The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control Systems (EPICS) is an extensible set of software components and tools with which application developers can create a control system. This control system can be used to control accelerators, detectors, telescopes, or other scientific experimental equipment. EPICS base is the set of core software, i.e. the components of EPICS without which EPICS would not function. EPICS base allows an arbitrary number of target systems, IOCs (input/output controllers), and host systems, OPIs (operator interfaces) of various types.
Please check the release notes for description of changes and release migration details.
Please review the LICENSE file included in the distribution for legal terms of usage.
The list of platforms supported by this version of EPICS base is given in the configure/CONFIG_SITE file. If you are trying to build EPICS Base on an unlisted host or for a different target machine you must have the proper host/target cross compiler and header files, and you will have to create and add the appropriate new configure files to the base/configure/os/directory. You can start by copying existing configuration files in the configure/os directory and then make changes for your new platforms.
This version of EPICS base has been built and tested using the host vendor's C and C++ compilers, as well as the GNU gcc and g++ compilers. The GNU cross-compilers work for all cross-compiled targets. You may need the C and C++ compilers to be in your search path to do EPICS builds; check the definitions of CC and CCC in base/configure/os/CONFIG.<host>.<host> if you have problems.
You must use the GNU version of make for EPICS builds. Set your path so that version 4.1 or later is available. The macOS version of make is older but does still work.
You must have Perl version 5.10.1 or later installed. The EPICS configuration files do not specify the perl full pathname, so the perl executable must be found through your normal search path.
You may need tools to unzip and untar the EPICS base distribution file.
EPICS supports IOCs running on embedded platforms such as VxWorks and RTEMS built using a cross-compiler, and also supports soft IOCs running as processes on the host platform.
You must have vxWorks 6.8 or 6.9 installed if any of your target systems are vxWorks systems; the C++ compiler from older versions cannot compile recently developed code. The vxWorks installation provides the cross-compiler and header files needed to build for these targets. The absolute path to and the version number of the vxWorks installation must be set in the base/configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.Common.vxWorksCommon file or in one of its target-specific overrides.
Consult the vxWorks 6.x EPICS web pages about and the vxWorks documentation for information about configuring your vxWorks operating system for use with EPICS.
For RTEMS targets, you need RTEMS core and toolset version 4.9.x or 4.10.x. RTEMS 5 is experimental in EPICS 7.0.6.
GNU readline and other similar libraries can be used by the IOC shell to provide command line editing and command line history recall. The GNU readline development package (or Apple's emulator on macOS) must be installed for a target when its build configuration variable COMMANDLINE_LIBRARY is set to READLINE. The default specified in CONFIG_COMMON is EPICS, but most linux target builds can detect if readline is available and will then use it. RTEMS targets may be configured to use LIBTECLA if available, and on vxWorks the OS's ledLib line-editing library is normally used.
EPICS documentation is available from the EPICS Documentation Website.
Release specific documentation can also be found in the base/documentation directory of the distribution.
base Root directory of the distribution
base/configure Build rules and OS-independent config files
base/configure/os OS-dependent build config files
base/documentation Distribution documentation
base/src Source code for templates and build tools
base/modules Source code for distribution submodules
base/startup Scripts for setting up path and environment
base/test Unit tests for build toolsThese are created in the root directory of the installation (base above) or under the directory pointed to by the INSTALL_LOCATION configuration variable if that has been set.
bin Installed scripts and executables in subdirs
cfg Installed build configuration files
db Installed database files
dbd Installed database definition files
doc Installed Markdown documentation
html Installed HTML documentation
include Installed header files
include/os Installed OS-specific header files in subdirs
include/compiler Installed compiler-specific header files
lib Installed libraries in arch subdirectories
lib/perl Installed perl modules
templates Installed templatesbase/documentation DirectoryThis contains EPICS reference documentation.
README.md This file
RELEASE_NOTES.md Notes on release changesbase/startup DirectoryThis contains several example scripts that show how to set up the build environment and PATH for using EPICS. Sites would usually copy and/or modify these files as appropriate for their environment; they are not used by the build system at all.
EpicsHostArch Shell script to set EPICS_HOST_ARCH env variable
unix.csh C shell script to set path and env variables
unix.sh Bourne shell script to set path and env variables
win32.bat Bat file example to configure win32-x86 target
windows.bat Bat file example to configure windows-x64 targetbase/configure directoryThis contains build-system files providing definitions and rules required by GNU Make to build EPICS. Users should only need to modify the CONFIG_SITE files to configure the EPICS build.
CONFIG Main entry point for building EPICS
CONFIG.CrossCommon Cross build definitions
CONFIG.gnuCommon Gnu compiler build definitions for all archs
CONFIG_ADDONS Definitions for <osclass> and DEFAULT options
CONFIG_APP_INCLUDE
CONFIG_BASE EPICS base tool and location definitions
CONFIG_BASE_VERSION Definitions for EPICS base version number
CONFIG_COMMON Definitions common to all builds
CONFIG_ENV Definitions of EPICS environment variables
CONFIG_FILE_TYPE
CONFIG_SITE Site specific make definitions
CONFIG_SITE_ENV Site defaults for EPICS environment variables
MAKEFILE Installs CONFIG* RULES* creates
RELEASE Location of external products
RULES Includes appropriate rules file
RULES.Db Rules for database and database definition files
RULES.ioc Rules for application iocBoot/ioc* directory
RULES_ARCHS Definitions and rules for building architectures
RULES_BUILD Build and install rules and definitions
RULES_DIRS Definitions and rules for building subdirectories
RULES_EXPAND
RULES_FILE_TYPE
RULES_TARGET
RULES_TOP Rules specific to a <top> dir only
Sample.Makefile Sample makefile with commentsbase/configure/os DirectoryFiles in here provide definitions that are shared by or specific to particular host and/or target architectures. Users should only need to modify the CONFIG_SITE files in this directory to configure the EPICS build.
