Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Andrew Johnson <[email protected]> · Fri, 22 Jun 2018 14:13:32 -0500

On 06/22/2018 01:12 PM, Ralph Lange wrote:
> I'd be ready to simply drop most (if not all).
> Personally I never used any of this (though I am aware that some
> portable automated builds use the script to determine the host
> architecture), and setting EPICS_HOST_ARCH is the only thing that is
> mandatory for all EPICS development and applies to all platforms.

Hmm, why don't we move the EpicsHostArch.pl script into src/tools so the
build system doesn't *need* there to be a startup directory at all and
it doesn't have to be installed.

I would still want to include some of the other files somewhere as a
starting point for site-specific scripts though. I have several
different versions of the win32.bat file for configuring Windows
development builds and IMHO something like this is pretty much essential
when developing on Windows, but I don't remember ever really using the
Site.* files (even though the last commit to them was mine, back in 2012).

> My 2 cts...

Invaluable, thanks! Unless there is other input I will work with Lewis
to implement that plan.

- Andrew

> On Fri, Jun 22, 2018 at 6:32 PM Andrew Johnson <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi Lewis,
> 
>     On 06/22/2018 10:50 AM, J. Lewis Muir wrote:
>     > Why do the scripts in the EPICS Base 3.14, 3.15, and 3.16 startup
>     > directory refer to things that are not dependencies of EPICS
>     > Base (e.g., EPICS_EXTENSIONS, PSPRINTER for some extensions,
>     > EPICS_DISPLAY_PATH and BROWSER for MEDM, ADTHOME for ADT, Exceed X11,
>     > etc.)?
> 
>     Because they used to be managed by Janet Anderson who also handled
>     maintenance for the EPICS Extensions tree, and none of the developers
>     who are left have had the time to finish going through and cleaning them
>     all up properly since she retired.
> 
>     I started developing code to install the contents of the startup
>     directory to $(INSTALL_LOCATION)/startup a few months back, and I also
>     did some clean-ups of the script files at the same time, but I haven't
>     had time to finish that work yet.
> 
>     > IMO, the startup scripts should only refer to things related to EPICS
>     > Base.  For example, EPICS Base doesn't know anything about MEDM nor
>     > should it.  Therefore, <EPICS Base>/startup/Site.profile should not
>     > set EPICS_DISPLAY_PATH or anything else that relates to MEDM.  A much
>     > better way would be for the EPICS Extensions package (currently known
>     > as "Extensions build configure files") to provide a Site.profile, for
>     > example, that can be edited to provide the environment or shell
>     changes
>     > required by the different extensions.  Since MEDM, for example, is
>     > an extension, then EPICS_DISPLAY_PATH and BROWSER should be set in
>     > the Site.profile provided with the EPICS Extensions package, not the
>     > Site.profile in EPICS Base.
> 
>     I agree with everything you wrote there. In my branch I cleaned out most
>     of Janet's commented-out settings from the win32.bat file and also added
>     a windows.bat file for windows-x64 architecture. My versions still have
>     commented-out sections for Extensions and Exceed, but I don't have any
>     problem with them being deleted as well.
> 
>     If you want to help clean up the startup directory I would be happy to
>     work with you on this. Since these files are generally identical for all
>     release series we only need to make changes to the earliest branch
>     (currently 3.14, but without additional help the next Base-3.14.12.8
>     release will be the last one we do from that branch). Changes made to
>     3.14 will get merged up to the later branches automatically.
> 
>     My work on installing into $(INSTALL_LOCATION)/startup was developed on
>     the 3.15 branch and I don't think I would back-port that to 3.14 because
>     it involves changes to the build rules which have evolved a bit more in
>     the 3.15 and later series, but that won't affect the work to update the
>     scripts themselves.
> 
>     EPICS is an open source development collaboration, and we depend on our
>     users to help implement changes. I hope you will be able to find some
>     time to contribute.
> 
>     Thanks,
> 
>     - Andrew
> 
>     -- 
>     Arguing for surveillance because you have nothing to hide is no
>     different than making the claim, "I don't care about freedom of
>     speech because I have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowdon
> 

-- 
Arguing for surveillance because you have nothing to hide is no
different than making the claim, "I don't care about freedom of
speech because I have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowdon

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System