Chapter 7. Readout GUI (ReadoutShell)
The Readout GUI (installed as $DAQROOT/bin/ReadoutShell) is a graphical user interface that wraps around data source (Readout) software. It allows you to:
Run a data source in a remote system.
Control your experiment runs via a simple graphical user interface
Manage event files and ancillary data so that they remain together in a single package while providing an event file view.
Customize the operation of the GUI program by adding Tcl scripted extensions that are called at specific times.
For reference information see the Readout Gui man page in section 1daq.
7.1. Running and using the ReadoutShell
The Readout GUI is installed as $DAQROOT/bin/ReadoutShell where $DAROOT is used as a placeholder for the top level of the ring buffer data acquisition installation directory.
 | WARNING! |
|---|---|
You cannot use the readout gui of nscldaq versions earlier than 10.0 with the ring buffer data acquisition system. |
ReadoutShell accepts two command line options:
-host=hostnameSpecifies on which system Readout will be run. You must be able to do an ssh login to that host by means of ssh key exchange (without a password). You can find out how to set this up by googling for setting up ssh keys.
-path=readout-pathSpecifies the full path to the readout program ReadoutShell should run. This path must be accessible on the system that runs ReadoutGui and the users's home directory must be shared between that system and the system designated by the
-hostoption.
By default, the system assumes data will be put in a ringbuffer on the same system as the readout program with a name the same as your username. If, for example, your username is fox and your readoutis running in spdaq22.nscl.msu.edu, the default ring name is going to be tcp://spdaq22.nscl.msu.edu/fox.
You can override the default ring name by setting the environment variable RINGNAME to the name of the ring in the system on which the readout is running. If, in the example above, your readout software is putting data in the ring s800, you would: export RINGNAME=s800 prior t running the GUI.
When the GUI starts it will attempt start the readout program specified in the remote host specified. All output from that program will appear in the large output window on the GUI. Below are a few of the common controls you'll need to know how to use:
Starts a new data taking run. If the run is active, this button is a button and ends the active run.
- Title
This text entry is only enabled when the run is inactive (the button is visible). Type into this entry to provide a title that will be used for the next run. The title, truncated if necessary to 79 characters is inserted into some of the ring items the run produces.
- Run Number
This entry is only enabled when the run is inactive. It is validated so that it must contain an integer at all times. The number in this entry will be the run number of the next run.
This check button is only enabled when the the run is inactive. When checked, the next run will be recorded to disk.
- →
This menu item allows you to choose a new readout program and/or host. Once this a new readout/host have been selected you can use either → or → to start it depending on whether or not a readout program is already running.