EPICS Extensions Upgrade

1
EPICS Extensions Upgrade

• Problems and solutions

2
Why was a change necessary?

• RH7.3 and SL3 are different but default EPICS
  Makefiles handle both as linux-x86.
• Problems when mixing code compiled on different
  systems.(C functions not found, wrong GLIBC
  version, )
• Need separate architectures (EPICS_HOST_ARCH).
• linux-x86 for RH7.3
• SL3-x86 for SL3
• Changes in Makefiles of base and extensions
  required.
• Do not compile extensions with unmodified
  Makefiles from EPICS homepage! Use our version
  from CVS!

3
Building extensions from CVS

• CVS location G/EPICS/extensions
• ssh pc4015 (or your development machine, dont
  develop on slslc03!)
• cvs checkout extensions-cfg
• extensions/
• Makefileconfigure/config/src/
• Makefile
• cd extensions/src
• cvs co medm (or any other extension)
• make medm

4
Putting new extensions into CVS

• Unpack the extension tar file
• You normally get a directory structure like this
• extensions/Makefilesrc/ Makefile ltXXXgt/
• cd extensions/src/ltXXXgt
• tkcvs CVS?Import WD into Repository
• New Module Name ltXXXgt
• New Module path relative to CVSROOT
  G/EPICS/extensions/src/ltXXXgt
• Contact me!

5
Install locations

• Binaries /usr/local/epics/extensions/bin/ltarchgt/
• Libraries /usr/local/epics/extensions/lib/ltarchgt/
  
• Links /usr/local/bin/
• /usr/local/bin/ is in PATH
• Tell me missing links.
• Dont put other locations before standard PATH or
  you might get wrong program versions!
• In EPICS 3.14, programs know where the libraries
  are.No need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

6
Extensions and base

• Directory structure
• /usr/local/epics/ base-3.13.10/ base-3.14.7/
  base-3.14.8/ base? base-3.14.8 extensions/
• Extensions are linked to /usr/local/epics/base/lib
  /ltarchgt/(when built with our extensions
  Makefiles).
• No need to rebuild extensions when upgrading base.

7
Compatibility issues

• Old 3.13 extensions dont know where their
  libraries are.
• LD_LIBRARY_PATH contains SLSBASE/lib with 3.13.2
  libs.
• Early 3.14 extensions are linked to
  /usr/local/epics3.14.7/base/lib/ltarchgt/
• /usr/local/epics3.14.7/base ? ../epics/base-3.14.7
  
• IDL (and other programs?) expect environment
  variables EPICS_EXTENSIONS and EPICS_HOST_ARCH,
  which have changed.
• Dont overwrite those variables in your scripts!
• Check if IDL scripts still work (i.e. find latest
  EPICS version)

8
Our upgrading procedure

• Upgrade should work smoothly
• First test everything on dedicated test machines
  (e.g. pc4015)
• If everything works, create a tar file and
  install it on slslc03 and slslc02 for field
  test.
• If everything works for at least a week, install
  it on all machines.
• If unexpected problems appear, contact us
• Dirk, Werner, Gaudenz, Dennis, David
• For missing extensions (e.g. interfaces to other
  tools),contact me.