Various SLD collaborators submit new code to DUCS via BITNET.
The code is sent to a central distribution point, currently SLACVM,
and from there is sent out again via BITNET to all of the computers on DUCS.
Along the way, DUCS takes care of a variety of code maintenance tasks such as
insuring that each computer installs the code in the same order that it
was first sent in to DUCS.
If necessary, DUCS holds files until a given computer system is able to
absorb them.
DUCS uses VMS Logical Names
On VMS, all of the code in DUCS is stored in a set of disk directories that
can easily be referred to through some logical names.
These logical names are set up for you automatically as part of your login
procedure.
The most powerful of these logical names is DUCSSEARCH. This logical name can help you find any file known to DUCS. As a first example, you will locate the file that determines the form of the PHCHRG banks you have already studied.
From the DCL prompt, type DIR/DATE DUCSSEARCH:PHCHRG.TEMPLATE
You should get a response like:
Directory DUCSROOT:[DST] PHCHRG.TEMPLATE;11 6-OCT-1994 08:32:03.04 Total of 1 file.
This tells you that the file lives in a directory called DUCSROOT:[DST].
You can type out this file via TYPE DUCSSEARCH:PHCHRG.TEMPLATE
Code Sections
As of this writing, DUCS contains about 256 Megabytes of code
(including source code, listings, object libraries, shareables,
constants and help files).
To organize the thousands of files involved, DUCS divides
the code into about 100 groups called "DUCS Sections."
On VMS, each DUCS Section is a separate directory.
To see the whole list of DUCS sections,
from the DCL prompt, type DUCS QUERY
You should get the following response:
AFBCH :PROD HEAVY :PROD MCHWK :PROD ONLDC :PROD TRIGGER :PROD BLIFE :PROD IDA :PROD MCKORZ :PROD ONLERR :PROD UDUC :PROD CART :PROD IDA3 :PROD MCL63 :PROD ONLLAC :PROD UEDT :PROD CATSRV :PROD JAZELLE :PROD MCL72 :PROD ONLVTX :PROD UEVE :PROD CERNV :PROD JAZQAPT :PROD MCL73 :PROD ONLWIC :PROD UGRA :PROD CETI :PROD KAL :PROD MCL74 :PROD PAW :PROD UHIS :PROD CRDRAWD :PROD KON :PROD MCLEPT :PROD QCD :PROD UMOR :PROD CRID :PROD LAC :PROD MCLUND :PROD QPOL :PROD USER :PROD DATACAT :PROD LUM :PROD MCMUBG :PROD RECON :PROD UTIL :PROD DC :PROD MC :PROD MCRADC :PROD RECVRT :PROD UTPU :PROD DISPLAY :PROD MC1TRK :PROD MCSUSY :PROD REXX :PROD UVAXSRV :PROD DOC :PROD MCBEAM :PROD MCTWOG :PROD RTH :PROD UWRI :PROD DST :PROD MCBHAG :PROD MCUBAB :PROD RTOFF :PROD VMUTIL :PROD DSTUTIL :PROD MCBHLM :PROD MCUCLA :PROD SDISPLAY:PROD VTX :PROD DTAG :PROD MCBREM :PROD MCYFS :PROD SGNL :PROD VXFNDTMP:PROD DUCSNEWS:PROD MCBZ :PROD MFIT :PROD SLD :PROD VXFNDUTL:PROD ELECWEAK:PROD MCCOS :PROD MIDAS :PROD SLDMIDAS:PROD WIC :PROD EMI :PROD MCDIAG :PROD MORTRAN2:PROD SMON :PROD WMATCH :PROD ERRLOG :PROD MCEEG :PROD NAMES :PROD STATUS :PROD WUTIL :PROD EXAMPLES:PROD MCEP :PROD NAPL :PROD SWIM :PROD ZXFIND :PROD FASTMC :PROD MCHRWG54:PROD NETIDA :PROD TAU :PROD GEANTSLD:PROD MCHRWG57:PROD ONLCRID :PROD TRACK :PROD
The DUCS section names are as descriptive as seven characters allows. The deep guts of IDA live in the IDA section. The drift chamber track reconstruction code lives in the DC section. The luminosity monitor code lives in the LUM section. A brief description of what lives in the other sections is available in the document DUCS Sections:SLDs's File System.
