whatrecord

EPICS IOC record search and meta information tool.

Spiritual successor of recordwhat.

What?

Lark grammar-based parsers which parse any of the following into easy-to-use Python dataclasses:

• EPICS access security files (.acf)
• EPICS autosave save files (.sav)
• EPICS V3 database files
• EPICS V4 database files
• EPICS msi-style template/substitutions files (.template/.substitutions)
• EPICS gateway configuration (.pvlist)
• EPICS sequencer state notation language programs (.st)
• EPICS StreamDevice protocols (.proto)

All of the above can be easily serialized to JSON for interoperability.

Pseudo-IOC shell interpreter:

• Reads st.cmd files as if it were an IOC
• Loads and lints record files (and other supported formats above)
• Builds inter- and intra- IOC PV relationship graphs
• Stores context information about where each record/field/etc came from

API server

• IOC finder (LCLS IOC manager, list of files, or external script)
• Provides access to all parsed information above
• Preliminary asyncio-based client to talk with the server

Frontend

• User-friendly vue.js v3 frontend that communicates with API server

• Interfaces for:

  • Searching for records
  • Record relationships (processing and links, cross-IOC links)
  • IOC information
  • Gateway configuration overview
  • Duplicate records
  • Optional plugins

Plugins

• happi devices
• Simple LDAP search (LCLS hosts, "netconfig")
• LCLS-specific epicsArch / logbook DAQ PVs
• TwinCAT PLC source code (pytmc)

Makefile / build system information

• Determine build dependencies from a Makefile
• Recursively inspect sub-dependencies
• Graph IOC dependency information or output it as JSON

Command-line tools

• whatrecord lint - lint a database
• whatrecord parse - parse supported formats
• whatrecord server - start the API server
• whatrecord graph - graph PV relationships, SNL diagrams, IOC dependencies

Record?

Requirements

Requirements:

• Python 3.9
• aiohttp
• apischema[graphql]
• graphviz
• jinja2
• lark

Docker

See /docker to set up a Python 3.10-based whatrecord container. A docker-compose configuration for starting up the frontend/backend servers is also provided. Note that the default configuration only indexes the whatrecord-provided IOCs.

Frontend Screenshots

Search for records and view relationships:

View StreamDevice protocol information:

See where your qsrv pvAccess keys come from:

See access security settings:

View all of your IOCs in one place and browse their records by type:

View inter-IOC record relationships:

View all of your ophyd/happi devices and their relevant PVs:

View LDAP-provided settings:

(LCLS-specific) View epicsArch DAQ PVs:

View gateway PVList configurations:

View record duplicates:

View API server logs:

See per-parameter values:

See database lint:

Other Screenshots

Use whatrecord deps --graph to inspect IOCs/modules with make and generate a dependency graph of modules:

Use whatrecord graph to graph state notation language .st file logic:

Use an external tool like jq to sift through information from whatrecord's JSON output:

$ whatrecord parse whatrecord/tests/iocs/db/pva/iq.db | jq '.records[] | [.name, .record_type, .fields.OUT.value]'
[
  "$(PREFIX)Rate",
  "ao",
  "$(PREFIX)dly_.ODLY NPP"
]
[
  "$(PREFIX)Delta",
  "ao",
  null
]
...

$ whatrecord parse whatrecord/tests/iocs/db/pva/iq.db | jq '.records[] | [ .name, .info["Q:group"]]'
[
  "$(PREFIX)Rate",
  null
]
[
  "$(PREFIX)Phase:I",
  {
    "$(PREFIX)iq": {
      "phas.i": {
        "+type": "plain",
        "+channel": "VAL"
      }
    }
  }
]
...