Re: EPICS_IOC_LOG_PORT value

[Jeong Han Lee <citadel.lee@gmail.com>]

Hi Andrew,


> The value 7004 given in configure/CONFIG_ENV is the default value which
> gets compiled into libCom.
  Yes, I saw it.


> > [1] configure/CONFIG_ENV
> > [2] modules/libcom/src/log/S99logServer@
> The S99logServer@ file is a template for a System-V init script that
> sites can use to start a log server. When Base gets built the
> @INSTALL_BIN@ macro in that template is replaced with the path to the
> Base installation, and the result is installed into the bin/<host>
> directory as S99logServer. To use this script though the user would
> still have to copy the S99.. file into an appropriate directory under
> /etc/init.d on the machine that will run the log server, and they should
> also make any changes to the other variables in that file as needed by
> their installation (usually the EPICS_IOC_LOG_FILE_NAME variable at least).
> The commented-out value 6500 that appears for EPICS_IOC_LOG_PORT in the
> script is to show that you can override the compiled-in default port
> number if you want/need to. Here at the APS we used to run 3 or 4 log
> servers, with IOCs from different parts of the machine logging to
> different ports (on the same host) and hence to different log-files.
  Before jumping into the caPutLog, I would like to see the logserver 
running in my local PC. And I've overridden its default value within 
each ioc startup script in order to match the port of a logServer. 
However, at the first attempt, my assumption when I modified 
S99logServer.sh in order to use it as a stand-alone script is that 6045 
is the EPICS base default value. However, it took a while to figure out 
that the default value is 7004.
  And my question is very silly, because I have to understand how it 
works within all EPICS application. I had a silly thought, if the value 
is the same 7004, it may give me a small success without searching where 
the default value is. That may give similar small success for future 
learners (like me), who would like to learn EPICS without understanding 
them deeply.

> Nowadays it is not necessary to use our log server, and I suggest that
> sites use a plugin for one of the many common logging servers now
> available such as logstash instead. When enabled the IOC's log client
> just opens a TCP socket to the host and sends plain text messages, so
> most tcp input plugins will work fine instead.
  If a site has strong and quick IT supports in any forms, it is no 
problem to use modernized and fancy log servers, such as logstash, 
fluentd, and so on. However, there is no support given in any forms, I 
am sure, logServer is still a good tool. For me, it is the very useful 
one, because I can test see ioc logs in a logserver without any more 
application configuration and installation. The iocLogServer is the good 
enough for me.

> I can provide a configuration file for logstash that I have experimented
> with to anyone who wants it, but I'm sure that most other log servers
> would be able to do the same thing.
  I would like to receive your configuration file for logstash. I hope 
I can get some supports in near future.
  Thank you for your support.

  Best,
  Han