Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Michael Davidsaver via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov> · Tue, 18 Jul 2023 10:41:55 -0700

On 7/18/23 09:35, Mark Rivers wrote:

Hi Michael,

I was going to suggest the same, but realize that I have lost track of where the appdev guide source lives.  (I personally never refer to it)

The documentation I quoted is:
https://epics.anl.gov/base/R7-0/6-docs/dbCommonRecord.html

for which I believe the source is:
https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/blob/7.0/modules/database/src/ioc/db/dbCommon.dbd.pod

Ah, my mistake.  In this case I will of course say that a PR on epics-base would be welcomed.

For simple non-code changes like this, the github.com "edit in browser"
feature would suffice.  (their preview mode apparently understands .pod formatting)

https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/working-with-files/managing-files/editing-files

Myself, I would just add "(excepting PINI)"

The B<PHAS> field orders the records within a specific SCAN group. This is not
meaningful for passive records (excepting B<PINI>).   ...

Although I suspect this might be too brief (or too many negations).

Thanks,
Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Davidsaver <mdavidsaver at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2023 11:29 AM
To: Mark Rivers <rivers at cars.uchicago.edu>
Cc: tech-talk at aps.anl.gov
Subject: Re: PHAS and PINI

On 7/18/23 08:57, Mark Rivers via Tech-talk wrote:

Folks,

Does PHAS control the order in which records with PINI=YES are processing during iocInit, even is SCAN=Passive?

Yes.

https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/blob/42604fc794b6f26b60db953a230b52c1118d3039/modules/database/src/ioc/misc/iocInit.c#L593-L594

   The R7-0 Record Reference Documentation says this:

The *PINI* field specifies record processing at initialization. If it is set to YES during database configuration, the record is processed once at IOC initialization (before the normal scan tasks are started).

The *PHAS* field orders the records within a specific SCAN group. This is not meaningful for passive records. All records of a specified phase are processed before those with higher phase number. It is generally better practice to use linked passive records to enforce the order of processing rather than a phase number.

That seems to imply that PHAS does not apply with processing due to PINI=YES for SCAN=Passive records.

   If this is not true then I suggest the documentation should be changed.

I was going to suggest the same, but realize that I have lost track of where the appdev guide source lives.  (I personally never refer to it)

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System