CONFIG.<host>.<target> Definitions for a specific host-target combination
CONFIG.Common.<target> Definitions for a specific target, any host
CONFIG.<host>.Common Definitions for a specific host, any target
CONFIG.UnixCommon.Common Definitions for Unix hosts, any target
CONFIG.Common.UnixCommon Definitions for Unix targets, any host
CONFIG.Common.RTEMS Definitions for all RTEMS targets, any host
CONFIG.Common.vxWorksCommon Definitions for all vxWorks targets, any host
CONFIG_SITE.<host>.<target> Local settings for a specific host-target combination
CONFIG_SITE.Common.<target> Local settings for a specific target, any host
CONFIG_SITE.<host>.Common Local settings for a specific host, any target
CONFIG_SITE.Common.RTEMS Local settings for all RTEMS targets, any host
CONFIG_SITE.Common.vxWorksCommon Local settings for all vxWorks targets, any hostUnzip and untar the distribution file. Use WinZip on Windows systems.
Files in the base/startup directory have been provided to help set required path and other environment variables.
EPICS_HOST_ARCHSome host builds of EPICS require that the environment variable EPICS_HOST_ARCH be defined. The perl script EpicsHostArch.pl in the base/startup directory prints the value which the build will use if the variable is not set before the build starts. Architecture names start with the operating system followed by a dash and the host CPU architecture, e.g. linux-x86_64. Some architecture names have another dash followed by another keyword, for example when building for Windows but using the MinGW compiler the name must be windows-x64-mingw. See configure/CONFIG_SITE for a list of supported host architecture names.
PATH As already mentioned, you must have the perl executable and you may need C and C++ compilers in your search path. When building base you must have echo in your search path. For Unix host builds you will also need cp, rm, mv, and mkdir in your search path. Some Unix systems may also need ar and ranlib, and the C/C++ compilers may require as and ld in your path.
LD_LIBRARY_PATH EPICS shared libraries and executables normally contain the full path to any libraries they require, so setting this variable is not usually necessary. However, if you move the EPICS installation to a new location after building it then in order for the shared libraries to be found at runtime it may need to be set, or some equivalent OS-specific mechanism such as /etc/ld.so.conf on Linux must be used. Shared libraries are now built by default on all Unix type hosts.
To configure EPICS, you may want to modify some values set in the following files:
configure/CONFIG_SITE Build settings. Specify target archs.
configure/CONFIG_SITE_ENV Environment variable defaultsTo configure each host system, you can override the default definitions by adding a new settings file (or editing an existing settings file) in the configure/os directory with your override definitions. The settings file has the same name as the definitions file to be overridden except with CONFIG in the name changed to CONFIG_SITE.
configure/os/CONFIG.<host>.<host> Host self-build definitions
configure/os/CONFIG.<host>.Common Host common build definitions
configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.<host>.<host> Host self-build overrides
configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.<host>.Common Host common build overridesTo configure each target system, you may override the default definitions by adding a new settings file (or editing an existing settings file) in the configure/os directory with your override definitions. The settings file has the same name as the definitions file to be overridden except with CONFIG in the name changed to CONFIG_SITE.
configure/os/CONFIG.Common.<target> Target common definitions
configure/os/CONFIG.<host>.<target> Host-target definitions
configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.Common.<target> Target common overrides
configure/os/CONFIG_SITE.<host>.<target> Host-target overridesAfter configuring the build you should be able to build EPICS base by issuing the following commands in the distribution's root directory (base):
make distclean
makeThe command make distclean will remove all files and directories generated by a previous build. The command make will build and install everything for the configured host and targets.
It is recommended that you do a make distclean at the root directory of an EPICS directory structure before each complete rebuild to ensure that all components will be rebuilt.
In some cases GNU Make may have been installed as gmake or gnumake, in which case the above commands will have to be adjusted to match.
A perl tool makeBaseApp.pl and several template applications are included in the distribution. This script instantiates the selected template into an empty directory to provide an example application that can be built and then executed to try out this release of base.
Instructions for building and executing the EPICS example application can be found in the section "Example Application" of Chapter 2, "Getting Started", in the "EPICS Application Developer's Guide". The "Example IOC Application" section briefly explains how to create and build an example application in a user created <top> directory. It also explains how to run the example application on a vxWorks ioc or as a process on the host system. By running the example application as a host-based IOC, you will be able to quickly implement a complete EPICS system and be able to run channel access clients on the host system.
Another perl script makeBaseExt.pl is also included in the distribution file for creating an extensions tree and sample application that can also be built and executed. Both these scripts are installed into the install location bin/<hostarch> directory during the base build.
You can build using a single EPICS directory structure on multiple host systems and for multiple cross target systems. The intermediate and binary files generated by the build will be created in separate subdirectories and installed into the appropriate separate host/target install directories.
EPICS executables and perl scripts are installed into the $(INSTALL_LOCATION)/bin/<arch> directories. Libraries are installed into $(INSTALL_LOCATION)/lib/<arch>. The default definition for $(INSTALL_LOCATION) is $(TOP) which is the root directory in the distribution directory structure, base. Intermediate object files are stored in O.<arch> source subdirectories during the build process, to allow objects for multiple cross target architectures to be maintained at the same time.
To build EPICS base for a specific host/target combination you must have the proper host/target C/C++ cross compiler and target header files and the base/configure/os directory must have the appropriate configure files.