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Generic IOC Template Repository

This repository is a template for creating a generic IOC in the epics-containers framework. See https://epics-containers.github.io for tutorials and documentation.

Making a new generic IOC

  1. Go to the GitHub page and click Use this template -> Create a new repository Then choose a name and organization for your new generic IOC.

  2. Change the README.md file to describe your IOC.

  3. Change the Dockerfile to compile in the support modules you need in your generic IOC Container.

  4. Once you have it working you can update tests/runtests.sh to run your IOC in a container and test it. We recommend creating a Tickit simulation of the device you are controlling and using that to test your IOC. See https://dls-controls.github.io/tickit/typing_extensions/index.html

Working with the IOC

  1. A generic IOC with a working Dockerfile can be built with the build script in the root folder. This builds the developer target by default. This must be run outside the dev container.

  2. Pushing the repo to github and tagging it will release a container image to the GitHub container registry. Gitlab CI is also supported.

  3. Launching the project in vscode or other devcontainer IDE will allow you to open a devcontainer and test the IOC locally (including IOCs with system dependencies not available on your host).

  4. A Basic test that verifies you have the correct libraries installed in the runtime container is provided in tests/runtests.sh. This must be run outside the dev container. These tests can be updated to be more specific to your IOC when you have it working.

Developing inside the devcontainer

A few points to note when developing inside the devcontainer:

  1. The project folder is mounted at /workspaces/ioc-template (or equivalent). This is the same as any other project folder in vscode.

    The project folder is also mounted at /epics/generic-source which is where ibek expects to find it. Because the Dockerfile also creates the ioc source at /epics/generic-source/ioc, the devcontainer container looks almost identical to the runtime container.

    Because the project source is mounted over the top of the ioc source location in the devcontainer the compiled binaries are not visible in the devcontainer. On first opening the devcontainer you must build the IOC binaries as follows:

    • cd /epics/ioc
    • make

  2. The ibek tool is pre-installed in the devcontainer. It is used by Dockerfiles to build the IOC but you can also use it on the command line. See ibek --help for more information.

  3. You can add additional projects to your workspace that are peers to the ioc-template project. The folder /workspaces is mounted to the parent of your project folder for this purpose. It is often useful to add your beamline repository to the workspace so that you can work on IOC instances at the same time as the Generic IOC.

  4. You can customize bash configuration and also customize a profile that can install additional packages at devcontainer creation time. These are customizations are for developer personalization and can apply to all epics-containers ioc projects. See README.md.

Updating projects that use this template

When there have been useful changes to this template you can update your project to use them. The simplest way to do this is to simply run a comparison of your ioc-xxx root folder against a local copy of the latest ioc-template. The only files that need to be changed usually are the Dockerfile and README.md. So you can adopt the latest version of all other file. Also any Dockerfile changes at the top and bottom of the file should be copied over, your changes in the middle should only replace the block comment.

For an easy folder comparison you can use the vscode extension Compare Folders.

Quick Update to latest ioc-template

If you are confident you have only changed the Dockerfile and README.md you can use the following script to update your project to the latest ioc-template. You will still need to merge any changes to the header/footer of the Dockerfile.

#!/bin/bash

set -xe

ioc_template="$(realpath ${1})"
ioc_for_update="$(realpath ${2})"

cd ${ioc_for_update}
if [ -n "$(git status --porcelain)" ]; then
      echo "You have uncommitted changes, this script is not safe to run"
      exit 1
fi

git checkout -b update-to-latest-template
rm -fr $(ls -A -I .git -I ibek-support)

cd ${ioc_template}
cp -r $(ls -A -I .git -I ibek-support) ${ioc_for_update}

cd ${ioc_for_update}
git checkout Dockerfile README.md .gitmodules
git add .

tests/run-tests.sh

Once you are happy with the updates you can do:

cd ioc-xxx
git commit -m'update to latest ioc-template'
git push -u origin update-to-latest-template
# now go to github and create a pull request

If you want to revert the changes you can do:

cd ioc-xxx
git reset --hard
git checkout main
git branch -d update-to-latest-template

Jan 2024 Changes

After a review we have decided to simplify the approach to managing the IOC source code. It is now included in the ioc-template repository and is no longer templated in ibek.

The Makefile is the only dynamic thing in the ioc folder and it now uses the files /epics/support/lib_list and dbd_list which ibek generates.

We also changed where the project is mounted in the devcontainer. It is now in /workspaces/ioc-template which makes it the same as any other. But note that it is also mounted in /epics/generic-source so that there is a consistent location for ibek to find it.

To update a pre-existing generic ioc to the new scheme:

  • update requirements.txt to ibek==1.6.2
  • update ibek-support sub module to the latest version in main
  • copy in the ioc folder from ioc-template verbatim
  • update Dockerfile top and bottom to match ioc-template (use a diff to see)
  • compare you ioc-xxx folder against ioc-template and update any other files that have changed, especially in .github/workflows