Hi,
  I think that rather than spending too much time on where to 
put files and how to define the environment - I am guilty of that myself.
We should be perhaps have some discussion on the future of MIDAS.

Are we ready for 2.0? 
Stefan - do you have any ideas/enhancements?

1) For one I would like to explore memory mapping (mmap()) on Linux
- I've used it once upon a time on DEC OSF/1 and I found it really
nice compared to shared memory. 
From a user standpoint it behaves as a shared memory but is mapped 
to a real file that can be easily "removed" when neccessary. 
One really annoying thing in MIDAS is when it goes ballistic
the cleanup which is somewhat tricky. 
The question if there is any performance penalty associated

2) Expanding hardware support: 
   a) custom microcontrolers?
   b) more hardware
   c) how about a "standard" Linux device /dev/midas
   for various PCI cards (PCI<->CAMAC) (PCI<->VME) 

3) I have never really seen a midas deployment that uses interrupts. 
I do understand the ease of polling and the fact that these days
CPU's are cheap but sometimes it is important to use interrupts.
Any examples/experience?

?)

Piotr

Sorry the previous message got mangled:

Hi, 
I think that rather than spending too much time on where to put files 
and how to define the environment - I am guilty of that myself -  we should 
perhaps have some discussion on the future of MIDAS. 

Are we ready for 2.0? 

Stefan - do you have any ideas/enhancements? 

1) For one I would like to explore memory mapping (mmap()) on Linux.
I've used it once upon a time on DEC OSF/1 and I found it really nice 
compared to shared memory. From a user standpoint it behaves as a shared
memory but is mapped to a real file that can be easily "removed" when 
neccessary. One really annoying thing in MIDAS is when it goes ballistic 
the cleanup is somewhat tricky. 
The question if there is any performance penalty associated 

2) Expanding hardware support: 
  a) custom microcontrolers? 
  b) other hardware
  c) how about a "standard" Linux device /dev/midas for various 
  PCI cards (PCI<->CAMAC) (PCI<->VME) 

3) I have never really seen a midas deployment that uses interrupts. 
I do understand the ease of polling and the fact that these days CPU's 
are cheap but sometimes it is important to use interrupts. 

Any examples/experience? 

?) 

Piotr

Have changed your entry as Non-HTML (easier to reply to...)

Here are some "initial" comments, by no means complete...

> Are we ready for 2.0? 
> Stefan - do you have any ideas/enhancements?

A big thing along the horizon I see is the ROME environment
(http://midas.psi.ch/rome/). So we will move away from PAW to ROOT. Although
the DAQ part will stay untouched, the whole analysis back-end changes,
including some XML configuration and MySQL support. I guess that would justify
a 2.0. I will discuss this at TRIUMF when I come in September, see how useful
ROME is for other users...

> 1) For one I would like to explore memory mapping (mmap()) on Linux
> - I've used it once upon a time on DEC OSF/1 and I found it really
> nice compared to shared memory. 
> From a user standpoint it behaves as a shared memory but is mapped 
> to a real file that can be easily "removed" when neccessary. 
> One really annoying thing in MIDAS is when it goes ballistic
> the cleanup which is somewhat tricky. 
> The question if there is any performance penalty associated

I guess there are no performance penalties, since under the hood both
techniques are handled similarly. The problem is that besides share memories
you need also semaphores to controll exclusive access to the memory, either
shm() funcitons or mmap(), so this would only fix half of the problem. I seem
to remember that mmap() was not available on some Ultix systems or so, but I
guess that's obsolete by now...

> 2) Expanding hardware support: 
>    a) custom microcontrolers?
>    b) more hardware
>    c) how about a "standard" Linux device /dev/midas
>    for various PCI cards (PCI<->CAMAC) (PCI<->VME) 

Well, you cannot develop hardware support for hardware you don't have, so the
policy up to now was that everyone developing some special drivers or hardware
support contributed it to the package. About c), we have already a CAMAC
driver standard, but at the user space level, so I don't see the benefit of
having kernel-mode standardized drivers. The only difference will be that the
debugging will be harder. VME standard is there in a kind of poor start right
now, but I expect to finish it this fall.

As for a), there is the MSCB system (http://midas.psi.ch/mscb) which has midas
support on the device driver and bus driver level, but I learned that
distributing hardware (or PCB designs if you like) is much harder than sharing
software. 

> 3) I have never really seen a midas deployment that uses interrupts. 
> I do understand the ease of polling and the fact that these days
> CPU's are cheap but sometimes it is important to use interrupts.
> Any examples/experience?

It's not only the "ease" of polling, but also that it's faster (in almost all
cases) and less troublesome. But hey, interrupt support is included in mfe.c,
so if you are fanatic about interrupts, please feel free to use them.

> > Are we ready for 2.0? 

I disapprove of version number inflation. Why not go straight for midas version
3000-Pro-Z?

> A big thing along the horizon I see is the ROME environment
> (http://midas.psi.ch/rome/). So we will move away from PAW to ROOT. Although
> the DAQ part will stay untouched, the whole analysis back-end changes,
> including some XML configuration and MySQL support.

I looked at the ROME slides from Pierre, and it seems to suffer badly from the
second-system syndrome (read The Mythical Man-Month).

For us, it is important to get the data into a form where we can process it with
ROOT and I would prefer if we could concentrate in improving the (embryonic) ROOT
online analysis capabilities.

> > 1) For one I would like to explore memory mapping (mmap())

It is trivial to replace System-V shared memory with mmap(). I am surprised that
it has not been done yet. System-V semaphores are a little bit harder to get rid of.

> > 2) Expanding hardware support: 
> >    a) custom microcontrolers?
> >    b) more hardware
> >    c) how about a "standard" Linux device /dev/midas
> >    for various PCI cards (PCI<->CAMAC) (PCI<->VME) 

We cannot expect MIDAS Authors to provide drivers for all possible hardware.

At best, we can mount an effort to collect exisiting drivers from all MIDAS users
"out there" and to integrate them into MIDAS.

Even that is highly non-trivial- many drivers use non-portable native hardware
access interfaces (direct bit-banging on PPCs, VMIC library on VMIC Linux
machines, etc). We have already failed to create an efficient generic portable VME
access library.

> As for a), there is the MSCB system (http://midas.psi.ch/mscb)

I never saw the point of having tons of MIDAS code for MSCB hardware that nobody
has and nobody will ever have.

> > 3) I have never really seen a midas deployment that uses interrupts. 
>
> It's not only the "ease" of polling, but also that it's faster (in almost all
> cases) and less troublesome. But hey, interrupt support is included in mfe.c,
> so if you are fanatic about interrupts...

Interrupts are important when one cannot afford chewing up CPU cycles, memory
cycles, PCI cycles and VME cycles on polling.

As I understand, common CAMAC hardware does not generate interrupts- this explains
lack of examples and lack of interrupt use. At TRIUMF, our new VME hardware
supports interrupts and I have a VMIC-based setup where I can (and intend to) test
MIDAS support of interrupts.

K.O.

Hello midas'ers,

Today I discovered a severe bug in the routine bm_check_buffers(), which
causes the logger to crash when it stops a run due to a reached event limit.
The funny thing is that this bug was there since the beginning, but only
recent versions of gcc and libc reveal it.

Since I consider this severe, I fixed it and updated 1.9.4 just now. I did
not go with 1.9.4-1, but maybe in future we should consider patch levels.

