A python3 module meant for cloning, building, and packaging EPICS, synApps, and areaDetector with one command.

This development is based on bash EPICS distribution scripts developed primarly for building on the UNIX/Linux environment, and prior work related to synApps packaging which is utilized by installSynApps is currently hosted at https://github.com/EPICS-synApps

installSynApps depends python3, and several helper libraries. It is tested with python 3.4+. To install python3 on linux run:

sudo apt install python3

In order to use the GUI version of installSynApps, tkinter is required as well. This can be installed with:

sudo apt install python3-tk

on linux, while on windows it should be included in your python download.

Furthermore, install the python pip Python Package Installer. This can be installed with:

sudo apt install python3-pip

Next, clone the repository and install helper libraries with pip:

git clone https://github.com/epicsNSLS2-deploy/installSynApps
cd installSynApps
python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

In addition, several external tools are used by installSynApps that must also be installed and in the system path. This can be done with:

sudo apt install gcc g++ make git wget tar perl

on linux, while on windows each of these should be installed from the appropriate websites. To ensure that they are in the system path, run:

make --version

or something similar for each of the above dependencies and see if it displays version information. If not, and you see an error along the lines of make command not found, then the module is not in the system path. In addition, on windows it is required to install Visual Studio 2015+, along with the MSVC and MSVC++ compilers for C and C++ respectively.

If running on windows, make sure to run installSynApps from the Visual Studio developer command prompt, not from cmd or powershell.

Next, you may wish to install packages required by EPICS and areaDetector:

sudo apt install re2c libusb-1.0-0-dev
sudo apt install libx11-dev libxext-dev libzmq3-dev

Finally, if you wish, you may install the utility using pip, with:

pip3 install --upgrade .

This will allow you to run the CLI or GUI commands using epics-install, or epics-install-gui respectively.

There are two recommended usage procedures for the module, through the use of installCLI.py and installGUI.py. The first will perform all operations through the terminal, while the other will display a GUI written in Tkinter.

Before running the command line option, you must identify an install configuration to use with installSynApps. A default config is stored in the configure directory of this program, and several other configurations are housed in addtlConfDirs. To create a new config, use:

./installCLI.py -n -v

In your selected configuration, open the INSTALL_CONFIG file and you will see a large table representing all modules to clone/build/package. Make sure to set the install location as desired at the top of the file, along with any other changes.

In addition, in the configure directory, there should be several folders:

Once all of these configuration files are edited to your liking, you may run the script.

To see all available options run:

./installCLI.py -h

And then run with defaults with:

./installCLI.py

OR

python installCLI.py

or add any of the optional flags to further configure the build. A typical run will override the default configuration, and install location, along with setting some logging options, and will in some cases be automated with the -y flag:

./installCLI.py -c addtlConfDirs/configureDeb9 -i /epics/src -p -l -y

After executing the script, simply follow the instructions as they guide you through the build process, or if -y was used, wait for it to terminate.

The installSynApps GUI requires Tkinter to be installed for operation. Tkinter is a standard module included with python3, though if it is not it can be installed via pip or the package manager as python3-tk.

To start the GUI, run:

./installGUI.py

This should load the default configuration, or whatever configuration was previously loaded. You can create a new configuration with File -> New, or edit the existing one under the Edit tab. Make sure to use File -> Save to save any changes you make.

Once the configuration is finished, execute the build by pressing Autorun. You can then press Package to generate the binary bundle after the build terminates.

For further details on using installGUI, please check the documentation.

installSynApps relies on data provided in a configuration directory to execute a build/bundle operation. There are several configurations included by default with installSynApps, and more can be found in the Install-Configurations repository.

An example structure of a configuration directory is as follows:

jwlodek@HP-Z6-G4-Workstation:/epics/utils/installSynApps/configure$ tree
.
├── customBuildScripts
│   └── ADUVC.sh
├── dependencyInstall.sh
├── injectionFiles
│   ├── AD_RELEASE_CONFIG
│   ├── AUTOSAVE_CONFIG
│   ├── MAKEFILE_CONFIG
│   ├── PLUGIN_CONFIG
│   └── QUADEM_RELEASE
├── INSTALL_CONFIG
└── macroFiles
    └── BUILD_FLAG_CONFIG

3 directories, 9 files

Below is a description of all files that are included with a config directory by default when a new one is created.