- input file:
The input file is an SDDS file with a few data columns required:
- ControlName or Device — Required string column for the names of the process variables or devices
to be monitored. Both column names are equivalent.
- ReadbackName — Optional string column for the names of the data columns in the output file. If
absent, process variable or device name is used.
- ReadbackUnits — Optional string column for the units fields of the data columns in the output
file.If absent, units are null.
If triggerFile that gives the trigger information is not given, the input file should contain following
parameters:
- OutputRootname — Required string parameter for the root name of output file. Different
OutputRootmames go to different output files. If different pages have the same OutputRootname,
the columns defined in new pages are ignored. Only the trigger defined in newer page is counted to
the same output.
- TriggerControlName — Required string parameter for the name of process variable that acts as
trigger.
- MajorAlarm — Optional short parameter for alarm-based trigger. if nonzero, then severity of
MAJOR on TriggerControlName, results in a buffer dump.
- MinorAlarm — Optional short parameter for alarm-based trigger. if nonzero, then severity of
MINOR on TriggerControlName, results in a buffer dump.
- NoAlarm — Optional short parameter for alarm-based trigger. if nonzero, then severity of
NOALARM on TriggerControlName, results in a buffer dump.
- TransitionDirection — Optional short parameter for transition-based trigger. required if
TransitionThreshold parameter is defined.
- -1 transition of TriggerControlName from above threshold to below threshold. results in buffer
dump.
- 0 ignore transition-based triggers for this PV.
- 1 transition from below threshold to above threshold results in buffer dump.
- TransitionThreshold — Optional double parameter for transition-based trigger. required if
TransitionDirection parameter is defined. It defines the threshold of a transition trigger.
- GlitchThreshold — Optional double parameter for glitch-based trigger.
- 0 ignore glitch-based triggers for this PV.
- >0 absolute glitch level.
- <0 -1*(fractional glitch level).
- GlitchBaselineSamples — Optional long parameter for glitch-based trigger. It defines number of samples
to average to get the baseline value for glitch determination. A glitch occurs when newReading
is different from the baseline by more than GlitchThreshold or (if GlitchThreshold¡0) by
—GlitchThreshold*baseline—.
- GlitchBaselineAutoReset — Optional short parameter for glitch-based trigger.
Normally (if there is no glitch) the baseline is updated at each step using
baseline ->(baseline*samples+newReading)/(samples+1).
After a glitch, one may want to do something different.
- 1 After a glitch, the baseline is reassigned to its current value.
- 0 The pre-glitch baseline is retained.
- trigger file:
The trigger file is an SDDS file with following columns, the meaning of these columns are the same as the
parameters defined in input file, which are replaced by a trigger file:
- TriggerControlName — Required string column for the names of the process variables that act as
triggers.
- MajorAlarm — Optional short column.
- MinorAlarm — Optional short column.
- NoAlarm — Optional short column.
- TransitionThreshold — Optional double column. (required for transition trigger exists)
- TransitionDirection — Optional short column.(required for transition trigger exists)
- GlitchThreshold — Optional double column.(required for glitch trigger exists)
- GlitchBaselineSamples — Optional long column.
- GlitchBaselineAutoReset — Optional short column
- conditions file:
The conditions file is an optional input file specified on the command line which lists conditions that must be
satisfied at each time step before the data can be logged.
The file is like the main input file, but has numerical columns LowerLimit and UpperLimit. The minimal column
set is ControlName, which contain the PV names, and the two limits columns above. Depending on command
line options, when any or all PV readback from this file is outstide the range defined by the corresponding data
from LowerLimit and UpperLimit, none of the data of the input file PVs are recorded. When this situation
occurs for a long period of time, the size of the output file doesn’t grow, and it may appear that
the monitoring process has somehow stopped. It is possible to check the program activity with
the touch sub-option which causes the monitoring program to touch the output file at every
step.
- output file:
If trigger file is not given, the output file name is: outputDirectory/OutputRootname-string here, there may be
many output files depends how many pages and how many different OutputRootnames the input file has. If
trigger file is given, the outputDirectory given in command line is actually the OutputRootname, the output file
name is now (only one output in this case): outputDirectory-string In above, both string is generated by
MakeDailyGenerationFilename().
The output file contains one data column for each process variables named in the input file. Time columns and
other miscellaneous columns are defined:
- Time — Double column of time since start of epoch. This time data can be used by the plotting
program sddsplot to make the best choice of time unit conversions for time axis labeling.
- TimeOfDay — Float column of system time in units of hours. The time does not wrap around at
24 hours.
- DayOfMonth — Float column of system time in units of days. The day does not wrap around at
the month boundary.
- Step — Long column for step number.
- CAerrors — Long column for number of channel access errors at each reading step.
Many time-related parameters are defined in the output file:
- TimeStamp — String parameter for time stamp for file.
- PageTimeStamp — String parameter for time stamp for each page. When data is appended to an
existing file, the new data is written to a new page. The PageTimeStamp value for the new page is
the creation date of the new page. The TimeStamp value for the new page is the creation date of
the very first page.
- StartTime — Double parameter for start time from the C time call cast to type double.
- YearStartTime — Double parameter for start time of present year from the C time call cast to
type double.
- StartYear — Short parameter for the year when the file was started.
- StartJulianDay — Short parameter for the day when the file was started.
- StartMonth — Short parameter for the month when the file was started.
- StartDayOfMonth — Short parameter for the day of month when the file was started.
- StartHour — Short parameter for the hour when the file was started.