Hi,
   the system I'm building will have data read into the frontend nodes
via ethernet (optic). Is this possible?>

first-console$ python evprint.py receive
second-console$ python evsend.py 123
[first console]
id=2007 mask=2007 serial=2007 time=1169372833 len=3 '123'

$ python evprint.py --log --path 127.0.0.1/online receive"
cm_connect_experiment('127.0.0.1', 'online', 'evprint.py', None)
bm_open_buffer('SYSTEM', 1048576, &c_long(2)) -> BM_CREATED
bm_request_event(2, -1, -1, 2, &c_long(0), None)
... wait for a couple of seconds ...
[midas.c:9348:rpc_call] rpc timeout, routine = "bm_receive_event"
[system.c:3570:send_tcp] send(socket=0,size=8) returned -1, errno: 88 (Socket 
operation on non-socket)
[midas.c:9326:rpc_call] send_tcp() failed

bm_receive_event(2, ...) -> RPC_TIMEOUT

bm_remove_event_request(2, 0) -> BM_INVALID_HANDLE
bm_close_buffer(2) -> BM_INVALID_HANDLE
cm_disconnect_experiment()

   1: python evprint.py receive
   2: python evsend.py 123
   1: id=2007 mask=2007 serial=2007 time=1169372833 len=3 '123'

   1: python evprint.py --path 127.0.0.1/ dispatch
   2: python evsend.py --path 127.0.0.1/ 123
   1: id=2007 mask=2007 serial=2007 time=1169373366 len=3 '123'

   1: python evprint.py dispatch
   2: python evsend.py --path 127.0.0.1/ 123
   1: (nothing printed)

   1: python evprint.py --path 127.0.0.1/ dispatch
   2: python evsend.py 123
   1: (nothing printed)

D:\denis\cmd\midas\current\06jan21-export\midas\NT\bin>produce.exe
ID of event to produce: 1
Host to connect: 127.0.0.1
Event size: 10
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.64 MB/sec
flush
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.64 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.63 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.64 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.61 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.62 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.62 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.64 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.63 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.63 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.64 MB/sec
flush
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.62 MB/sec

## Now I've started consume in the other console ##

[system.c:3570:send_tcp] send(socket=1900,size=8136) returned -1, errno: 0 (No error)
send_tcp() returned -1
[midas.c:9669:rpc_send_event] send_tcp() failed
rpc_send_event returned error 503, event_size 10

D:\denis\cmd\midas\current\06jan21-export\midas\NT\bin>consume.exe
ID of event to request: 1
Host to connect:
Get all events (0/1): 1
Receive via callback ([y]/n):
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.00 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 0
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.00 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 0
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.00 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 0
Received break. Aborting...

D:\denis\cmd\midas\current\06jan21-export\midas\NT\bin\mserver.exe started interactively
[midas.c:2315:bm_validate_client_index] Invalid client index 0 in buffer 'SYSTEM'.
Client name 'Power Consumer', pid 1964 should be 3216

D:\denis\cmd\midas\current\06jan21-export\midas\NT\bin>produce.exe
ID of event to produce: 1
Host to connect:
Event size: 10
Client 'Producer' (PID 2584) on 'ODB' removed by cm_watchdog (idle 144.1s,TO 10s)
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.20 MB/sec
flush
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.20 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.11 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.13 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.06 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.20 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 2.96 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.11 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.18 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.13 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.17 MB/sec
flush
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.19 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.08 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 3.06 MB/sec

## Now I've started consume ##

[midas.c:2315:bm_validate_client_index] Invalid client index 0 in buffer 'SYSTEM'. Client name '', pid 0 should be 760

D:\denis\cmd\midas\current\06jan21-export\midas\NT\bin>consume.exe
ID of event to request: 1
Host to connect: 127.0.0.1
Get all events (0/1): 1
Receive via callback ([y]/n):
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.00 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 0
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.00 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 0
Received break. Aborting...
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.00 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 0

