The boot program works with the state manager and experiment configuration editor to create and destroy entities that are needed for an experiment's data acquisition system. The databases... parameters area list of experiment databases edited by the experiment configuration editor that define the components needed by the experiment and in which nodes they should be instantiated.
Whenever the state manager declares a transition to the Booting state, the boot program processes databases from left to right on the command line creating the components specified in all databases. Similarly when the state manager declares a transition to the NotReady state, the boot program destroys the entities that still remain.
After creating all entities successfully, the boot program requests a transition to the Ready state. If the creation of any entity failed, the boot program requests a transition to NotReady which in turn will eventually make the boot program destroy any entities created so far.
The programs started by the boot program are monitored. If they exit, the boot program declares a state transition to NotReady. Once this state has been entered, as usual, the boot program will stop all remaining programs. and destroy any ringbuffers it created.
--help, -hOutputs a help message to stdoput and exits. If this option appears on the command line it is the only one interpreted.
--version -v
Outputs the program version and brief usage information
on stdout. If this option is used with others (besides
--help), it is the only one interpreted.
--server=host-name,
-n host-nameSpecifies the name of the host in which the state manager is running. If not provided, the value of this option defaults to localhost; the same system that is running boot.
--state-service=StateServiceName,
-s StateServiceNameSpecifies the service name the state manager is using to publish state and transition information. This service name is looked up on the state manager's host using the port manager. If not provided, this defaults to StatePublish which is the default service name used by the state manger.
--transition-service=TransitionRequestServiceName,
-t TransitionRequestServiceNameSpecifies the service name the state manager is using to accept state transition requests. This service name is looked up using the port manager running in the state manager's host. If this optional switch is not used, the default value for this service name is StateRequest which is the default service name used by the state manager for this function.