So please everybody who uses 1.9.4 and has problems with crashing loggers,
please update to 1.9.4 from today (July 15th, 2004).

- Stefan

I have compiled the sources on Darwin 7.4.0 with gcc 3.3. After the compilation of source codes, I 
try to execute "gmake install". I got the following message:
-------
Nothing to be done for "install".
-------

The install target could not be executed. Then I add the following line to the Makefile:
------
.PHONY: install
------

The install target can be executed. But when it is tring to copy "dio" to the proper directory, it 
cannot find the file. Then I found that the "utils" target isn't built. 
I try to build the target: darwin/bin/dio, I got the following error:
-------
cc -g -O2 -Wall -Iinclude -Idrivers -Ldarwin/lib -DINCLUDE_FTPLIB   -DOS_LINUX -DOS_DARWIN 
-DHAVE_STRLCPY -fPIC -Wno-unused-function -o darwin/bin/dio utils/dio.c
utils/dio.c:39:20: sys/io.h: No such file or directory
utils/dio.c: In function `main':
utils/dio.c:46: warning: implicit declaration of function `iopl'
gmake: *** [darwin/bin/dio] Error 1
--------
So, the include file "sys/io.h" may be changed under Darwin. I don't know how. I will try later. I 
hope somebody can notice this. 
Best regards.

There are not such a file "io.h" inside my MacOS X. In fact, I didn't find any file containing function iopl().
So what is the equivalent function of iopl() under MacOS X? The utility dio should be modified in order to be compiled under Darwin-
gcc platform. 

> There are not such a file "io.h" inside my MacOS X. In fact, I didn't find any file containing function iopl().
> So what is the equivalent function of iopl() under MacOS X? The utility dio should be modified in order to be compiled under Darwin-
> gcc platform. 

"dio" is not supported under MacOSX. It is used to grant user programs access to PCI and ISA cards (usually CAMAC interfaces). We have
no MacOSX hardware with PCI or ISA slots so we cannot test and support this functionality.

The MacOSX Makefile should not try to build "dio". I will accept a patch to fix this Makefile bug.

K.O.

Version 1.9.4 of midas has been released today. It is mainly a maintenance
update, for all the little things which have been fixed since the last
release, and does not contain major new functionality.

Hi,
 I am really puzzled: I am running the very same as far as sources
are concerned (Dec 12, 2003 snapsot) midas frontend (miniexp + camacnul)
on two different machines (and the same trusted private network):

1) one is an ancient Pentium/100 MHz laptop with RedHat Linux 7.3 and 
2) another one is event more ancient MVME167 25MHz running VxWorks 5.4.2

The front end on my Linux PC works just fine, whereas on the MVME167
I get intermittent crashes (most often at the end of the run).
[Correction: the crashes happen, I think, when the frontend wants 
to update the ODB]

The crashes happen in db_set_record routines

Any ideas what might be wrong? 
Except that MVME167 is a piece of ...#@!% 

Piotr

A followup: I traced back the problem to version 1.9.2.

Version 1.9.1 does not have this problem but 1.9.2 does. 
For now I stick with 1.9.1

Piotr
 

Is the midas CVS server set-up so that I can pull the newest 
version off the CVS server?

What would be my CVSROOT?
pserver:anoncvs@midas.psi.ch:/cvs/midas *this did not work* :)

Piotr

 

> Is the midas CVS server set-up so that I can pull the newest 
> version off the CVS server?
> 
> What would be my CVSROOT?
> pserver:anoncvs@midas.psi.ch:/cvs/midas *this did not work* :)
> 
> Piotr
> 
>  

In the Midas doc under "Quick Start"
http://midas.triumf.ca/doc/html/quickstart.html
you will find the proper cvs command for accessing the latest cvs Midas
version. The public pwd is cvs. You will only be able to checkout/update the
package.

> In the Midas doc under "Quick Start"
> http://midas.triumf.ca/doc/html/quickstart.html
> you will find the proper cvs command for accessing the latest cvs Midas
> version. The public pwd is cvs. You will only be able to checkout/update the
> package.

I cannot checkout module:
------------
01:52:16: pc2075.psi.ch: Operation timed out
01:52:16: cvs [checkout aborted]: end of file from server (consult above
messages if any)
------------

Could anybody add download tar package in the WWW interface of CVS repository.
I know the original CGI script has such a feature. Thanks.

> Is the midas CVS server set-up so that I can pull the newest 
> version off the CVS server?
> 
> What would be my CVSROOT?
> pserver:anoncvs@midas.psi.ch:/cvs/midas *this did not work* :)

I use:

setenv CVS_RSH ssh
cvs -d cvs@midas.psi.ch:/usr/local/cvsroot checkout midas

It works most of the time. Sometimes I get locking and "permission denied"
errors on some subdirectories, presumably when CVS is being reorganized or
when there are stale locks. Does not happen too often.

K.O.

I add the following to makefile and try to treat Darwin as FreeBSD/Linux.
But I failed.
============ 
#-----------------------
# This is for MacOS X
#
ifeq ($(OSTYPE), Darwin)
CC = gcc
OS_DIR = Darwin
OSFLAGS = -DOS_DARWIN -DOS_LINUX
LIBS = -lbsd -lcompat
SPECIFIC_OS_PRG =
endif
============

I got the following errors:
=============
gcc -c -g -O2 -Wall -Iinclude -Idrivers -LDarwin/lib -DINCLUDE_FTPLIB  
-DOS_DARWIN -DOS_FREEBSD -o Darwin/lib/midas.o src/midas.c
In file included from include/midasinc.h:45,
                 from include/msystem.h:114,
                 from src/midas.c:623:
/usr/include/string.h:112: error: conflicting types for `strlcat'
include/midas.h:1701: error: previous declaration of `strlcat'
/usr/include/string.h:113: error: conflicting types for `strlcpy'
include/midas.h:1700: error: previous declaration of `strlcpy'
In file included from include/msystem.h:114,
                 from src/midas.c:623:
include/midasinc.h:161:21: sys/vfs.h: No such file or directory
include/midasinc.h:164:17: pty.h: No such file or directory
src/midas.c:780: error: conflicting types for `dbg_malloc'
include/midas.h:1478: error: previous declaration of `dbg_malloc'
src/midas.c:817: error: conflicting types for `dbg_calloc'
include/midas.h:1479: error: previous declaration of `dbg_calloc'
src/midas.c:858: error: conflicting types for `strlcpy'
/usr/include/string.h:113: error: previous declaration of `strlcpy'
src/midas.c:892: error: conflicting types for `strlcat'
/usr/include/string.h:112: error: previous declaration of `strlcat'
gmake: *** [Darwin/lib/midas.o] Error 1
==========

Could anyone give me some hints. Thanks!

The current (cvs) version of MIDAS should build on Mac OS X right out of the
box- I fixed all the problems you report back in February(?)- see the macosx
thread in this forum. A few weeks ago I verified that it still compiles on Mac
OS 10.3.4. The Mac OS port received minimal testing- I checked that "odbedit"
and "mhttpd" run, that's about it. K.O.