D:\denis\cmd\midas\current\06jan21-export\midas\NT\bin>produce.exe
ID of event to produce: 1
Host to connect: 127.0.0.1
Event size: 10
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.65 MB/sec
flush
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.66 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.65 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.60 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.64 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.63 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.61 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.63 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.65 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.65 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.67 MB/sec
flush
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.66 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.65 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.65 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.66 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.66 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.65 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.66 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.66 MB/sec
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.66 MB/sec
Level:  66.8 %, Rate: 0.66 MB/sec
flush
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.00 MB/sec
Level:  66.8 %, Rate: 0.31 MB/sec
Level:  57.2 %, Rate: 0.15 MB/sec
Level:  57.3 %, Rate: 0.14 MB/sec
Level:  57.3 %, Rate: 0.15 MB/sec
Level:  57.3 %, Rate: 0.14 MB/sec
Level:  57.3 %, Rate: 0.14 MB/sec
Level:  57.3 %, Rate: 0.14 MB/sec
Received break. Aborting...
Received 2nd break. Hard abort.
[midas.c:1581:] cm_disconnect_experiment not called at end of program

D:\denis\cmd\midas\current\06jan21-export\midas\NT\bin>consume.exe
ID of event to request: 1
Host to connect: 127.0.0.1
Get all events (0/1): 1
Receive via callback ([y]/n):
[consume.c:73:process_event] Serial number mismatch: Ser: 1397076, OldSer: 0, ID: 1, size: 10
Level:  37.1 %, Rate: 0.00 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.15 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  95.4 %, Rate: 0.08 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  66.8 %, Rate: 0.14 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  66.8 %, Rate: 0.12 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  76.3 %, Rate: 0.12 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  95.4 %, Rate: 0.11 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  57.3 %, Rate: 0.15 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  66.8 %, Rate: 0.11 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  85.9 %, Rate: 0.11 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  95.5 %, Rate: 0.12 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:  57.4 %, Rate: 0.15 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:   9.7 %, Rate: 0.15 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
[Producer] [midas.c:1581:] cm_disconnect_experiment not called at end of program
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.03 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Level:   0.0 %, Rate: 0.00 MB/sec, ser mismatches: 1
Received break. Aborting...

Hello,

Just did a fresh install of MIDAS from the SVN repository under CentOS and
everything compiles fine, but when I go to run the frontend (using dio), I get
the following error message:

Connect to experiment ...[odb.c:868:db_open_database] Different database format:
 Shared memory is 14, program is 2
[midas.c:1763:cm_connect_experiment1] cannot open database


Any ideas on what the problem could be, or how to fix it?  


~Steve

> Hello,
> 
> Just did a fresh install of MIDAS from the SVN repository under CentOS and
> everything compiles fine, but when I go to run the frontend (using dio), I get
> the following error message:
> 
> Connect to experiment ...[odb.c:868:db_open_database] Different database format:
>  Shared memory is 14, program is 2
> [midas.c:1763:cm_connect_experiment1] cannot open database
> 
> 
> Any ideas on what the problem could be, or how to fix it?  

You have an old .ODB.SHM from a previous version in your directoy (note the '.' in
front, so you need a 'ls -alg' to see it). Delete that file and try again.

Thanks for your help.  I tried again and it got me back to the initial problem I had.
 The frontend will start, and the analyzer starts (complains about there not being a
last.root, but other than that it's fine), and then when starting mlogger, I get:

[odb.c:860:db_validate_db] Warning: database corruption, first_free_key 0x0001A4
04
[odb.c:3666:db_get_key] invalid key handle
[midas.c:1970:cm_check_client] cannot delete client info
[odb.c:3666:db_get_key] invalid key handle
[midas.c:1970:cm_check_client] cannot delete client info
[odb.c:3666:db_get_key] invalid key handle


And it continues to shoot out error messages about invalid key handles until I kill
it.  Then trying to start the frontend again fails until I remove the .ODB.SHM file. 
Any other ideas?

