Development

The PCAS library is part of EPICS base. In version 3.14 it is found at src/gdd and src/cas. In version 3.15 it is found at src/ca/legacy/gdd and src/ca/legacy/cas. The library implements the channel access protocol. A server application could respond to the CA requests, when it implements the following interfaces.

caServer

class caServer

The virtual methods are,

pvExistReturn pvExistTest(const casCtx &ctx, const caNetAddr &clientAddress, const char *pPVAliasName)

This function is called by the server library when it needs to determine if a named PV exists (or could be created) in the server application. This method should return pverExistsHere if server has this PV or pverDoesNotExistHere otherwise.

pvAttachReturn pvAttach(const casCtx &ctx, const char *pPVAliasName)

This function is called every time that a client attaches to the PV. It should return a PV pointer on success, S_casApp_pvNotFound if this PV does not exist here.

The Python class SimpleServer implements this interface.

casPV

This is the basic entity representing a piece of data, with associated information like units, limits, alarm, timestamp etc. The C++ class casPV abstracts the interface to access the PV value. PV derives from casPV and further defines the interface to access the PV associated information. In addition it adds helper functions for asynchronous write.

struct casClientInfo

Data members

const char *host

CA client host name

const char *user

CA client user name

class PV

Virtual methods

const char *getName()

Return the canonical (full) name for the PV.

unsigned maxDimension()

aitIndex maxBound(unsigned dimension)

Type	maxDimension	maxBound
Scalar	0	1
1D Array	1	number of elements in array

caStatus getValue(gdd &value)

The PV value.

caStatus getPrecision(gdd &value)

The PV precision.

caStatus getUnits(gdd &value)

The PV units.

caStatus getEnums(gdd &value)

The PV enumerated states.

caStatus getLowLimit(gdd &value)

caStatus getHighLimit(gdd &value)

The PV display/control limit

caStatus getLowAlarmLimit(gdd &value)

caStatus getHighAlarmLimit(gdd &value)

The PV alarm limit

caStatus getLowWarnLimit(gdd &value)

caStatus getHighWarnLimit(gdd &value)

The PV warning limit

caStatus write(const casClientInfo &client, const gdd &value)

caStatus writeNotify(const casClientInfo &client, const gdd &value)

The write interface is called when the server receives ca_put request and the writeNotify interface is called when the server receives ca_put_callback request.

A writeNotify request is considered complete and therefore ready for asynchronous completion notification when any action that it initiates, and any cascaded actions, complete.

Return S_casApp_postponeAsyncIO if too many simultaneous asynchronous IO operations are pending against the PV. The server library will retry the request whenever an asynchronous IO operation (read or write) completes against the PV.

caStatus interestRegister()

Called by the server library each time that it wishes to subscribe for PV change notification from the server tool via postEvent().

caStatus interestDelete()

Called by the server library each time that it wishes to remove its subscription for PV value change events.

Helper methods

caStatus postEvent(int mask, const gdd &event)

Server application calls this function to post a PV event. The event mask can be any combination of DBE_VALUE, DBE_LOG, DBE_ALARM, DBE_PROPERTY.

void startAsyncWrite()

Server application calls this function to initiate asynchronous write operation. This must be matched by a call to endAsyncWrite().

void endAsyncWrite()

Server application calls this function to end asynchronous write operation.

bool hasAsyncWrite()

Return true if one asynchronous write is in progress.

bool setAccessSecurityGroup(const char *asgName)

Server application calls this function to set the access security group name.

The Python class SimplePV implements this interface.

casChannel

This class could be used to finely control read/write access based on the client or other conditions. In C++ class Channel, the control access is implemented using Access Security Group. Library user does not need to instantiate this class, it is done inside PV::createChannel. As such this class is not exposed to Python.

gdd

class pcaspy.cas.gdd

gdd stands for General Data Descriptor. It is a generic, descriptive data container. Although designed to be generic, its usage in EPICS is limited to Portable Channel Access Server programming, more specifically in the getters of pcaspy.SimplePV.

classmethod gdd.get()

Retrieve the data. The gdd primitive types are up cast to Python types.

gdd	Python
aitEnumString aitEnumFixedString	str
aitEnumFloat32 aitEnumFloat64	float
aitEnumInt8 aitEnumUint8	str
aitEnumInt16 aitEnumUint16 aitEnumEnum16 aitEnumInt32 aitEnumUint32	int

Note

aitEnumInt8 and aitEnumUint8 are used to store char arrays.

classmethod gdd.put(value)

Store the data. The conversion table.

Input		gdd
		Scalar		Atomic
		numeric	string	numeric	string
gdd		copy dimension/bound info, then putDD
numeric		putConvertNumeric | putNumericArray(size=1)
string		putConvertString		convert to char array then putCharArray
numpy	scalar	putConvertNumeric
	array	putXXXDataBuffer
sequence		setup gdd dimension/bound, then put(F)StringArray/putNumericArray

classmethod gdd.setPrimType(type)

Force the GDD to change the primitive type of the data it describes. Changing the primitive type code is generally an unnatural thing to do. Force a GDD to change the application type, which effectively changes the high-level meaning of the data held within the GDD.

classmethod gdd.setStatSevr(status, severity)

Manipulate the status field of a GDD as a combination status and severity field.

classmethod gdd.setTimeStamp()

Manipulate the time stamp field of the GDD to the current time.