4 USER'S GUIDE

This User's Guide describes the startup/shutdown features normally encountered during the usage of an instrument. If more detailed information is needed, then please refer to the Programmer's Guide (chapter 7).

4.1 USER STATION: INSTRUMENT DESKTOP ROOT MENU

An instrument is normally controlled from the corresponding telescope user station located in the control room. The UNIX account has normally the same name as the instrument (in lowercase, e.g. `uves' for instrument UVES).

If the desktop root menu of this account (clicking the mouse on a blank part of the screen) is correctly configured, then it has an instrument submenu with the following entries:

· XXXX->Configuration: Call the standard startup panel to customize the startup procedure.

This option should be used before the first time an instrument is started, to configure

the available subsystems and simulation modes. See section 4.3 for details.

· XXXX->START: Normal startup of the instrument, starts the available subsystems and OS/SOS according to the current configuration. Starts the default panels (usually BOB and the Control panel a.o.).

· XXXX->STANDBY: Places OS/SOS (and subsystems) in state STANDBY.

This option is usually used at the end of the night, to leave the instrument in a safe state during day-time. Panels are not stopped.

This option is used to stop all the instrumentation software and panels.

· XXXX->PANELS...: This menu is used to start an individual panel.

· XXXX->RTDs...: This menu is used to start an individual RTD panel.

This option is only provided in case that the instrumentation software does not behave correctly. This option allows to stop all workstation processes and to restart them, without restarting the panels.

4.2 START/STOP FROM ANY WORKSTATION

If the instrumentation software is installed in a development workstation, or if the instrument needs to be controlled from a remote X-terminal at Paranal, then the instrument desktop root menu is probably not available. In this case, the equivalent commands to the above root menu options are as follows¹:

Table 1
Desktop Root Menu	Startup Utility Calls
XXXX->Configure	xxinsStartup (or manually edit the file $INS_ROOT/SYSTEM/COMMON/CONFIGFILES/xxmcfgSTART.cfg
XXXX->Start	xxinsStart
XXXX->Standby	xxinsStop -standby
XXXX->Stop	xxinsStop
XXXX->Restart procs.	xxinsStart -restart
XXXX->Panels-><name>	xxinsStart -panel <name>
XXXX->RTDs-><name>	xxinsStart -panel <name>_RTD

4.3 STARTUP PANELS

Although there are two startup panels available, stooStartup and stooSosStartup for OS and SOS based instruments respectively, for uniformity of startup procedures the stooStartup panel should be used for all instruments regardless of being based on OS or SOS. If the instrument is based on SOS, stooStartup will call stooSosStartup instead.

The startup panel stooStartup allows to customize the startup procedure of an OS and its sub-systems. It allows to specify the available subsystems, the simulation mode, the panels that should be started by default and the logging level during startup. The panel stores these options into the xxmcfgSTART.cfg configuration file, located in $INS_ROOT/SYSTEM/COMMON/CONFIGFILES.

The startup panel stooSosStartup can start a complete SOS based instrument software. It displays the sub-OS's and allows selection if they are available (NORMAL) or not (FORBIDDEN), which is set by keyword OCS.OSi.ACCESS. Like the stooStartup panel, it allows to specify the panels that should be started by default and the logging level during startup. The panel stores these options into the xxmcfgSTART.cfg configuration file, located in $INS_ROOT/SYSTEM/COMMON/CONFIGFILES. Panel stooStartup can be called for each sub-OS from this panel.

The standard options of the panels are (the FITS keyword is the corresponding keyword in the xxmcfgSTART.cfg file):

This option selects if OS may or may not access the telescope. For routine test and maintenance operations this option should be left unchecked to avoid unintended control of the telescope. For night observations this option must be checked.

Selects between no simulation and LCU sw simulated at workstation level.

Starts the ICS Stand-alone panel at the end of the startup procedure.

Note: If for some reason you do not want a DCS to be shown on the startup panel, set the OCS.DETi.STOOSHOW keyword to `F', default is `T'.

These options are equivalent to the ICS options described above.

Starts the RTD associated to the detector at the end of the startup procedure.

Starts the corresponding panel at the end of the startup procedure.

4.4 START/STOP DURING DEVELOPMENT

During development it is necessary to have big flexibility in the startup customization and to be able to start/stop individual applications and panels. Therefore, it is not recommended to use the standard startup panel during development, but to edit the xxmcfgSTART.cfg file directly² (unless the options supplied by the standard panel are sufficient).

4.4.1 Start/Stop Individual Applications (e.g. ICS, DCS, OS)

The option -restart tells xxinsStart to stop the application or panel and restart it, if it is already running.

4.4.2 Start/Stop Individual Panels

4.4.3 List Known Applications and Panels

Implementation note: Scripts xxinsStart, osbStart and stooStart are usually the same utility. However script xxinsStart may contain instrument specific code, not executed by script stooStart. Therefore it is always advisable to use scripts xxinsStart and xxinsStop instead of scripts stooStart and stooStop.

Eventually a development startup panel with more options could be implemented.

Issuing any wrong name will make xxinsStart list all known applications or panels.