Re: querying for sets of pvs in archived data

[Robert Soliday <soliday@aps.anl.gov>]

There is no online documentation for the PV History Tool. The script is 
contained in:
http://www.aps.anl.gov/asd/oag/downloads/oag.1.20.tar.gz
at oag/apps/src/tcltkapp/oagapp/PVHistoryTool
If you install the OAGTclTk program first:
http://www.aps.anl.gov/asd/oag/software.shtml#TclTk
you should be able to run the PVHistoryTool script. You will probably 
also need the SDDSToolKit which is available on the same web page.

You will need to set the OAGGlobal(LogOnChangeDirectory) variable to 
point to the directory containing the attached 
PVHistoryTool.config.1.sdds file that I am attaching. To do this you 
should edit the APSSetOAGGlobal.tcl file that comes with the OAGTclTk 
installation. Or you can set it directly inside the PVHistoryTool script.

After starting the PVHistoryTool script you will select a beamline that 
has been predefined in the PVHistoryTool.config.1.sdds file. For example 
we have an LPL beamline. By selecting this it attempts to load 
$OAGGlobal(LogOnChangeDirectory)/LPL/LPL.loc which is the input file for 
our LPL sddslogonchange logger. I am attaching our file as an example.

Our sddslogonchange is launched with the command:

sddslogonchange LPL.loc LPL -dailyFiles  -loginitial  -connectTimeout=120

I will be attaching the PVHistoryTool.config.1.sdds and LPL.loc files in 
a separate email.

On 07/01/13 13:54, pthomas@caltech.edu wrote:
> Hi Bob,
>
> Thank you. I found the page for sddslogonchange. Is there a page for the
> PV History Tool as well?
>
> -Patrick
>
> > On 06/28/13 12:25, pthomas@caltech.edu wrote:
> > > Hi Emmanuel,
> > >
> > > Thank you for your reply. I think there may be a difference though. I
> > > believe that the SCR applications use snapshots taken at periodic
> > > intervals in time? What I had in mind was something that places monitors
> > > on the process variables and archives the values only when they change.
> > > The queries I described would then be done on that recorded data.
> > >
> > > MASAR does look like a nice program though.
> > >
> > > Thank you,
> > > Patrick
> > >
> > > > > store and query data as I have described, but I am wondering if I am
> > > > > reinventing the wheel. Does a tool such as this already exist?
> > > > Yes.
> > > > You are describing a feature of Save/Compare/Restore applications.
> > > > SCR are also know as epics-backup application (i.e take a snapshot of a
> > > > running machine, compare 2 snapshots, compare a snapshot with the
> > > > running
> > > > machine)
> > > >
> > > > You next question is where to get such a piece of software. Well...
> > > > I am using SDDS save/compare/restore (very old)
> > > > SCORE may have the described feature as well (used at SNS and SLAC)
> > > >
> > > > <Shameless plug for MASAR>
> > > > I am currently looking at MASAR part of epics-4, which is straight
> > > > forward
> > > > to install, but still in development.
> > > > For example, comparisons of 2 snapshots using the pyQt GUI is missing.
> > > > A CSS GUI is also a work-in-progress.
> > > > At this time, most of the development is at the GUI level
> > > > So if you don't mind a text output (i.e. in a terminal), you can use
> > > > MASAR
> > > > with its python API and have something working by tonight.
> > > > </Shameless plug for MASAR>
> > That sounds a lot like our sddslogonchange logger paired with our PV
> > History Tool GUI. We have the logger running all the time and recording
> > any changes to individual PVs with an optional tolerance level. We can
> > then use our PV History Tool to plot the changes and to restore the PVs
> > to any given time.
> >
> > --Bob Soliday