Difference between revisions of "Con-file"

Latest revision as of 13:50, 31 July 2012

CON-FILE(5) c_scan configuration file CON-FILE(5)

NAME

      con-file - configuration file for c_scan(1)

DESCRIPTION

      c_scan(1)  uses a configuration file called a con-file.  By convention,
      this  configuration  file  should  be  given  a  ".con"  suffix,   e.g.
      expt.con.   A  con-file  consists  of a set of actions to be performed.
      Each action usually describes a specific task to be performed,  usually
      by  a specific piece of hardware. However it is possible for a task not
      to involve any hardware at all (e.g. waiting for a key press),  it  may
      involve  several tasks for a specific piece of hardware (setting up the
      parameters of a signal generator) or it may  involve  a  specific  task
      involving  several  pieces of hardware (performing higher order aberra‐
      tion correction).

PARAMETERS

      There are two types of action in the con-file: a child or a sibling.

      The difference between a child and a sibling  is  that  if  the  parent
      action consists of some sort of loop (termed a scan in c_scan terminol‐
      ogy) then the child action will be executed at each step in  the  scan,
      whereas  a sibling action will only be executed at the end of the scan.

      Each (parent) action can have only one  child  action.  If  the  action
      involves  a  scan,  it can additionally have one (and only one) sibling
      action. This is not such a limitation as it  initially  appears  to  be
      ("How  do  I  do  TWO  things at each scan step, then, eh?") because of
      course that single  child/sibling  action  can  contain  another  child
      action.

      Due  to  historical reasons, a child action is usually referred to in a
      con-file as just an action, and a sibling action is referred  to  as  a
      branch.   However,  the  words child and action are interchangeable, as
      are sibling and branch.  Within an action that does NOT contain a scan,
      all four terms are freely interchangeable.

      The  end of any sort of action (whether child or sibling) is denoted by
      the word end.  However, it should be noted that if  you  put  the  word
      "end"  before  the  next  action  (whether  child or sibling) then that
      action will be ignored. In  practice,  therefore,  an  "end"  statement
      marks  the end of each "family tree," and there should be one "end" for
      each member of that family tree. Think of  the  "end"  statement  as  a
      closing curly bracket ( "}" ) in your C/C++ code. See examples below.

      The  only  action command that is common to most of the different sorts
      of action is the save command. This command saves the data acquired  in
      any  of  the actions (children or siblings) that are below/part of that
      action. If the action in which the "save" command is given  contains  a
      scan,  then  the  data from the child action (and any actions below the
      child action) will be saved at each scan step; the data from  any  sib‐
      ling (branch) action will be saved at the end of the scan. Usually, the
      "save" command goes quite high up the tree.

EXAMPLES

      This manual page describes the format of a c_scan  con-file  only,  and
      does  not  aim  to  describe any of the (many and varied) actions them‐
      selves. To find out how to write an action  for  a  specific  piece  of
      hardware or a specific task, see the manual pages of the actions listed
      in the SEE ALSO section.

Example 1

      The general format of a c_scan con-file is as follows:

      ------------------------------------------------------------
      action action_name
              ...
             (instructions for that action)
             save
              ...
             action another_action_name
                     ...
                    (instructions for the second action)
                     ...
                    end
             end
      ------------------------------------------------------------

      Note the use of tabs to differentiate between actions, to improve read‐
      ability.

Example 2

      A  slightly  more  complex  example,  involving  both child and sibling
      (branch) actions:

      ------------------------------------------------------------
      action action_name
              ...
             (instructions for that action)
             scan start finish step
             save
              ...
             action another_action_name
                     ...
                    (instructions for the second action)
                    (these will be executed at every point in the scan of the
                    action above)
                     ...
                    end
             branch third_action_name
                     ...
                    (instructions for the third action)
                    (these  will  be  executed  at the end of the scan of the
                    first action)
                     ...
                    end
             end
      ------------------------------------------------------------

SEE ALSO

      c_scan(1)

      c_count(3), c_script(3), c_timer(3), c_keypress(3), c_user(3)

      c_stage(3), c_move(3), c_restore(3), c_pci_stage(3), c_idac(3), c_inch‐
      worm(3), c_tank

      c_a2d(3), c_pc26at(3), c_pci_a2d(3)

      c_pci_d2a(3)

      c_tek_trace_scope(3)

      c_agilent_trace_scope(3)

      c_eth_ft_scope(3), c_eth_measure_scope(3), c_eth_trace_scope(3)

      c_gpib_ft_scope(3), c_gpib_scope_utils(3), c_gpib_trace_scope(3)

      c_gpib_sig_gen(3)

      c_slm_utils(3), c_slm_scan(3), c_correct(3)

      c_parport(3)

Linux OCTOBER 2004 CON-FILE(5)

Manual page con-file(5) line 24/148 (END)