Duplicating IOCs

Wiki > The Backend System > Creating and Basics of IOCs > Duplicating IOCs

Creating IOC 2

If you need more than 1 IOC (i.e. you are making the second IOC) there is only a process to follow, rather than a script, as various IOCs can have their own nuances: so take this with a grain of salt. Let us refer to the IOC you are duplicating as newIOC, for clarity.

Navigate to an IOC folder which has two or more IOCs: here we have two folders to focus on, <ioc>/iocBoot/ and <ioc>/<ioc>-IOC-0<n>App (where n is the number of IOCs). Make sure this IOC has a st-common.cmd file (to make your life easier!). Let us refer to this as refIOC.

Now, let's get cracking!

Making IOC 2: iocBoot/ioc<newIOC>-IOC-02>

1. Create a new ioc<newIOC>-IOC-02 folder in /iocBoot/.
2. Navigate to the config.xml file of refIOC. In 01 you will see macros being defined, in 02 you will see the 01 config file being referenced. Create a config.xml file in ioc<newIOC>-IOC-02 and do the same.
3. Check that there is a st-common.cmd file in ioc<newIOC>-IOC-01
   • if there is, note how st.cmd references this. Copy this file into ioc<newIOC>-IOC-02 and refactor all instances of 01 to 02. Then, where the file calls st-common.cmd, you will need to add a line that navigates to the ioc<newIOC>-IOC-01 directory above it (there will be an example of this in ioc<refIOC>-IOC-02).
   • if there is not, note how the st.cmd and st-common.cmd are set up in refIOC. In ioc<newIOC>-IOC-01, transition the st.cmd contents to a st-common.cmd file and refactor the st.cmd to reference this in a similar way. Now follow the step above!
4. Copy across the Makefile - this stays unchanged.
5. Copy across dllPath<...>, envPaths and relPaths files. These also stay unchanged.

Making IOC 2: <newIOC>-IOC-02App

This one may be slightly less straightforward. There may be nuances and additional things in this folder to deal with that aren't mentioned below - either try find another IOC with similar oddities or ask someone!

1. Create a new <newIOC>-IOC-02App folder in /<newIOC>/
2. Navigate to <newIOC>-IOC-01App and copy across Db to the 02App folder.
   • Empty the O. folders of all .db files.
   • Delete all .substitutions files from top level.
   • In Db\O.windows-x64\Makefile, refactor the line DB += something.db ... with #DB += xxx.db (e.g just comment it out)
3. Navigate to <newIOC>-IOC-01App and copy across src to the 02App folder.
   • Empty the contents of both O. folders.
   • Delete the build.mak file
   • Rename the <...>Main.cpp file with the correct IOC number, and rename the header in the file itself.
   • In the Makefile, update APPNAME with the correct IOC number - but the include ... line needs to stay the same.
4. Check whether <newIOC>-IOC-01App has a protocol file
   • If it does, just copy this across. As far as I can see, the Makefiles and folder contents seem to be the same.

Making the IOC

1. make the <newIOC> folder
2. make iocstartups in EPICS top
3. Try to run your new IOC!

Testing the IOC

Navigate to IOCTestframework or the ioc/<newIOC> folder (wherever the IOC tests live). Refactor DEVICE_PREFIX to <newIOC>_02 and you will need to refactor any calls to get_default_ioc_dir() with additional parameter iocnum (or whatever the equivalent is in your test module, this should be pretty intuitive).

WARNING: If you will also be making more IOCs via the method below, you should be very confident that your new <newIOC>_02 behaves the same as <newIOC>_01 before duplicating: any issues with <newIOC_02 will be propagated in every other new IOC you make as well.

Creating IOC 3 and higher

If you need more than 2 IOCs, there is a script to duplicate IOCs: more information can be found here.