Re: MSI macro setting in substitutions file

[Andrew Johnson <anj@aps.anl.gov>]

Hi Mike,

On 02/14/2014 02:54 AM, Ralph Lange wrote:
> On 13.02.2014 22:55, Westfall, Michael D wrote:
>> A question regarding MSI (Macro Substitution and Include) tool:
>>
>> Is there a way to set the value of a macro in the substitutions file
>> for later use without triggering an immediate substitution?
>> ...
>> Any tips for doing something like this with the existing tool?
> 
> global { SEX=Male }
> file xxx.template {
>       pattern {FNAME, LNAME}
>       {John, Smith}
>       {George, Jones}
>       {James, Taylor}
>       {Robert, Redford}
>       {Larry, Cableguy}
> }
> global { SEX=Female }
> file xxx.template {
>       pattern {FNAME, LNAME}
>       {Susan, Williams}
>       {Judy, Johnson}
>       {Melinda, Martin}
>       {Cathy, Lewis}
>       {Linda, Hall}
>    }

To explain a bit more, there have been a number of improvements made to
the msi program as part of importing it back into Base 3.15. There is
now a formal EBNF syntax definition for the substitutions file, and we
support global macros and optionally respect standard scoping rules. The
3.14 IOC (dbLoadTemplate command) does not understand the new keywords,
but the 3.15 IOC (currently still in development) does.

There is documentation for the new version of msi at
http://www.aps.anl.gov/epics/base/R3-15/0-docs/msi.html and the EBNF can
be found at
http://www.aps.anl.gov/epics/base/R3-15/0-docs/AppDevGuide/node7.html#SECTION007221000000000000000

Where can you find the source code for this version? The definitive
location is in the 3.15 Bazaar branch under src/ioc/dbtemplate
  https://code.launchpad.net/~epics-core/epics-base/3.15
but if you just want to download the source for that file it's at
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~epics-core/epics-base/3.15/view/head:/src/ioc/dbtemplate/msi.c

Maybe we should update the code in the MSI extension to the new version,
but we haven't done that yet, sorry! You should be able to substitute
the msi.c file linked above into your existing extensions/src/msi
directory to build that though.

HTH,

- Andrew
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