> > Hello,
> > 
> > Just did a fresh install of MIDAS from the SVN repository under CentOS and
> > everything compiles fine, but when I go to run the frontend (using dio), I get
> > the following error message:
> > 
> > Connect to experiment ...[odb.c:868:db_open_database] Different database format:
> >  Shared memory is 14, program is 2
> > [midas.c:1763:cm_connect_experiment1] cannot open database
> > 
> > 
> > Any ideas on what the problem could be, or how to fix it?  
> 
> You have an old .ODB.SHM from a previous version in your directoy (note the '.' in
> front, so you need a 'ls -alg' to see it). Delete that file and try again.

That sounds like you mix versions: You have an old executable (maybe your mlogger) which
has been linked against the old midas version, but you create the ODB with the new
odbedit or frontend. The new version complains if it finds an ODB from a previous version
(the error you reported first), but an old program does not have that version check, so
it finds a different binary ODB structure and crashes.

> Thanks for your help.  I tried again and it got me back to the initial problem I had.
>  The frontend will start, and the analyzer starts (complains about there not being a
> last.root, but other than that it's fine), and then when starting mlogger, I get:
> 
> [odb.c:860:db_validate_db] Warning: database corruption, first_free_key 0x0001A4
> 04
> [odb.c:3666:db_get_key] invalid key handle
> [midas.c:1970:cm_check_client] cannot delete client info
> [odb.c:3666:db_get_key] invalid key handle
> [midas.c:1970:cm_check_client] cannot delete client info
> [odb.c:3666:db_get_key] invalid key handle
> 
> 
> And it continues to shoot out error messages about invalid key handles until I kill
> it.  Then trying to start the frontend again fails until I remove the .ODB.SHM file. 
> Any other ideas?
> 
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > Just did a fresh install of MIDAS from the SVN repository under CentOS and
> > > everything compiles fine, but when I go to run the frontend (using dio), I get
> > > the following error message:
> > > 
> > > Connect to experiment ...[odb.c:868:db_open_database] Different database format:
> > >  Shared memory is 14, program is 2
> > > [midas.c:1763:cm_connect_experiment1] cannot open database
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Any ideas on what the problem could be, or how to fix it?  
> > 
> > You have an old .ODB.SHM from a previous version in your directoy (note the '.' in
> > front, so you need a 'ls -alg' to see it). Delete that file and try again.

Hello,

Is it possible to access out_info (defined in mana.c) from another program?

In fact, out_info is now defined as an (anonymous) "static struct" in mana.c,
which it seems to me precludes any direct use in another program.  Is there an
indirect way of getting ahold of out_info?  or of the information it contains?

out_info used to be defined as a *non-static* struct, and the code I'm currently
modifying used to compile seamlessly: it now stops the compilation during
linking time, as out_info is now static and the program I have to compile
contains an "extern struct {} out_info".

Any help would be much appreciated!  I searched in vain in this forum for
details about out_info and I really need to access the information it contains!

EOL (a pure MIDAS novice)

Would it be relevant to transform out_info into a *non-static* variable of a type
defined by a *named* struct?
Currently,  programs that  try to access out_info cannot do it anymore; and they
typically copy the struct definition from mana.c, which is not robust against future
changes in mana.c.

If mana.c could be changed in the way described above, that would be great . 
Otherwise, is it safe to patch it myself for local use?  or is there a better way of
accessing out_info from mana.c?

As always, any help would be much appreciated :)

EOL

> Hello,
> 
> Is it possible to access out_info (defined in mana.c) from another program?
> 
> In fact, out_info is now defined as an (anonymous) "static struct" in mana.c,
> which it seems to me precludes any direct use in another program.  Is there an
> indirect way of getting ahold of out_info?  or of the information it contains?
> 
> out_info used to be defined as a *non-static* struct, and the code I'm currently
> modifying used to compile seamlessly: it now stops the compilation during
> linking time, as out_info is now static and the program I have to compile
> contains an "extern struct {} out_info".
> 
> Any help would be much appreciated!  I searched in vain in this forum for
> details about out_info and I really need to access the information it contains!
> 
> EOL (a pure MIDAS novice)

I changed out_info into a global structure definition ANA_OUTPUT_INFO and put it into
midas.h, so it can be accessed easily from the user analyzer source code.