> I add the following to makefile and try to treat Darwin as FreeBSD/Linux.
> But I failed.
> ============ 
> #-----------------------
> # This is for MacOS X
> #
> ifeq ($(OSTYPE), Darwin)
> CC = gcc
> OS_DIR = Darwin
> OSFLAGS = -DOS_DARWIN -DOS_LINUX
> LIBS = -lbsd -lcompat
> SPECIFIC_OS_PRG =
> endif
> ============
> 
> I got the following errors:
> =============
> gcc -c -g -O2 -Wall -Iinclude -Idrivers -LDarwin/lib -DINCLUDE_FTPLIB  
> -DOS_DARWIN -DOS_FREEBSD -o Darwin/lib/midas.o src/midas.c
> In file included from include/midasinc.h:45,
>                  from include/msystem.h:114,
>                  from src/midas.c:623:
> /usr/include/string.h:112: error: conflicting types for `strlcat'
> include/midas.h:1701: error: previous declaration of `strlcat'
> /usr/include/string.h:113: error: conflicting types for `strlcpy'
> include/midas.h:1700: error: previous declaration of `strlcpy'
> In file included from include/msystem.h:114,
>                  from src/midas.c:623:
> include/midasinc.h:161:21: sys/vfs.h: No such file or directory
> include/midasinc.h:164:17: pty.h: No such file or directory
> src/midas.c:780: error: conflicting types for `dbg_malloc'
> include/midas.h:1478: error: previous declaration of `dbg_malloc'
> src/midas.c:817: error: conflicting types for `dbg_calloc'
> include/midas.h:1479: error: previous declaration of `dbg_calloc'
> src/midas.c:858: error: conflicting types for `strlcpy'
> /usr/include/string.h:113: error: previous declaration of `strlcpy'
> src/midas.c:892: error: conflicting types for `strlcat'
> /usr/include/string.h:112: error: previous declaration of `strlcat'
> gmake: *** [Darwin/lib/midas.o] Error 1
> ==========
> 
> Could anyone give me some hints. Thanks!

> The current (cvs) version of MIDAS should build on Mac OS X right out of the
> box- I fixed all the problems you report back in February(?)- see the macosx
> thread in this forum. A few weeks ago I verified that it still compiles on Mac
> OS 10.3.4. The Mac OS port received minimal testing- I checked that "odbedit"
> and "mhttpd" run, that's about it. K.O.
> 

Thanks a lot. But I cannot checkout module:
------------
01:52:16: pc2075.psi.ch: Operation timed out
01:52:16: cvs [checkout aborted]: end of file from server (consult above
messages if any)
------------

Could anybody add download tar package in the WWW interface of CVS repository.
I know the original CGI script has such a feature. Thanks.

P.S.
I use these commands to checkout:
   cvs -e ssh -d :ext:cvs@midas.psi.ch:/usr/local/cvsroot checkout midas
   cvs -e ssh -d :ext:cvs@midas.psi.ch:/usr/local/cvsroot update

> Thanks a lot. But I cannot checkout module:
> ------------
> 01:52:16: pc2075.psi.ch: Operation timed out
> 01:52:16: cvs [checkout aborted]: end of file from server (consult above
> messages if any)
> ------------

Should work fine, just tried from outside PSI. Please check again.

> Could anybody add download tar package in the WWW interface of CVS repository.
> I know the original CGI script has such a feature. Thanks.

The tar package is only done for a new release (which will happen in the next days
BTW), so http://midas.psi.ch/download/tar/ contains the most recent packages. Upon
request I make a midas-snapshot.tar.gz, but since there will be a 1.9.4 soon, it's
maybe not necessary right now.

> 
> Should work fine, just tried from outside PSI. Please check again.

Unfortunately, I still encounter the same problem. 
---
pc2075.psi.ch: Operation timed out
cvs [checkout aborted]: end of file from server (consult above messages if any)
---

I am in LNS-INFN (Italy), i.e., I am outside PSI. So ... what's the problem? I try to
ping the host, and it is reachable:
--------
[exaos@exaos cvsnew]$ ping midas.psi.ch
PING pc2075.psi.ch (129.129.228.23): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 129.129.228.23: icmp_seq=0 ttl=50 time=67.237 ms
64 bytes from 129.129.228.23: icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=64.202 ms
64 bytes from 129.129.228.23: icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=56.278 ms
...
--------
Is it the problem of firewall? I am not sure. So strange.

> 
> The tar package is only done for a new release (which will happen in the next days
> BTW), so http://midas.psi.ch/download/tar/ contains the most recent packages. Upon
> request I make a midas-snapshot.tar.gz, but since there will be a 1.9.4 soon, it's
> maybe not necessary right now.

Waiting for the new release ...

I cannot checkout from the cvs server. So I download each latest file from the WWW
interface of CVS. While compiling these files, I encountered the following problems:
-------------
...
g++ -DHAVE_ROOT -c -g -O2 -Wall -Iinclude -Idrivers -Ldarwin/lib -DINCLUDE_FTPLIB  
-DOS_LINUX -DOS_DARWIN -DHAVE_STRLCPY -fPIC -Wno-unused-function -D_REENTRANT
-I/sw/include -I/opt/root/current/include -Wl,-rpath,/opt/root/current/lib -o
darwin/lib/rmana.o src/mana.c
g++: -rpath: linker input file unused because linking not done
g++: /opt/root/current/lib: linker input file unused because linking not done
...
g++ -g -O2 -Wall -Iinclude -Idrivers -Ldarwin/lib -DINCLUDE_FTPLIB   -DOS_LINUX
-DOS_DARWIN -DHAVE_STRLCPY -fPIC -Wno-unused-function -DHAVE_ROOT -D_REENTRANT
-I/sw/include -I/opt/root/current/include -Wl,-rpath,/opt/root/current/lib -o
darwin/bin/mlogger src/mlogger.c darwin/lib/libmidas.a -L/opt/root/current/lib -u
_G__cpp_setupG__Hist -u _G__cpp_setupG__Graf1 -u _G__cpp_setupG__G3D -u
_G__cpp_setupG__GPad -u _G__cpp_setupG__Tree -u _G__cpp_setupG__Rint -u
_G__cpp_setupG__PostScript -u _G__cpp_setupG__Matrix -u _G__cpp_setupG__Quadp -u
_G__cpp_setupG__Physics -lCore -lCint -lHist -lGraf -lGraf3d -lGpad -lTree -lRint
-lPostscript -lMatrix -lQuadp -lPhysics -lpthread -lm -L/sw/lib -ldl -lpthread
ld: unknown flag: -rpath
gmake: *** [darwin/bin/mlogger] Error 1
---------------
What does '-rpath' mean? It is just a linking error. Thanks.

> ld: unknown flag: -rpath
> gmake: *** [darwin/bin/mlogger] Error 1

Fixed. Good catch.

> What does '-rpath' mean?

You will have to read the "ld" manual. In the nutshell, it tells the executable where to look for shared libraries. 
Aparently it is not supported by Mac OS X.

K.O.

When I compile current cvs-head midas, I get errors about undefined function
min(). I do not think min() is in the list of standard C functions, so
something else should be used instead, like a MIN(a,b) macro. To make life
more interesting, in a few places, there is also a variable called "min".
Here is the error:

src/mana.c: In function `INT write_event_ascii(FILE*, EVENT_HEADER*, 
   ANALYZE_REQUEST*)':
src/mana.c:2571: `min' undeclared (first use this function)
src/mana.c:2571: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each 
   function it appears in.)
make: *** [linux/lib/rmana.o] Error 1

K.O.

