14 Jan 2004, Razvan Stefan Gornea, , Access to hardware in the MIDAS framework
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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
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14 Jan 2004, Stefan Ritt, , Access to hardware in the MIDAS framework
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There is some information at
http://midas.triumf.ca/doc/html/Internal.html#Slow_Control_system
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16 Jan 2004, Razvan Stefan Gornea, , Access to hardware in the MIDAS framework 
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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
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17 Jan 2004, Stefan Ritt, , Access to hardware in the MIDAS framework
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> 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).
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15 Dec 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Poll about default indent style
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Dear all,
there are continuing requests about the C indent style we use in midas. As
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18 Dec 2003, Paul Knowles, , Poll about default indent style
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Hi Stefan,
> once and forever, I am considering using the "indent" program which comes
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18 Dec 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Poll about default indent style
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Hi Paul,
I agree with you that a nesting level of more than 4-5 is a bad thing, but I
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01 Jan 2004, Konstantin Olchanski, , Poll about default indent style
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> 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
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06 Jan 2004, Stefan Ritt, , Poll about default indent style
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Ok, taking all comments so far into account, I conclude adopting the ROOT
coding style would be best for us. So I put
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11 Aug 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , Alarm on no ping?
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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. |
18 Dec 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Alarm on no ping?
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> 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.
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15 Dec 2003, Pierre-André Amaudruz, , ROOT GUI at Triumf
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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
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12 Dec 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Several small fixes and changes
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I committed several small fixes and changes:
- install.txt which mentions explicitly ROOT
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09 Dec 2003, Paul Knowles, , db_close_record non-local/non-return
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Hi All,
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12 Dec 2003, Stefan Ritt, , db_close_record non-local/non-return
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Hi Paul,
sorry my late reply, I had to find some time for debugging your problem.
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20 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Implementation of db_check_record()
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As Konstantin pointed out correctly, the db_create_record() call is pretty
heavy since it copies whole structures around the ODB. Therefore, it
should not used frequently. It might be that several problems are caused
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27 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , Implementation of db_check_record()
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> I have therefore implemented the function
> db_check_record(HNDLE hDB, HNDLE hKey, char *keyname, char *rec_str, BOOL
correct)
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30 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , Implementation of db_check_record()
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> > I have therefore implemented the function
> > db_check_record(HNDLE hDB, HNDLE hKey, char *keyname, char *rec_str, BOOL
> correct)
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30 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Implementation of db_check_record()
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Fixed and committed. Can you check if it's working? |
01 Dec 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , Implementation of db_check_record()
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> Fixed and committed. Can you check if it's working?
Yes, it is fixed. Thanks. K.O. |
25 Nov 2003, Suzannah Daviel, , delete key followed by create record leads to empty structure in experim.h
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Hi,
I have noticed a problem with deleting a key to an array in odb, then
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01 Dec 2003, Stefan Ritt, , delete key followed by create record leads to empty structure in experim.h
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> I have noticed a problem with deleting a key to an array in odb, then
> recreating the record as in the code below. The record is recreated
> successfully, but when viewing it with mhttpd, a spurious blank line
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30 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , bad call to cm_cleanup() in fal.c
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fal.c does not compile: it calls cm_cleanup() with one argument when there
should be two arguments. K.O. |
30 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , bad call to cm_cleanup() in fal.c
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> fal.c does not compile: it calls cm_cleanup() with one argument when there
> should be two arguments. K.O.
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20 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , midas timeout wraparound
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While reviving midas on midtig01 after it was not used for a while, we see
this. Notice negative "last called" numbers. Looks like a time_t wraparound
somewhere...
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20 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , cannot shutdown defunct clients
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> While reviving midas on midtig01 after it was not used for a while ...
> [local:tigress:S]/>scl -w
> Name Host Timeout Last called
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20 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , cannot shutdown defunct clients
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> 1) shutdown from mhttpd "programs" page -> "cannot shutdown client"
> 2) "sh mhttpd" from odbedit ->
> [midas.c:5298:cm_shutdown] cannot connect to client mhttpd on host
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20 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , cannot shutdown defunct clients
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> > 1) shutdown from mhttpd "programs" page -> "cannot shutdown client"
> Have you tried a "cleanup" in ODBEdit?
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20 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , cannot shutdown defunct clients
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> INT == "int", wraparound in 1 month
> DWORD == "unsigned int", wraparound in 2 months
>
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20 Nov 2003, Renee Poutissou, , cannot shutdown defunct clients
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Indeed the ODB command "cleanup" really works. I have used it several
times with the TWIST DAQ and regularly with the BNMR/MUSR setups where
we have these stubborn clients (ie feepics) that do not want to shutdown
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24 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , cannot shutdown defunct clients
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> But there is one problem with "cleanup". It has a hardwired timeout of
> 2 seconds. This is a problem for tasks like lazylogger which set a timeout
> of 60 seconds when moving the tape. So BEWARE, if you issue the "cleanup"
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17 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Revised MVMESTD
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Let me propose a revised scheme for midas standard VME calls (mvmestd.h).