> Would it be relevant to transform out_info into a *non-static* variable of a type
> defined by a *named* struct?
> Currently,  programs that  try to access out_info cannot do it anymore; and they
> typically copy the struct definition from mana.c, which is not robust against future
> changes in mana.c.
> 
> If mana.c could be changed in the way described above, that would be great . 
> Otherwise, is it safe to patch it myself for local use?  or is there a better way of
> accessing out_info from mana.c?
> 
> As always, any help would be much appreciated :)
> 
> EOL
> 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Is it possible to access out_info (defined in mana.c) from another program?
> > 
> > In fact, out_info is now defined as an (anonymous) "static struct" in mana.c,
> > which it seems to me precludes any direct use in another program.  Is there an
> > indirect way of getting ahold of out_info?  or of the information it contains?
> > 
> > out_info used to be defined as a *non-static* struct, and the code I'm currently
> > modifying used to compile seamlessly: it now stops the compilation during
> > linking time, as out_info is now static and the program I have to compile
> > contains an "extern struct {} out_info".
> > 
> > Any help would be much appreciated!  I searched in vain in this forum for
> > details about out_info and I really need to access the information it contains!
> > 
> > EOL (a pure MIDAS novice)

We are new to MIDAS and try to setup a simple system with one ortec camac ADC
AD413A and the hytec1331 controler. Has anyone used this module in MIDAS we
would be grateful for the corresponding frontend.c etc. 

It would be very useful to have somewhere examples of files used by various
experiments in addition to the example files provided in the installation.

Best regards,
Hans 

src/mana.c: In function ‘write_event_hbook’:
src/mana.c:2881: error: invalid assignment

src/mana.c: In function ‘write_event_hbook’:
src/mana.c:2881: warning: target of assignment not really an lvalue; this will be a hard error in the future

2880            /* shift data pointer to next item */
2881            (char *) pdata += key.item_size * key.num_values;

2880            /* shift data pointer to next item */
2881            pdata += key.item_size * key.num_values * sizeof(char) ;

Aparently the mhttpd elog will corrupt the elog files if two (or more?) elog entries are being edited at the 
same time. K.O.

[quote="Stefan Ritt"][Quote="K.O.]Aparently the mhttpd elog will corrupt the
elog files if two (or more\?) elog entries are being edited at the same time.
K.O.[/quote]

The corruption is very simple. mhttpd elog indexes the elog entries by the elog
file and offset inside the file, i.e. "http://ladd00:8088/EL/060927.318",
"060927" corresponds to log file "060927.log", "318" is the offset inside the
file where the message is located.

During "edit", the code "remembers" the offset of the original message and in
el_submit() blindly writes the edited message into the file at the remembered
offset.

If another message was edited before the edit of the first message is submitted,
the remembered offset becomes invalid (messages have shifted inside the file)
and el_submit() writes the edited text into the wrong place in the file,
corrupting it.

I have now added a check for this and we crash instead of corrupting the elog
file (midas.c rev 3340).

I do not know how to "properly" fix this bug without changing the indexing
scheme to something similar to what is used by elogd- message numbers instead of
file indices. In the existing scheme, message editing also breaks URLs shown in
the email notifications (they contain file indices that point to the wrong
places after messages are moved around by editing) and "reply threading" links.

Here is how I reproduce this bug:

1) start with an empty elog
2) create two messages
3) "edit" the second message, but do not submit it yet.
4) "edit" the first message, change the text to make sure the message size
becomes different; submit this change.
5) submit the "edit" of the first message. !!BOOM!!

K.O.

> I do not know how to "properly" fix this bug without changing the indexing
> scheme to something similar to what is used by elogd- message numbers instead of
> file indices. In the existing scheme, message editing also breaks URLs shown in
> the email notifications (they contain file indices that point to the wrong
> places after messages are moved around by editing) and "reply threading" links.