> When I compile current cvs-head midas, I get errors about undefined function
> min(). I do not think min() is in the list of standard C functions, so
> something else should be used instead, like a MIN(a,b) macro. To make life
> more interesting, in a few places, there is also a variable called "min".
> Here is the error:
> 
> src/mana.c: In function `INT write_event_ascii(FILE*, EVENT_HEADER*, 
>    ANALYZE_REQUEST*)':
> src/mana.c:2571: `min' undeclared (first use this function)
> src/mana.c:2571: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each 
>    function it appears in.)
> make: *** [linux/lib/rmana.o] Error 1

This is really a miracle to me. The min/max macros are defined both in midas.h
and msystem.h and worked the last ten years or so. However, I agree that macros
should follow the standard and use capital letters, so I changed that.

> > When I compile current cvs-head midas, I get errors about undefined function
> > min(). I do not think min() is in the list of standard C functions, so
> > something else should be used instead, like a MIN(a,b) macro. To make life
> > more interesting, in a few places, there is also a variable called "min".
> > Here is the error:
> > 
> > src/mana.c: In function `INT write_event_ascii(FILE*, EVENT_HEADER*, 
> >    ANALYZE_REQUEST*)':
> > src/mana.c:2571: `min' undeclared (first use this function)
> > src/mana.c:2571: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each 
> >    function it appears in.)
> > make: *** [linux/lib/rmana.o] Error 1
> 
> This is really a miracle to me. The min/max macros are defined both in midas.h
> and msystem.h and worked the last ten years or so. However, I agree that macros
> should follow the standard and use capital letters, so I changed that.

The problem is that /usr/include/c++/3.*/bits/stl_algobase.h contains 
#undef min
#undef max

and in C++ with STL one should really use something like this
    std::min<INT>(a,b)


Cheers
  Piotr

I commited Makefile bits to set the RPATH on dynamically linked executables
to find libmidas.so and ROOT shared libraries without setting
LD_LIBRARY_PATH , etc. K.O.

I am setting up a new experiment and I added a "comment" field to "/
Experiment/Edit on start". When I start the run, I see this field, but I
cannot enter anything: the HTML "maxlength" is zero (or 1?). I traced this
to mhttpd.c: if (this is a string) maxlength = key.item_size. But what is
key.item_size for a string? The current length? If so, how do I enter a
string that is longer than the current one (zero in case I start from
scratch). I am stumped! K.O.

> I am setting up a new experiment and I added a "comment" field to "/
> Experiment/Edit on start". When I start the run, I see this field, but I
> cannot enter anything: the HTML "maxlength" is zero (or 1?). I traced this
> to mhttpd.c: if (this is a string) maxlength = key.item_size. But what is
> key.item_size for a string? The current length? If so, how do I enter a
> string that is longer than the current one (zero in case I start from
> scratch). I am stumped! K.O.

Your problem is that you created a ODB string with zero length. If you do this
through ODBEdit, a default length of 32 is used:

[local:Test:S]Edit on start>cr string Comment
String length [32]:
[local:Test:S]Edit on start>ls -l
Key name                        Type    #Val  Size  Last Opn Mode Value
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment                         STRING  1     32    2s   0   RWD
[local:Test:S]Edit on start>

which then results in a maxlength of 32 as well during run start. I presume
you used mhttpd itself to create the string. Trying to reporduce this, I found
that mhttpd creates strings with zero length. I will fix this soon. Until
then, use ODBEdit to create your strings.

I am about to commit the mhttpd Elog fixes we have been using in TWIST since
about October. The infamous Elog "last N days" problem is fixed, sundry
memory overruns are caught and assert()ed.

For the curious, the "last N days" problem was caused by uninitialized data
in the elog handling code. A non-zero-terminated string was read from a file
and passed to atoi(). Here is a simplifed illustration:

char str[256]; // uninitialized, filled with whatever happens on the stack
read(file,str,6); // read 6 bytes, non-zero terminated
// str now looks like this: "123456UUUUUUUUU....", "U" is uninitialized memory
int len = atoi(str); // if the first "U" happens to be a number, we lose.

The obvious fix is to add "str[6]=0" before the atoi() call.

Attached is the CVS diff for the proposed changes. Please comment.

K.O.

Thanks for fixing these long lasting bugs. The code is much cleaner now, please
commit it.

Dear Midas Team,

I have run into a problem with Midas and was wondering if you could explain what I 
am doing wrong.  I have included a simple demo to illustrate what I am doing and 
can send a small input data file if needed.

WHAT I AM TRYING TO DO:
Every midas event for the DANCE experiment consists of many physics events.  I am 
trying to create a secondary mid file where the event boundaries are now the 
physics events rather than the midas events.  This secondary mid file will be 
analyzed using a second stage midas analyzer.

For the demo, I use the data from EV02 (one of our 15 frontends), which consists of a 
variable number of fixed length structures where each structure contains the data for 
one crystal from the DANCE detector. 
 I treat each crystal as a separate physics event and write it out in the TREK bank, 
which is a demo calculated output bank, as a separate event.   

(The only difference between this demo and our real system is that we would include 
all the crystals from the other frontends that have approximately the same time stamp 
in the output bank.  Thus the output bank would consist of a varing number of 
crystals in one event rather than the fixed one crystal per event used in this demo.)

THE CHANGES TO analyzer.c AND adccalib.c
I loop through the EV02 bank examining each crystal structure in turn.  I calculate 
"calibrated" parameters and put them into an output bank called TREK.  The unusual 
part of this example is that the TREK bank is no longer part of the main list of input 
banks, ana_trigger_bank_list[].   Instead it is now part of a new bank list called 
ana_physics_bank_list[].  See the analyzer.c file for this definition.

In adccalib.c I  create the space for this new bank as follows. 

	EVENT_HEADER 	gPhysicsEventHeaders[ MAX_EVENT_SIZE / sizeof( 
EVENT_HEADER ) ];  
	WORD* 		gPhysicsEventData = ( WORD * )( gPhysicsEventHeaders + 1 );		

In the adc_calib routine I create the bank header as follows.  Note that the serial 
numbers will restart at 0 at the beginning of each midas event.  Should I let the serial 
number increment monotonically until the end of the run?:

	gPhysicsEventHeaders->serial_number = (DWORD) - 1;
	gPhysicsEventHeaders->event_id = 2;
	gPhysicsEventHeaders->trigger_mask = 0;
	gPhysicsEventHeaders->time_stamp = pheader->time_stamp;

In a loop that loops through all the crystals contained in EV02,  I extract each crystal, 
calibrate it, and store it in a TREK structure.  In creating the TREK bank I assume that 
each one will be a separate physics event thus I update the event serial number and 
use bk_init32 to initialize the memory.   

   	for ( short i = 0; i < nItems; i++ )
  	{	++(gPhysicsEventHeaders->serial_number);  	// Update serial number.
  		bk_init32( gPhysicsEventData );		// Initialize storage.
  		bk_create( gPhysicsEventData, "TREK", TID_STRUCT, &trek );
  	
  		trek->one = (double) pev->areahg * 1.0;
  		trek->two = (float) pev->timelo * 1.0;

  		bk_close( gPhysicsEventData, trek+1 );
  		
  		pev++; 					// Loop to next crystal's data. 
	}	

The output bank should consist of multiple events for each individual EV02 midas 
input event. 