Separate logical names exist to allow you to easily specify the directory in which any particular DUCS section lives. These logical names consist of the prefix DUCS followed by the section name.
As an example of using one of these logical names, list the contents of the directory full of LUM code,
type DIR/DATE DUCSLUM
PROD, DEV, TEST and TNOD Modes
DUCS contains features to allow software developers to maintain and share
new versions of code without excessively disturbing other users.
Each DUCS section may be set to one of three "DUCS Modes."
The mode can be either PROD (for Production), DEV (for Development)
TEST or TNOD (for Test but NO Dev).
At any given time, most users are using the Production version of most code. But if, for example, someone has just released a new version of the drift chamber track finding package and they want a few other users to test this new code before they release it to the entire SLD collaboration, they may submit the new code to the Development area of the DC DUCS section. The Development area is a separate directory where this new code is kept without replacing the Production code.
Users can specify that they wish to use this Development code by typing DUCS DEV DC
Try that and then repeat the DUCS QUERY command that you issued earlier. Notice that the response says :DEV next to the section name DC while it says :PROD next to every other section. This indicates that you would now be using the Development version of the DC code.
When a section is set to DEV, DUCS will look for any code of that section first in the Development directory, and then, it if fails to find it there, will look in the Production library.
To set DUCS back to use the Production DC code, issue the command
DUCS PROD DC
You can specify several sections together in a single DUCS DEV command,
for example DUCS DEV DC,KAL,WIC
You can quickly reset all sections to PROD with the single command
DUCS PROD ALL
Be careful while using DEV code. While great effort is taken to insure that the code in PROD works well, code in DEV often contains bugs or may be designed to require that some other section be in DEV at the same time. In general, don't set any section to DEV unless you know why you are doing so.
The DUCS command two more options, DUCS TEST and DUCS TNOD, which will be explained in more detail later when you start writing your own code. This is used to specify that code should come not from PROD or DEV but from some other directory, often your own directory.
For example, DUCS TEST DC *
will cause DUCS to look for DC code first in your own current directory (your * directory). If it fails to find the code there, it will then look in the appropriate DEV directory and then in the appropriate PROD directory.
The TNOD mode is like TEST mode except that it leaves the DEV directory out of the search order.
For example, DUCS TNOD DC *
will cause DUCS to look for DC code first in your own current directory
(your * directory). If it fails to find the code there, it will then look
in the appropriate PROD directory, but will never look in the DEV directory.
Saving Your Current DUCS Settings
The command DUCS SAVE can be used to save your current DUCS settings.
It works by writing out a file that contains the necessary DUCS PROD,
DUCS DEV, DUCS TEST and DUCS TNOD commands to return DUCS to its saved state.
You specify what file this information is to be written to.
For example, DUCS SAVE MYDUCS.COM
will cause DUCS to write out a file in your current directory called
MYDUCS.COM. This file will contain a set of DUCS commands.
If you later run this file (by typing @MYDUCS.COM),
your saved DUCS settings will be restored.
More on DUCS Logical Names
You can refer directly to the PROD or DEV directory for a given section by using logical names that start with PROD or DEV.
For example, the PROD version of the DC code lives in the directory PRODDC. The DEV version lives in the directory DEVDC. Similarly, there is PRODKAL and DEVKAL, PRODLUM and DEVLUM, and so on.
There are also more abbreviated logical names for all of the above. They use just the letter P instead of PROD and D instead of DEV. For example, there is PDC and DDC, PKAL and DKAL, and so on.
Everything about DUCS is done via logical names. In fact, all that the DUCS PROD or DUCS DEV command does is change the meaning of a logical name.
Type DUCS PROD DC
Then type SHOW LOGICAL DUCSDC
You should see that the logical name DUCSDC points to the logical name PDC which in turn points to the actual directory where the production code lives.
Now type DUCS DEV DC
Then type SHOW LOGICAL DUCSDC, or even better use the up arrow key to recover the command.
You should see that the logical name DUCSDC now points to the logical name DPDC which in turn points to DEVDC and PRODDC which in turn point to the two directories where the development and production DC code live.
This may seem like a lot of review of logical names, but logical names are so important to the VMS operating system that all users need to become completely comfortable with them.