Well, the development of elogd with it's message numbers was actually stimulated by
the problem you mentioned. After that all those problems went away. Another
incarnation of that problem is if you edit an mhttpd log file manually. Afterwards
the file offsets are different and the system gets corrupted. To fix this properly,
one would have to backport the el_xxx functions from elogd to mhttpd, or, even
simpler, remove the elog functionality in mhttpd and "force" everybody to use elogd
(after doing elconv to convert the files into the new format).

> The current event size in midas is limited to 512k (MAX_EVENT_SIZE in midas.h)

Yes, 512 kBytes is rather small. For the T2K prototype TPC DAQ, I built and ran
MIDAS with 4 MByte events, and it worked fine.

Now, we have per-buffer tunable size (see message
https://ladd00.triumf.ca/elog/Midas/283) and in the long run, I would prefer the
compiled-in limit to go away: already all memory is allocated dynamically and
the MAX_EVENT_SIZE is only useful as kind of a sanity check against frontend
misconfiguration or against malformed events.

If MAX_EVENT_SIZE goes away, the maximum event size becomes limited by the
largest SysV shared memory segment permitted by Linux (via sysctl kernel.shmmax).

To go beyound the limit on SysV shared memories, on can use mmap() based shared
memory: this is limited by available RAM+swap (and disk space for the
.SYSTEM.SHM file). Current MIDAS system.c has an experimental implementation of
mmap() shared memory, but AFAIK it has not been used in any production system, yet.

K.O.

For the record, the MIDAS (& co) forums have been physically moved from
dasdevpc.triumf.ca to our new server machine ladd00.triumf.ca. This change
should be transparent to all users, but if anything stops working, please let me
know at olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca. K.O.

I commited minor fixes for building MIDAS on MacOS 10.4.7:
1) there is no linux/unistd.h
2) gcc 4.0.0 does not like "struct { ... } var;" although "struct Foo { ... } var;" is fine
3) there is no "_syscall0(...)" macro
4) there is no "gettid()", I used pthread_self() instead.
K.O.

P.S. ss_gettid() returns "int" instead of "midas_thread_t" (pthread_t, really). On MacOS 10.4.7 at least, 
pthread_t appears to be a pointer, not an int. Is that right?

I commited fix for minor mhttpd problems (rev 3314):
- for a newly created experiment, the "history" button gave the error [history
panel "" does not exist] (new problem introduced in revision 3150)
- for very long history panel names (close to the 32-character limit) history
plots produce the error "Cannot find /history/display/foo/bar/variables" (broke
in revision 3190 "use strlcpy()", in previous revisions, this bug was silent
stack corruption)
- elog attachments did not work for file names containing character plus (+)
(attachement URLs should be properly encoded to escape special CGI characters)
K.O.

> I commited fix for minor mhttpd problems (rev 3314):
> - elog attachments did not work for file names containing character plus (+)
> (attachement URLs should be properly encoded to escape special CGI characters)

I accidentally indirectly learned that the above change produced incorrect URLs
when more than one experiment is defined. I now commited a fix to this problem.

K.O.

The mhttpd ODB displays and mhist truncate values of "float" and "double"
floating point variables to 6 digits. In reality, "float" has 7 significant
digits and "double" has 16. I recommend that db_sprintf() in odb.c be changed to
read this:

      case TID_FLOAT:
         sprintf(string, "%.7g", *(((float *) data) + index));
         break;
      case TID_DOUBLE:
         sprintf(string, "%.16g", *(((double *) data) + index));
         break;

K.O.

> The mhttpd ODB displays and mhist truncate values of "float" and "double"
> floating point variables to 6 digits. In reality, "float" has 7 significant
> digits and "double" has 16. I recommend that db_sprintf() in odb.c be changed to
> read this:
> 
>       case TID_FLOAT:
>          sprintf(string, "%.7g", *(((float *) data) + index));
>          break;
>       case TID_DOUBLE:
>          sprintf(string, "%.16g", *(((double *) data) + index));
>          break;
> 
> K.O.