 As far as I can tell the code compiles and runs fine, but I get no data in the .mid 
output file except for the ODB. I have a print statement at the beginning of each 
midas event stating how many crystals were found in the EV02 bank.  I also print out 
the calibrated value for each crystal as it is being placed in its own TREK output 
bank.  The data appears correct.

 I cannot place TREK in the input bank the way it normally is done in the examples 
because there is not a one-to-one correspondence between a midas event and a 
true physics event.  Instead one midas event has many physics events.  Thus the 
output bank needs to be in a new memory area so that I can create a custom header 
and increment the serial number properly for each event.  Our follow-on analysis 
using a second Midas analyzer only needs to analyze one physics event at a time 
rather than one Midas event at a time, which is why we are going to all the trouble to 
get this paradigm working.

I include all the code for this very simple example. 

RUNNING THE CODE:
To run the example just use the run01220.mid file I will send:

./analyzer -i run01220.mid.gz -o run01220out.mid -c settings.odb_cfg -n 50

The only thing done by the settings.odb_cfg file is to turn on the TREK output bank.  I 
have verified that the bank is on.

SUMMARY:
I believe that I must not be creating the new TREK output bank correctly so that 
midas understands that the event-by-event calculated physics data should be written 
out event-by-event.  I have pointed out several places in the above discussion where 
I might be making a mistake.

I would like to get both this example running and a similar which create Root trees, 
though the Root trees are of secondary importance.  With this example I can finish 
writing the second stage analyzer and get the DANCE collaboration moving forward 
with their analysis.  Currently, we cannot use this paradigm because I cannot create 
a secondary mid file in our stage one analysis.  I would be very grateful if you could 
take a look at this example and tell me what I am doing incorrectly.

Jan

Dear Jan,

I had a look at your code. You create a gPhysicsEventHeader array, fill it, and expect the 
framework to write it to disk. But how can the framework "guess" that you want your private 
global array being written? Unfortunately it cannot do magic!

Do do what you want, you have to write a "secondary" midas file yourself. I modified your 
code to do that. First, I define the event storage like

BYTE           gSecEvent[ MAX_EVENT_SIZE ];
EVENT_HEADER   *gPhysicsEventHeader = (EVENT_HEADER *) gSecEvent;
WORD* 	       gPhysicsEventData = ( WORD * )( gPhysicsEventHeader + 1 );		

I use gSecEvent as a BYTE array, since it only contains one avent at a time, so this is more 
appropriate. Then, in the BOR routine, I open a file:

  sprintf(str, "sec%05d.mid", run_number);
  sec_fh = open(str, O_CREAT | O_RDWR | O_BINARY, 0644);

and close it in the EOR routine

  close(sec_fh);

The event routine now manually fills events into the secondary file:

      /* write event to secondary .mid file */
      gPhysicsEventHeader->data_size = bk_size(gPhysicsEventData);
      write(sec_fh, gPhysicsEventHeader, sizeof(EVENT_HEADER)+bk_size(gPhysicsEventData));

Note that this code is placed *inside* the for() loop over nItems, so for each detector you 
create and event and write it.

That's all you need, the full file adccalib.c is attached. I tried to produce a sec01220.mid 
file and was able to read it back with the mdump utility.

Best regards,

  Stefan

Jan , 

Do you need to log this stage 1 output?  If not, you would use the 
eventbuilder mechanism to create your stage 2 events.  
I use the eventbuilder mechanism with success for my TWIST experiment.

Renee

I commited the final bits to make Midas build on Darwin aka macosx.

Here is the summary:

1) I treat Darwin as a funny linux, so OS_LINUX is always defined
2) OS_DARWIN is defined for places where the two differ
3) system dependant directory is "midas/darwin/{bin,lib}"
4) a few header files had to be moved around to dodge namespace pollution by Apple system 
header files (i.e. one of the PowerPC header files #defines PVM- collision with PVM in mana.c, 
another #defines Free(x)- collision with ROOT header files)
5) ss_thread_create() and ss_thread_kill() now use midas_thread_t. On Darwin ptherad_t is not 
an "int".
6) the Makefile has no support for building the midas shared library on macosx.
7) on my Mac OS 10.2.8 machine, "make all" works, "odbedit" and "mhttpd" run. This is the 
full extent of my testing. Status on Mac OS 10.3.x is unknown.

K.O.

While watching "The Wizard of Oz", the greatest movie ever made, I took a shot at building 
midas on my macosx computer. After stumbling on a few small and on a few hard problems, I 
built almost everything. However, odb does not work- some further debugging is in order.

Anyway, the easy problems are:
- a few missing header files: pty.h, sys/vfs.h, malloc.h
- a few missing features in system.c (stime(), "get tape position")
- /usr/include/string.h already has strlcpy() & co.
- dbg_malloc() has inconsistent prototypes (size_t vs unsigned int)
- for reasons unknown, PVM is #defined. This flushed a bug in mana.c

A few hard problems:
- namespace pollution by Apple- they #define ALIGN in system headers, colliding with ALIGN 
in midas.h. I was amazed that the two are almost identical, but MIDAS ALIGN aligns to 8 
bytes, while Apple does 4 bytes. ALIGN is used all over the place and I am not sure how to 
reconcile this.
- "timezone" in mhttpd.c. On linux, it's an "int", on darwin, it's a function. What gives?
- building libmidas.a requires running ranlib
- building libmidas.so requires unknown macosx specific magic.

For your enjoyment, the "cvs diff" is attached. The resulting code is known to not work.

K.O.

Great, I got already questions about MacOSX support...

Once it's working, you should commit the changes. But take into account that using "//" for 
comments might cause problems for the VxWorks compiler (talk to Pierre about that!).

> A few hard problems:
> - namespace pollution by Apple- they #define ALIGN in system headers, colliding with ALIGN 
> in midas.h. I was amazed that the two are almost identical, but MIDAS ALIGN aligns to 8 
> bytes, while Apple does 4 bytes. ALIGN is used all over the place and I am not sure how to 
> reconcile this.

You can rename ALIGN to ALIGN8 all over the place.

> - "timezone" in mhttpd.c. On linux, it's an "int", on darwin, it's a function. What gives?

Wrap it into a function get_timezone(). Under linux, just return "timezone", under OSX, 
return timezone() via conditional compiling.

> - building libmidas.a requires running ranlib
> - building libmidas.so requires unknown macosx specific magic.

I guess we should foget for now about the shared libraries (Mac people anyhow have too much 
money so they can affort additional RAM (;-) ), but building the static library is mandatory. 

> Great, I got already questions about MacOSX support...
> Once it's working, you should commit the changes.

With the ALIGN8() change ODB works, mhttpd works. ALIGN8 change now commited to cvs, verified that "make all" builds 
on Linux.

ROOT stuff still blows up because of more namespace pollution (/usr/include/sys/something does #define Free(x) 
free(blah...)). Arguably, it is not Apple's fault- portable programs should not include any <sys/foo.h> header files. I 
think I can fix it by moving "#include <sys/mount.h>" from midasinc.h to system.h.

Also figured out why PVM is defined- more pollution from "#include <sys/blah...>". This is only in mana.c and I will 
repace every "#ifdef PVM" with "#ifdef HAVE_PVM". Is there documentation that should be updated as well? Alternatively I 
can try to play games with header files...


> But take into account that using "//" for comments might cause problems for the VxWorks compiler (talk to Pierre 
about that!).

Yes, "// comments" stay out of midas. I used them to make the modification more visible.

