History: GEnDocEpics

This file: ~a-onl/scripts/README
Bob Michaels, Jan 2004

An experienced careful person from the experiment
may modify the following scripts. Do NOT modify
any other scripts (you could cause trouble).

• epicsLogger — logs EPICS info into datastream "slowly"

(a large list of info every ~30 sec)

• fastEpicsLogger — similar to epicsLogger but smaller list and faster updates. Don't make this a huge list.
• epicsRunStart — halog's EPICS info at the start of a run.
• epicsRunEnd — halog's the EPICS info at the end of a run.
• runstart.tcl — start of run TCL window, called by epicsRunStart
• runend.tcl — end-of-run TCL window, called by epicsRunEnd
• halla_scaler_process.tcl — produces the end-run scaler info for halog, called by runend.tcl

Hints:

1. Preferably only ONE person should be changing these scripts, at the spokespersons request. That one person should be at least careful, and preferably experienced.
2. Save older versions until you are confident of your changes.
3. Some older versions are in the ./save* directories (with dates in the name). These may provide useful hints on for example going back to coincidence mode, or putting in the helium target (or whatever).
4. Changing any other script (i.e. a script not in the above list) could cause harm to the DAQ. Be careful !
5. Be sure to run the script interactively by hand before declaring victory. If you don't know how to test this, then you don't satisfy criteria #1 (experienced person).
6. The end-of-run scripts must run reasonably fast (less than 10 sec). Every wrong EPICS variable leads to a timeout of 1 sec. Also, you probably don't need a million variables at the end of a run. The CODA end-run waits for this script, then does a process cleanup. In contrast, the CODA start-run does not wait, it puts the start-run script in the background, so it can be slow.
7. How do I know what EPICS variables and EPICS_CA_ADDR_LIST ? Ask the person who created them ! And be sure to test the scripts to avoid long timeouts from wrong variables.