I had there

      case TID_FLOAT:
         if (ss_isnan(*(((float *) data) + index)))
            sprintf(string, "NAN");
         else
            sprintf(string, "%g", *(((float *) data) + index));
         break;
      case TID_DOUBLE:
         if (ss_isnan(*(((double *) data) + index)))
            sprintf(string, "NAN");
         else
            sprintf(string, "%lg", *(((double *) data) + index));
         break;

so I assumed that "%g" takes care of the maximal resolution. But apparently it does
not. So I changed it as you proposed.

• ODB over Frontend precedence.
  When starting a FE client, the equipment settings are taken from the ODB if this equipment already existed. This meant the ODB has precedence over the EQUIPEMENT structure and whatever change you apply to the C-Structure, it will NOT be taken in consideration until you clean (remove) the equipment tree in ODB.
  
  
• Revived 64 bit support. This was required as more OS are already supporting such architecture. Originally Midas did support Alpha/OSF/1 which operated on 64 bit machine. This new code has been tested on SL4.2 with Dual-Core 64-bit AMD Opterons.
  
  
• Multi-threading in Slow Control equipments.
  Check entry 289 in Midas Elog from Stefan.
  
  
• mhttpd using external Elog.
  The standalone ELOG package can be coupled to an existing experiment and therefore supersede the internal elog functionality from mhttpd.
  This requires a particular configuration which is described in the documentation.
  
  
• MySQL test in mlogger
  A reminder that mlogger can generate entries in a MySQL database as long as the pre-compilation flag -HAVE_MYSQL is enabled during system built. The access and form filling is then defined from the ODB under Logger/SQL once the logger is running, see documentation.
  
  
• Directory destination for midas.log and odb dump files
  It is now possible to specify an individual directory to the default midas.log file as well as to the "ODB Dump file" destination. If either of these fields contains a preceding directory, it will take the string as an absolute path to the file.
  
  
• User defined "event Data buffer size" (ODB)
  The event buffer size has been until now defined at the system level in midas.h. It is now possible to optimize the memory allocation specific to the event buffer with an entry in the ODB under /experiment, see documentation.
  
  
• History group display
  It is now possible to display an individual group of history plots. No documentation on that topics as it should be self explanatory.
  
  
• History export option
  From the History web page, it is possible to export to a ASCII .csv file the history content. This file can later be imported into excel for example. No documentation on that topics as it should be self explanatory.
  
  
• Multiple "minor" corrections:
  - Alarm reset for multiple experiment (return directly to the experiment).
  - mdump -b option bug fixed.
  - Alarm evaluation function fixed.
  - mlogger/SQL boolean handling fixed.
  - bm_get_buffer_level() was returning a wrong value which has been fixed now.
  - Event buffer bug traced and exterminated (Thanks to Konstantin).
  

In close cooperation with Stefan, I refactored and rewrote the MIDAS event
buffering code (bm_send_event, bm_flush_cache, bm_receive_event and bm_push_event).

The main goal of this update is to make sure the event buffering code does not
have any infinite loops: in the past, we have seen mlogger and some frontends
loop forever consuming 100% CPU in the event buffering code. This should now be
completely fixed.

As additional bonuses, the refactored code is easier to read, has less code
duplication and should be more robust. A few potential logical problems have
been corrected and one case of reproducible infinite looping has been fixed.

The new code has passed the low-level consumer-producer tests, but has not yet
been used in anger in any real experiment. One hopes any new bugs introduced
would cause outright failures and core dumps (rather than silent data corruption).

All are welcome to try the new code. If it explodes, please send me the error
messages, stack traces and core dumps.

K.O.

> In close cooperation with Stefan, I refactored and rewrote the MIDAS event
> buffering code (bm_send_event, bm_flush_cache, bm_receive_event and bm_push_event).
>
> All are welcome to try the new code. If it explodes, please send me the error
> messages, stack traces and core dumps.

Stefan quickly found one new error (a typoe in a check against infinite looping) and
then I found one old error present in the old code that caused event loss when the
buffer became exactly 100% full (0 bytes free).

Both errors are now fixed in svn commit 3294.