> You can rename ALIGN to ALIGN8 all over the place.

Done, commited.

> > - "timezone" in mhttpd.c. On linux, it's an "int", on darwin, it's a function. What gives?
> Wrap it into a function get_timezone(). Under linux, just return "timezone", under OSX, 
> return timezone() via conditional compiling.

Right. Still on the todo list.

> > - building libmidas.a requires running ranlib

I still have to cleanup the Makefile. Not commiting it yet.

Then, a new problem- on MacOSX, pthread_t is not an "INT" and system.c:ss_thread_create() whines about it. I want to 
introduce a system dependant THREAD_T (or whatever) and make ss_thread_create() return that, rather than INT.

ROOT stuff is still not fully tested- it takes a little while to build ROOT on a 600MHz laptop.

Attached is my current CVS diff.

K.O.

> With the ALIGN8() change ODB works, mhttpd works. ALIGN8 change now commited to cvs, verified that "make all" builds 
> on Linux.

Verified that "make all" still works under Windows.

> ROOT stuff still blows up because of more namespace pollution (/usr/include/sys/something does #define Free(x) 
> free(blah...)). Arguably, it is not Apple's fault- portable programs should not include any <sys/foo.h> header files. I 
> think I can fix it by moving "#include <sys/mount.h>" from midasinc.h to system.h.

I would like to keep all OS specific #includes in midasinc.h. In worst case put another section there for OSX, like

in midas.h:

#if !defined(OS_MACOSX)
#if defined ( __????__ ) <- put the proper thing here
#define OS_MACOSX
#endif
#endif

then make a new seciton in midasinc.h

#ifdef OS_MACOSX
#include <...>
#endif

> Also figured out why PVM is defined- more pollution from "#include <sys/blah...>". This is only in mana.c and I will 
> repace every "#ifdef PVM" with "#ifdef HAVE_PVM". Is there documentation that should be updated as well? Alternatively I 
> can try to play games with header files...

Right, PVM should be replaced by HAVE_PVM. This is only for the analyzer. I planned at some point to run the analyzer in 
parallel on a linux cluster, but it was never really used. Going to ROOT, that facility should be replaces by PROOF.

> Then, a new problem- on MacOSX, pthread_t is not an "INT" and system.c:ss_thread_create() whines about it. I want to 
> introduce a system dependant THREAD_T (or whatever) and make ss_thread_create() return that, rather than INT.

Good. If you have a OS_MACOSX, that should help you there.

-SR

> I would like to keep all OS specific #includes in midasinc.h

No go. Here is the problem:

midasinc.h includes sys/mount.h, which #defines Free(x) to be something else
mana.c includes msystem.h, which includes midasinc.h
mana.c includes ROOT header files, which blow up because Free(x) is redefined.

I want this:

mana.c does *not* include sys/mount.h
system.c does include sys/mount.h

Simplest solution is to take sys/mount.h out of midasinc.h and include it in system.c

> Right, PVM should be replaced by HAVE_PVM.

Commited.

> > Then, a new problem- on MacOSX, pthread_t is not an "INT" and system.c:ss_thread_create() whines about it. I want to 
> > introduce a system dependant THREAD_T (or whatever) and make ss_thread_create() return that, rather than INT.
> Good. If you have a OS_MACOSX, that should help you there.

Okey. In Darwin, pthread_t is not an int. It is a pointer to a struct. In midas.c I typedef midas_pthread_t to HANDLE on Windows and to pthread_t n OS_UNIX.

This uncovered a problem with ss_getthandle(). What is it supposed to do? On Windows it returns a handle to the current thread, on OS_UNIX, it returns getpid(). 
What gives? I am leaving it alone for now.

Attached is the current diff. Most changes are in system.c: ss_timezone() and midas_pthread_t. The Makefile part is already commited. Building the shared 
library was made dependant on NEED_SHLIB. Now, building static midas applications is very simple, use "make SHLIB="

K.O.

> I want this:
> 
> mana.c does *not* include sys/mount.h
> system.c does include sys/mount.h
> 
> Simplest solution is to take sys/mount.h out of midasinc.h and include it in system.c

Agree.

> This uncovered a problem with ss_getthandle(). What is it supposed to do? On Windows it returns a handle to the current thread, on OS_UNIX, it returns getpid(). 
> What gives? I am leaving it alone for now.

The Unix version of ss_getthandle() returns the pid since at the time when I wrote that function (many years ago) there were no threads under Unix. It should now 
be replaces with a function which returns the real thread id (at least under Linux).

> > Simplest solution is to take sys/mount.h out of midasinc.h and include it in system.c
> Agree.

Done.

With this, I commited the rest of my changes: midas_thread_t in midas.h, change ss_thread_xxx() prototypes in msystem.h
, implementation in system.c

My cvs diff is now empty.

Midas should compile on Darwin aka macosx, I tested "odbedit" and "mhttpd"- they seem to work.
 
> > This uncovered a problem with ss_getthandle(). 
> The Unix version of ss_getthandle() returns the pid since at the time when I wrote that function (many years ago) there were no threads under Unix. It should now 
> be replaces with a function which returns the real thread id (at least under Linux).

I do not want to touch this. Sorry.

K.O.

I am just starting to explore MIDAS, i.e. reading the manual and trying 
some examples. For the moment I would like to make a simple frontend that 
access a portable multimeter through RS-232 port. I think this could help 
me understand how to access hardare inside MIDAS framework. Initially I've 
started from the MiniFE.c example and tried to initialize the serial port 
on run start transition and build a readout loop in the main function. I 
know that this is not a full frontend but I was just interested in getting 
some experience with the drivers available in the distribution, in this 
case RS-232. The portable multimeter is very simple in principle, one just 
has to configure the port settings and then send character 'R' and read 14 
ASCII characters from the device. Unfortunately I could not understand how 
to invoke the driver services so I changed and started again with the 
slowcont/frontend.c example. From this example and after reading the "Slow 
Control System" section in the MIDAS manual I think that all I need to do 
is to define my own equipment structure based on the multi.c class driver 
with a single input channel (and replace the null driver with the RS-232).

Here I got stuck. I see from the code source that there is a relationship 
between drivers at all levels (even bus) and the ODB but I don't yet fully 
understand how they work. Actually for a couple of days now I am in a loop 
going from class to device to bus and then back again to class drivers 
trying to see how to create my own device driver and especially how to call 
the bus driver. It could be that the framework is invoking the drivers and 
the user just has to configure things ... up to now I didn't dare to look 
at the mfe.c.

Is there a more detailed documentation about slow control and drivers then 
the MIDAS manual? What is the data flow through the three layers system for 
drivers? What is the role of the framework and what is left to the user 
choice?

Thanks

There is some information at

http://midas.triumf.ca/doc/html/Internal.html#Slow_Control_system

and at

http://midas/download/course/course_rt03.zip , file "part1.ppt", expecially 
page 59 and page 62 "writing your own device driver".

So what you are missing for your application is a "device driver" for your 
multimeter. The only function it has to implement is the function CMD_INIT 
where you initialize the RS232 port, and the funciton CMD_GET, which sends 
a "R" and reads the value. Now you have two options:

1) You implement RS232 calls directly in your device driver

You link against rs232.c and directly call rs232_init() at the inizialization, 
then call rs232_write() and rs232_read() where you read your 14 ASCII 
characters.

