,
Ivo

> Both set to -1. We only have one logging channel. If we run a sequence with a few runs and the 
> same settings, sometimes data is in the .mid file and sometimes it is not.

Then I'm running out of ideas. Things I would check:

- Are the file sizes about the same? 

- When you dump the .mid file, you do you see your bank names? 

This would tell you if the events are really missing or if mdump would just not find them.

But I guess without being able to debug the system at ILL I cannot be of any more help. You are the 
first one reporting such a problem, so it must have to do with your local setup.

Stefan

> > Dear all
> > 
> > We just started our beam time at ILL and just found yesterday that for certain 
> > settings of our detector the data is not saved into the .mid files. Running "mdump 
> > -l 10" online we see the data coming in as they should. Nevertheless, if we run 
> > "mdump -x runXXXXXX.mid" offline, the data file has no events and the banks are 
> > missing. Any ideas where the data could go lost?
> > 
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Ivo
> 
> Have you checked 
> 
> /Logger/Channels/0/Settings/Event ID = -1
> /Logger/Channels/0/Settings/Trigger mask = -1
> 
> If these settings are not -1, they filter the data stream for certain events and trigger 
> masks.
> 
> Stefan

Good morning Stefan

Both set to -1. We only have one logging channel. If we run a sequence with a few runs and the 
same settings, sometimes data is in the .mid file and sometimes it is not.

Best,
Ivo