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Subject: Re: drvTS
From: Ralph Lange <[email protected]>
To: Korhonen Timo <[email protected]>
Cc: EPICS Core Talk <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:14:17 +0100
Hello Timo, hello all -

Let me try to summarize the current situation (not meant as an insult, only to synchronize status):

   * The APS event support is old and doesn't match the newer timing
     systems.
   * Most installations are using the "soft slave" fallback flavor of
     drvTS to keep the EPICS timestamps in sync across IOCs. This mode
     does have a number of weak points.
   * The SLS has been working on an improved replacement for a long
     time. Some versions of this module have been operational for a
     long time.
     It was never published, though. (Outside of Powerpoint slides.)
   * The SNS has developed an improved replacement ("General Time").
     It was never published, though. (Outside of Powerpoint slides.)
   * DESY has developed an improved replacement.
     It was never published, though. (Outside of Powerpoint slides.)
   * Last summer (after the EPICS Meeting at the APS), there were talks
     and - as far as I know - an agreement was reached on how the
     packages (or at least their ideas) can be combined or merged back.
   * Between 3.14.7 and 3.14.8 the APS event support was taken out of
     base and moved into a separate module.
   * Until yesterday, an old, dysfunctional version of that module was
     available on the APS web site. The newer version should be there
     now. (At the moment, it's only a 404.)
   * As of today, none of the other packages are available on web servers.

Seems we have practically disabled the "soft slave" support many installations were using - without replacement.

I would like to see this changed, possibly for the upcoming 3.14.9 release - are there any ideas which way to go?

   * Making the other packages available and see which survives?
   * Separating the "soft slave" mode from the APS hardware stuff
     (seems that only drvTS and drvTSconfigure are needed) and putting
     this subset back into base?
   * Any other ideas?

Another related issue: I realized that epicsTimeShow() and date() are not available in the iocShell under Linux - why?

Cheers,
Ralph


Korhonen Timo wrote:
Hello Ralph,

Ralph Lange wrote:
If the SLS code was public, we would.
I just can't find it anywhere.
Can you orient me a bit...what code do you mean? drvTS ?
We have a new code that is thought to replace drvTS in the (near?) future, but it has not yet been tested, let alone used by anybody else than us (in the lab.)

We thought we can take it into operation after the winter shutdown (ends next week), but we have to postpone it because we did not manage to get all our drivers (for other stuff that we need on the timing crate) to run on 3.14.8. We are very close but decided to postpone to be safe (and to avoid being called at night...)

If you want to use drvTS and need some code from us, just let me know. If you want to try the new timestamp driver (which is a _major_ improvement over drvTS, as an
advertisement), let me know too.

Our software distribution is not "optimal", to borrow the words of our director...please
do not tell me  anything about the state of our website ;-)


best regards,

Timo


Ralph


Andrew Johnson wrote:
Hi Ben,

Benjamin Franksen wrote:

According to this web page egDefs.h and erDefs.h are supposed to be part of the module. But they are not contained in the tar ball. This causes the build to fail (under 3.14.8).

Oops, we don't appear to have put the latest releases on the website - I've just done that (I guess Marty's assumption was that everyone else was now using the SLS code). Hopefully version 3-2 will fix at least one if not both of your timing problems.

- Andrew

Replies:
Re: drvTS Korhonen Timo

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