2) You call a "bus driver" in your device driver

This method makes the device driver independent of the underlying transport 
interface. So if your next multimeter accepts the same "R" command over 
Ethernet, you can just replace the RS232 bus driver by the TCPIP bus driver 
without having to change your device driver. But I guess that method 2) is not 
worth for such a simple device like your multimeter.

So take nulldev.c or dastemp.c as your starting point, put some RS232 
initialization into the init routine and the communication via "R" into 
the "get" routine. The slow control frontend, driven by mfe.c, should then 
regularly read your multimeter and the value should appear in the ODB. Take 
the examples/slowcont/frontend.c as an example, and adjust the multi_driver[] 
list to use your new device driver (instead of the nulldev).

I would like to mention that the usage of midas only makes sense for some 
experiemnts which require event based readout, using VME or CAMAC crates. If 
your only task is to read out some devices which are called "slow control 
equipment" in the midas language, then you might be better of with labview or 
something.

The multimeter device is indeed to simple to use MIDAS but I am just trying 
it as a learning experience. The DAQ system to develop involves VME crates 
and general purpose I/O boards. The slow control part, especially accessing 
the I/O boards seem to me more complex then the VME access. I want to 
understand very well the "correct" way of using the MIDAS slow control 
framework before starting the project.

I chose the second method and created a meterdev.c driver (essentially a 
copy of the nulldev.c) where I changed the init. function and the get 
function. I am not sending a "INIT ..." string because for this device it 
is useless. In the get function I send a "D" and read my string. I changed 
the frontend of the example to have a new driver list (in the first try I 
eliminated the Output device but the ODB got corrupted, I guess the class 
multi needs to have defined output channels). The output channel is linked 
with nulldev and null (I guess this is like if they would not be present).

The result is strange because the get function is called all the time very 
fast (much faster then the 9 seconds as set in the equipment) and even 
before starting the run (I just put the flag RO_RUNNING).

Thanks for any help

> The result is strange because the get function is called all the time very 
> fast (much faster then the 9 seconds as set in the equipment) and even 
> before starting the run (I just put the flag RO_RUNNING).

This is on purpose. When the frontend is idle, it loops over the slow control 
equipment as fast as possible. This way, you see changes in your hardware very 
quickly. I see no reason to waste CPU cycles in the frontend when there are 
better things to do like reading slow control equipment. Presume you have the 
alarm system running, which turns off some equipment in case of an over 
current. You better do this as quickly as possible, not wasting up to 9 
seconds each time.

The 9 seconds you mention are for reading *EVENTS*. You have double 
functionality: First, reading the slow control system, writing updated values 
to the ODB, where someone else can display or evaluate them (in the alarm 
system for example). Second, assemble events and sending them with the other 
data to disk or tape. Only the second one gets controlled by RO_RUNNING and 
the 9 seconds. You can see this by the updating event statists on your 
frontend display, which increments only when running and then every 9 seconds.

Dear all,

there are continuing requests about the C indent style we use in midas. As 
you know, the current style does not comply with any standard. It is even 
a mixture of styles since code comes from different people. To fix this 
once and forever, I am considering using the "indent" program which comes 
with every linux installation. Running indent regularly on all our code 
ensures a consistent look. So I propose (actually the idea came from Paul 
Knowles) to put a new section in the midas makefile:

indent:
        find . -name "*.[hc]" -exec indent <flags> {} \;

so one can easily do a "make indent". The question is now how the <flags> 
should look like. The standard is GNU style, but this deviates from the 
original K&R style such that the opening "{" is put on a new line, which I 
use but most of you do not. The "-kr" style does the standard K&R style, 
but used tabs (which is not good), and does a 4-column indention which is 
I think too much. So I would propose following flags:

indent -kr -nut -i2 -di8 -bad <filename.c>

Please take some of your source code, and format it this way, and let me 
know if these flags are a good combination or if you would like to have 
anything changed. It should also be checked (->PAA) that this style 
complies with the DOC++ system. Once we all agree, I can put it into the 
makefile, execute it and commit the newly formatted code for the whole 
source tree.

Hi Stefan,

> once and forever, I am considering using the "indent" program which comes 
> with every linux installation. Running indent regularly on all our code 
> ensures a consistent look.

I think this can be called a Good Thing.

> The "-kr" style does the standard K&R style, 
> but used tabs (which is not good), and does a 4-column 
> indention which is I think too much. So I would propose 
> following flags:
>        indent -kr -nut -i2 -di8 -bad <filename.c>

(some of this is a repeat from an earlier mail to SR):
You might also want a -l90 for a longer line length than 75
characters.  K&R style with indentation from 5 to 8 spaces
is a good indicator of complexity: as soon as 40 characters
of code wind up unreadably squashed to the right of the
screen, you have to refactor to have less indentation
levels.  This means you wind up rolling up the inner parts
of deeply nested conditionals or loops as separate
functions, making the whole code easier to understand.

I think that setting -i2 is ``going around the problem'' 
of deep nesting.  If you really need to keep the indentation 
tabs less than 4 (8 is ideal) because your code is falling off the 
right edge of the screen, you are indented too deeply.  Why do 
I say that?  There is the famous ``7+-1'' idea that you can hold
in you head only 7 ideas (give or take one) at any time.  I'm not 
that smart and I top out at about 5:  So for example, a conditional 
in a loop  in a conditional in a switch is about as deep a level 
of nesting as  I can easily understand (remember that I also have 
to hold the line i'm working on as well): that's 4 levels, plus one for the
function itself and we are at 40 characters away from the right edge
of the screen using -i8 and have some 40 characters available for writing code
(how often is a line of code really longer than about 40 characters?).
On top of that, the indentation is easily seen so you know immediately 
wheather you are at the upper conditional, or inner conditional.  A -i2
just doesn't make the difference big enough.  -i5 is a happy balance 
with enough visual clue as to the indentation level, but leaves you 50
to 60 characters for the code line itself.

However, if you are indenting very deeply, then the poor reader can't hold
on to the context: there are more than 6 or 7 things to keep in mind.
In those cases, roll up the inner levels as a separate function and 
call it that way. The inner complexity of the nested statements gets 
nicely abstracted and then dumb people like me can understand what 
you are doing.

So, in brief: indent is a good idea, and -in with n>=4 will be best.
I don't think -i2 will lend itself to making the code so much easier 
to read.

thanks for listening.
.p.

Hi Paul,

I agree with you that a nesting level of more than 4-5 is a bad thing, but I 
believe that throughout the midas code, this level is not exceeded (my poor 
mind also does not hold more than 5 things (;-) ). An indent level of 8 columns 
alone does hot force you too much in not extending the nesting level. I have 
seen code which does that, so there are nesting levels of 8 and more, which 
ends up that the code is smashed to the right side of the screen, where each 
statement is broken into many line since each line only holds 10 or 20 
characters. All the nice real estate on the left side of the scree is lost.

So having said that, I don't feel a strong need of giving up a "-i2", since the 
midas code does not contain deep nesting levels and hopefully will never have. 
In my opinion, a small indent level makes more use of your screen space, since 
you do not have a large white area at the left. A typical nesting level is 3-4, 
which causes already 32 blank charactes at the left, or 1/3 of your screen, 
just for nothing. It will lead to more lines (even with -l90), so people have 
to scroll more.

What do others think (Pierre, Konstantin, Renee) ?

> I don't feel a strong need of giving up a "-i2"...

