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<== Date ==> <== Thread ==>
Subject: Proposal: Timestamp records before OUT links
From: "Hill, Bruce via Tech-talk" <[email protected]>
To: Techtalk <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2019 05:57:23 +0000
An issue was brought up at the recent EPICS Core Developers meeting
that warrants soliciting input from the broader EPICS community.

Currently EPICS base records with output links  call recGblGetTimeStamp() after processing
the output links but before FWD links are processed.   This can result in stale timestamps
if your EPICS database contains record processing chains with output links and TSEL links
are used to set timestamps to the timestamp of the event which initiated the chain.

An example of this is shown in the attached pdf, courtesy Kukhee Kim at SLAC,
and can be seen by running  softIoc -d outLinkTimestamp.db and camonitor the records.

An event happens, in this example the 1 second SCAN loop, and the calc record processes.
An ao record is processed via FLNK and after processing it's OUT link, gets a good timestamp
via a TSEL link to the calc record.

However, before the ao record updates its timestamp, the ao OUT link writes the value to an ai
record which fetches the prior timestamp via a TSEL link to the ao record.

A git pull request for this proposed change can be found here:
https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base/pull/26#issuecomment-477393831

Without this patch, we see stale timestamps:
% camonitor test:{calc,ai,ao}
test:calc                      *** Not connected (PV not found)
test:ai                        *** Not connected (PV not found)
test:ao                        *** Not connected (PV not found)
test:calc                      <undefined> 0 UDF INVALID
test:ai                        <undefined> 0 UDF INVALID
test:ao                        <undefined> 0 UDF INVALID
test:calc                      2019-04-12 22:50:52.672043 1 
test:ai                        <undefined> 1 
test:ao                        2019-04-12 22:50:52.672043 1 
test:calc                      2019-04-12 22:51:02.672028 2 
test:ai                        2019-04-12 22:50:52.672043 2 
test:ao                        2019-04-12 22:51:02.672028 2 

With this patch applied, camonitor shows the expected timestamps:
% camonitor test:{calc,ai,ao}
test:calc                      *** Not connected (PV not found)
test:ai                        *** Not connected (PV not found)
test:ao                        *** Not connected (PV not found)
test:calc                      <undefined> 0 UDF INVALID
test:ai                        <undefined> 0 UDF INVALID
test:ao                        <undefined> 0 UDF INVALID
test:calc                      2019-04-12 22:54:44.083420 1 
test:ai                        2019-04-12 22:54:44.083420 1 
test:ao                        2019-04-12 22:54:44.083420 1 
test:calc                      2019-04-12 22:54:54.083376 2 
test:ai                        2019-04-12 22:54:54.083376 2 
test:ao                        2019-04-12 22:54:54.083376 2 

pros:
  • Record processing chains can be created by output links and/or FLNK. Users shouldn't need to know which method was used when using TSEL links to fetch upstream timestamps.
  • Moving the call to recGblGetTimeStamp() before processing OUT links will ensure correct timestamps for event triggered processing chains.
  • Has no effect when TSE=-2 as timestamping is done in the driver.   This approach is recommended for device drivers where the time elapsed in the driver code is significant.
cons:
  • EPICS records which rely on epicsTimeEventCurrentTime or epicsTimeEventBestTime for timestamping could see a slightly earlier timestamp depending on the time spent in processing output links and the resolution of their timestamp provider.
  • This is a change to long standing EPICS timestamping behavior.
  • Existing examples in the App. Dev. Guide show the call to recGblGetTimeStamp() after processing output links.
  • Modules which add their own record types w/ output links would need to be updated to be consistent w/ base.

Comments are solicited and appreciated.

Best regards,

- Bruce

-- 
Bruce Hill
Member Technical Staff
SLAC National Accelerator Lab
2575 Sand Hill Road M/S 10
Menlo Park, CA  94025

record(calc, "test:calc")
{
	field(INPA, "test:calc.VAL")
	field(CALC, "A+1") 
	field(SCAN, "10 second") 
	field(FLNK, "test:ao PP") 
} 

record(ao, "test:ao")
{
	field(DOL, "test:calc")
	field(OMSL, "closed_loop") 
	field(SCAN, "Passive") 
	field(TSEL, "test:calc.TIME") 
	field(OUT, "test:ai PP") 
} 

record(ai, "test:ai")
{
	field(TSEL, "test:ao.TIME")
	field(SCAN, "Passive")
}

Attachment: 2019_0122 timestamp issue on output record.pdf
Description: 2019_0122 timestamp issue on output record.pdf

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