Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

[email protected] (Marty Kraimer) · Mon, 6 Feb 1995 07:52:40 -0600

> From [email protected] Fri Feb  3 17:02 CST 1995
> Date: Fri, 3 Feb 95 13:03:30 HST
> From: [email protected] (Nick Rees)
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Documentation on fields in .ascii files
> Content-Type> : > text> 
> Content-Length: 983
> 
> 
> Can someone tell me the detailed meanings and choices available for the
> fields in record .ascii files?  There is quite a bit on page 91 of the
> application developer guide and I don't want this reproduced, but it is
> not always illuminating.
> 

Sorry but this is the only place this info is described.

> For example, the description of the interest field is `interest level'.
> I know it is usually a number between 0 and 4, and I have had it
> described to me in the past, but the exact meanings of each number
> elude me. (Up to now I have got away with just copying existing records
> and disguising by ignorance.) There are some DB_INTEREST_* #defines in
> recSup.h but these seem to be flags, not a level.
> 

The only place the interest field is used is  for the dbpr (print record)
command. The command is of the form:

dbpr "<record name>",<interest level>

It prints the value of each field with level <= <interest level>

In hindsight interest_level should not be part of the field descriptions.

> Also, have things changed a bit for 3.12? I can't find any Access
> security level fields in my 3.11 record definitions.

No. The only change is the access level info. The 3.12 release notes mention
that you must also read the APS 3.11.3 and 3.11.6 release notes. The 3.11.6 
release notes discuss the access security fields and gives a short script
that can be used to convert existing ascii definition files.
Anyone converting to 3.12 should read the notes for APS releases 3.11.3 and
3.11.6 as well as the notes for epics release 3.12.

One last comment about the ascii record definition files. Originally they
had much less info and were easy to understand. New info got added and they 
became much more complicated (the description in the App Dev Guide shows
that they are now a mess). One of the goals for the future is a real syntax
for these files and also a vast simplification.

If it makes you feel any better, I would never attempt to create a new record
definition from scratch. I always start with an existing definition file and
modify it. The explanation in the app dev guide is too hard to follow.

Marty Kraimer

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System