I am comfortable with the current MIDAS styling convention and I would rather not
have yet another private religious war over the right location for the curley braces.

If we are to consider changing the MIDAS coding convention, I urge all and sundry
to read the ROOT coding convention, as written by Rene Brun and Fons Rademakers at
http://root.cern.ch/root/Conventions.html. The ROOT people did their homework, they
did read the literature and they produced a well considered and well argumented style.

Also, while there, do read the Taligent documentation- by far, one of the most
coherent manuals to C++ programming style.

K.O.

Ok, taking all comments so far into account, I conclude adopting the ROOT 
coding style would be best for us. So I put

indent:
	find . -name "*.[hc]" -exec indent -kr -nut -i3 {} \;

Into the makefile. Hope everybody is happy now (;-)))

I want midas alarms to go off when I cannot ping arbitrary remote hosts. Is
there is easy/preferred way to do this? K.O.

> I want midas alarms to go off when I cannot ping arbitrary remote hosts. Is
> there is easy/preferred way to do this? K.O.

There are "internal alarms" with type AT_EVALUATED. Just find a program 
where you can put some code which gets periodically executed (like the idle 
loop in the frontend), and so something like:

DWORD last = 0;

  if (ss_time() > last+60)
    {
    last = ss_time();

    /* do a ping via socket(), bind() and connect() */
    ...

    if (status != CM_SUCCESS)
      al_trigger_alarm("XYZ Ping", str, "Warning", 
                       "Host is dead", AT_INTERNAL);
    }

Pierre does the same thing in lazylogger.c, just have a look. I don't know 
how to do a ping correctly in C, I guess you have to send an UDP packet 
somewhere, but I never did it. If you find it out, please post it.


 

The current Triumf DAQ standard (Midas) since the second quarter of this
year (2003) has the capability to deal with ROOT histograms. The internal
midas logger can save data files in ROOT format and the analyzer can book
and fill ROOT histograms. These features triggered a new project started
during summer 2003 for building a Triumf GUI ROOT/Midas display utility.

The initial requirements for this utility are:
1) Solely based on ROOT (VirtualX, no Qt)
2) Similar overall functionality than PAW.
   - Open concurrent ROOT files.
   - Open connection to a single Midas Online experiment (requires analyzer
                                                          as server)
   - Optional Auto-update in ONLINE mode.
   - Zoning, Zooming option display.
   - Simple Historgram gaphic manipulation. (based on current ROOT
                                             implementation)
   - Tree manipulation ( use of TBrowser())
   - Simple user script invocation.
   - Optional experiment specific customization.
3) Session configuration save/restore option.

An initial version has been developed and currently is under evaluation.
Improvement and further development will based on the local experimenters
responses. 

This utility will be available for external use around the second quarter of
the 2004 at the latest.

.

I committed several small fixes and changes:

- install.txt which mentions explicitly ROOT
- mana.c and the main Makefile which fixes all HBOOK compiler warnings
- mana.c to write an explicit warning if the experiment directoy contains 
uppercase letters in the path (HBOOK does not like this and refuses to 
read/write histos)
- mserver.c, mrpc.c, odb.c to fix a wrong parameter in 
db_remove_open_record() (see previous entry from Paul)
- added experim.h into the dependency of the hbookexpt Makefile

Hi All,

I have found a weird one:

The following code executes on the frontend machine in the
frontend_exit() routine, and connects to the odb running on
another separate machine:
...
     cm_msg(MINFO,__func__, "line %d", __LINE__);

     cm_get_experiment_database(&hdb, NULL);

     cm_msg(MINFO,__func__, "line %d", __LINE__);
     status = db_find_key(hdb, 0, "/Experiment/Run Parameters", &hkey);
     cm_msg(MINFO,__func__, "line %d, hkey=%d, status=%d",
            __LINE__, hkey, status);
     checkstat("db_find_key returned status %d", status);
     cm_msg(MINFO,__func__, "line %d", __LINE__);
     status = db_close_record(hdb, hkey);

     /* NOTREACHED!! the above call to db_close_record
        doesn't return!
      */
     cm_msg(MINFO,__func__, "line %d, status=%d", __LINE__, status);
     checkstat("db_close_record returned status %d", status);

checkstat is a macro that does the following:
#define checkstat(format, arg...)\
do{ if(status != DB_SUCCESS) {\
cm_msg(MERROR, __func__, format, ## arg);\
return FE_ERR_ODB;}}while(0)

The key exists, and the status of the search is 1
(i.e., DB_SUCCESS) and rest of the code tries to run.  What gets
really weird is that the db_close_record _doesn't_ _return_.
The code following the NOTREACHED comment just doesn't get
called.  I get the message from the __LINE__ just in front
of the call, but not the message afterwards (cm_msg and printf 
were tried).  Somehow db_close_record is causing a non-local 
exit or signal or something. No error message is printed and the 
frontend continues to exit with exit code 0.  But, since the rest
of my frontend_exit/odb closing doesn't happen, the odb is left in
a lost state requiring a cleanup.  If I comment out the calls to 
db_close_record, the rest of my frontend_exit runs normally 
and the cm_disconnect_experiment() in mfe.c eventually closes my 
open records correctly (I expect, anyway) and this is the present 
workaround i am using.  The terror i have is that several of my 
hotlinked callback routines will call the close_record routine 
when resetting illegal values.  No end of hilarity will result there...

I was using the same code in the frontend under 1.9.2 and
have only recently upgraded to 1.9.3-? tarball from PAA and 
there were no problems using the 1.9.2 code: this is a 1.9.3
issue.

I have localized the weirdness to what I think is the RPC interface.
Running the nullfrontend (no camac access) on the same machine as 
hosts the ODB I can make the problem appear and disappear in the 
following way:
(odb is local on machine ``monet'')

nullfe -h monet -e acqmonad     : db_close_record will get lost

nullfe -e acqmonad              : db_close_record works as expected.

I've tried also with the patch for the 256 byte odb string bug since
many of the open records have strings of that length, but that isn't
it. The only substancial looking change to mserver from 1.9.2 to 1.9.3
is the SIGPIPE ignore and that doesn't look like a good candidate either.
Can this be that some of the 
   #IFDEF LOCAL_ROUTINES
that got moved about in odb.c and others
are causing the remote call to get confused?

Clearly the answer is to just use stable and happy 1.9.2, but the 
people for whom I am working now really want to use ROOT for
an analyzer...


cheers,
.p.

Paul Knowles.                   phone: 41 26 300 90 64
email: Paul.Knowles@unifr.ch      Fax: 41 26 300 97 47
finger me at pexppc33.unifr.ch for more contact information

Hi Paul,

sorry my late reply, I had to find some time for debugging your problem. 
Thank you very much for the detailed description of the problem, I wish all 
bug reports would be such elaborate!

You were right that there was a bug in the RPC system. The function 
db_remove_open_record() got a new parameter recently, which was not changed 
in the RPC call, and caused the mserver side to crash on any 
db_close_record() call.

I fixed it and the update is under CVS (http://midas.psi.ch/cgi-
bin/cvsweb/midas/src/). Since you need to update many files, I wonder if I 
should enable anonymous CVS read access. Does anybody know how to set this 
up using "ssh" as the protocol (via CVS_RSH=ssh)?

Please note that db_close_record() is not necessary as 
cm_disconnect_experiment() takes care of this, but having it there does not 
hurt.