K.O.

Some time ago, I accidentally introduced a bug in mfe.c- if there is data
congestion in the system, mfe.c can exit with the error "bm_flush_cache(ASYNC)
error 209" because it did not expect the valid return value BM_ASYNC_RETURN
(209) from bm_flush_cache(ASYNC). This error has now been fixed. K.O.

• Remove following line:
  

  #define DRIVER(_i) ...

  
  
• Find all lines containing
  

  DRIVER(i)(CMD_xxx, info->dd_info[i], ...)

  
  and replace them with
  

  device_driver(info->driver[i], CMD_xxx, ...)

  
  note that info->dd_info[i] is not passed any more. Instead, you pass info->driver[i]. Pleae note that the arguments passed after CMD_xxx are not checked by the compiler, since they are a variable argument list. Any error there will not produce a compiler warning, but will just crash the front-end.
  
  
• Find the line with
  

  status = pequipment->driver[i].dd(CMD_INIT, hKey, &pequipment->driver[i].dd_info,
                                          pequipment->driver[i].channels,
                                          pequipment->driver[i].flags,
                                          pequipment->driver[i].bd);

  
  and replace it with
  

  status = device_driver(&pequipment->driver[i], CMD_INIT, hKey);

  
  
• Find the line with
  

  pequipment->driver[i].dd(CMD_EXIT, pequipment->driver[i].dd_info);

  
  and replace it with
  

  device_driver(&pequipment->driver[i], CMD_EXIT);

  
  
• Find following lines
  

  hv_info->driver[i] = pequipment->driver[index].dd;
  hv_info->dd_info[i] = pequipment->driver[index].dd_info;
  hv_info->channel_offset[i] = offset;
  hv_info->flags[i] = pequipment->driver[index].flags;

  
  and replace them with
  

  hv_info->driver[i] = &pequipment->driver[index];
  hv_info->channel_offset[i] = offset;

INT cd_xxx(INT cmd, EQUIPMENT * pequipment)
{
   INT i, status;

   switch (cmd) {
   case CMD_INIT:
      ...

   case CMD_STOP:
      for (i = 0; pequipment->driver[i].dd != NULL &&
                  pequipment->driver[i].flags & DF_MULTITHREAD ; i++)
         status = device_driver(&pequipment->driver[i], CMD_STOP);
      break;

   case CMD_IDLE:
      ...

   return status;
}

DEVICE_DRIVER multi_driver[] = {
   {"Input", nulldev, 2, null, DF_INPUT | DF_MULTITHREAD},
   {"Output", nulldev, 2, null, DF_OUTPUT | DF_MULTITHREAD},
   {""}
};

By default, MIDAS creates shared memory event data buffers of default size
EVENT_BUFFER_SIZE defined in midas.h and until now making of large data buffers
for high data rate or large event size experiments was complicated.

Now, bm_open_buffer() will try to read the event buffer size from ODB. If
"/Experiment/Buffer Sizes/BUFFER_NAME" of type DWORD exists, it's value is used
as the buffer size, overriding the default value.

For example, to increase the size of the default MIDAS event buffer ("SYSTEM")
to 2000000 bytes, shutdown all MIDAS programs, delete the old .SYSTEM.SHM file
(and the shared memory segment, using ipcrm). Then run odbedit, cd /Experiment,
mkdir "Buffer Sizes", cd "Buffer Sizes", create DWORD SYSTEM, set SYSTEM
2000000. Then start the rest of the MIDAS programs. Check that the buffer has
the correct size by looking at the size of .SYSTEM.SHM and of the shared memory
segment (ipcs).

This method work for all MIDAS buffers, except for ODB, where the size has to be
specified at creation time using the odbedit command "-s" argument.

K.O.

We have been seeing consistent user memory corruption while setting up a new
experiment. This has been traced to a user memory overwrite in ODB db_set_data()
function and this problem is now fixed. This error was triggered by our frontend
code constantly changing the size of a MIDAS data bank that was also written
into ODB via the RO_ODB option. K.O.