Pierre mentioned some limitations before, and I find now also some fields
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20 Nov 2003, Pierre-André Amaudruz, Konstantin Olchanski, , Revised MVMESTD
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Before we try to merge the different access scheme for the different VME hardware,
we present the "optimal" configuration for the VMIC setup. This is a first shot so take it
with caution.
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21 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Revised MVMESTD
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Thanks for your contribution. Let me try to map your functionality to mvmestd calls:
> A) The VMIC vme_slave_xxx() options are not considered.
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20 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , set-uid-root midas programs
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I see that MIDAS installs several set-uid-root programs into /usr/local/bin.
In this age and time of evil computer hackers, this is not a good idea and
we should Do Something (TM) about it. Here is my risk assessment:
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20 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , set-uid-root midas programs
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> dio- is required to be setuid-root to gain I/O permissions. I looked at it a
> few times, and it is probably safe, but I would like to get a second
> opinion. Stephan, can you should it to your local security geeks?
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15 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , Phantom "open records"
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Sometimes (maybe after a client uncleanly exits?), I see phantom "open
records", for example:
[local:twist:Running]Gas>sor
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16 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Phantom
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I have seen the same behaviour and it annoys me, too. What I did in the past
is a "cleanup" in ODBEdit which removes these open records. I have soem code
in cm_watchdog(), which should take care of that. If a client is dead, it
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20 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Phantom
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I tried to reproduce the problem, but without success. So in case this happens
again, one should debug the code im cm_watchdog() next to the line
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17 Nov 2003, Pierre-André Amaudruz, , Lazylogger application
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- Remove temporary "/Programs/Lazy" creation.
- Fix Rate calculation for Web display.
- Change FTP channel description (see help). |
31 Oct 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , more odb "run number" error checking
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I added error checking to the places where we read "/runinfo/run number". In
general, I do this:
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01 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , more odb
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> I added error checking to the places where we read "/runinfo/run number". In
> general, I do this:
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01 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , more odb
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> > I added error checking to the places where we read "/runinfo/run number".
> Now YOU broke the system by editing all these files with something I consider
> temporary debugging code. A run number of zero is *VALILD*.
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14 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , more odb
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Ok, I apologize. It's all ok. Thanks for clearifying. Concerning the assert's, it
would be nice to be able to disable them in release code. Under Windows, the
assert() is actually a macro which expands to zero if NDEBUG is defined. I
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31 Oct 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , Do not frob "/runinfo" in mhttpd.c
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I found where we tickle the race condition in db_create_record().
1) in mhttpd.c, every time we show the status page, we call
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01 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Do not frob
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> I found where we tickle the race condition in db_create_record().
>
> 1) in mhttpd.c, every time we show the status page, we call
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01 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , Do not frob
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> > I found where we tickle the race condition in db_create_record().
> The reason for the db_create_record() is the following: Assume that we change
> the /runinfo structure...
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31 Oct 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , mana.c without ROOT and HBOOK
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Stephan, why did you prohibit building mana.c without ROOT and HBOOK
support? I think such a configuration is valid and should be allowed.
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01 Nov 2003, Stefan Ritt, , mana.c without ROOT and HBOOK
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> Stephan, why did you prohibit building mana.c without ROOT and HBOOK
> support? I think such a configuration is valid and should be allowed.
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01 Nov 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , mana.c without ROOT and HBOOK
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> > Stephan, why did you prohibit building mana.c without ROOT and HBOOK
> > support? I think such a configuration is valid and should be allowed.
>
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31 Oct 2003, Konstantin Olchanski, , Disable "tab"s in xemacs
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The default C indentation style in xemacs uses "tab" characters, violating
the MIDAS coding convention. To disable this misfeature in xemacs (emacs
too?), put this incantation in your .xemacs/custom.el file:
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30 Oct 2003, Stefan Ritt, , Fixed several potential problems for ODB corruption
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I just realized that db_set_value, db_set_data, db_set_num_values and
db_merge_data do not check for num_values == 0. With such a parameter the
ODB can become corrupted, since zero length ODB entries are not allowed. I
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30 Oct 2003, Stefan Ritt, , 'umask' added to lazylogger for FTP connections
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I had to add a 'umask' opiton to the loggers (lazy and mlogger) for the new
PSI archive. One can now put a filename into the settings like:
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