Previous Releases of MDA Utilities

Version 1.4.1 release (August 2016)

mda2ascii: Changed way scan tree is traversed for multidimensional files. Instead of trusting the header dimensions array for scan sizes, use the sizes in the scans themselves. Allows correct conversion for irregular files, or files that have bad values in the dimensions array (technically the file is damaged then).
mda-info: Simply state that a scan is irregular, as previous output was misleading.

mda-load library: Added mda_check(), to have an easy way to check the validity of a file. Added mda_update() function that will load an updated MDA file, attempting to use the previously loaded and supplied MDA data. Completed error handling, made sure to release all memory on error. Check for MDA file structural errors (like negative number of positioners).
mda-ls: Enabled entire file checking by default, allow this to be turned off with -s switch.
mda-info: Enabled entire file checking by default, allow this to be turned off with -s switch.

mda-load library: Added another check for corrupted files.
mda2ascii: When processing multiple files, the program will now skip an invalid file instead of stopping execution.
mda-ls: The program will no longer halt when it encounters an invalid file.
xdr_hack: To help Windows users, added code for faking enough of the XDR routines that are needed for decoding the MDA format (which Windows lacks). This code should NOT be used if there is native XDR support, and has to be manually enabled in the Makefile. There is support for both big- and little-endian systems.

mda-load library: Added another check for corrupted files.
mda2ascii: Refactored the code behind -f option to be more efficient.
mdatree2ascii: Added new script utility for converting entire directory trees of files into new corresponding trees containing the output.

mda-load library: Fixed a bug that would cause an MDA file to not load if there was an Extra PV that was of the char type. Also added preprocessor commands to mda-load.h in order to make the library C++ compatible (Michael Hu).

mda2ascii: There was a bug when using the -f flag, which can cause a positioner column to show a printf format instead of the data (it's fairly obvious when this does happen). This only occurred when the all the values for a positioner were integers.
mda-ls, mda-info, and mda2ascii: Many instances of repetitive deep pointer dereferencing were removed from the code. It makes the code slightly faster, and also easier to understand.
Makefile: Added DESTDIR variable for making distribution packages simpler (J. Lewis Muir).
Documentation: Added Changelog.txt file. Fixed typos in various files (some from J. Lewis Muir).

The utilities themselves have not much changed from 1.1. The changes to the code are to make it more portable. If you are using the binaries (but not the library) from 1.1, there is no critical need to upgrade to 1.2.
mda-load library: Changed from generic int types to fixed length int types, as it is more portable in the long term, and fixes problems with MacOS compiling. Look for occasional over-allocations of memory for strings (which tend to be severe, but don't cause failures) and then reduce memory consumption. Remove warning when building on MacOS (J. Lewis Muir).
mda-dump: Fixed the behavior of not releasing memory allocated for strings; this is not a critical issue, it just lets the program run with an even smaller memory footprint.
Makefile: Fixed the install option, especially regarding documentation (J. Lewis Muir). Added detection of MacOS X to work around missing xdr function.

mda2ascii: Added option to print out all existing scans in a file, even if they are incomplete due to an abort of the scan, and marks them.
mda-dump: Shows the offset of scans as they are read, as well as the offset of extra PV information.
mda-info: Shows the saveData numbering in parentheses for detectors, positioners, and triggers.
mda-load library: Added check for a certain type of corrupt MDA file, leading to fewer crashes of the utilities.
Makefile: Added install option.

mda2ascii: New options created, such as create scan files for scan dimensions higher than 1, output a friendlier representation of the data (at the expense of a larger file), and put extra PV information in a separate file.
mda-dump: Rewritten to display data immediately as it is read to help track file errors.
mda-info: Now shows all the information on positioners, detectors, and triggers.
mda-ls: New utility that gives a brief description of the scans contained in MDA files in a directory.
mda-load library: Memory leaks fixed, functions added for loading parts of an MDA file as needed.

Maintained by Dohn Arms.