Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

1.1 ALS-U EPICS Environment Configuration and Installation

This section covers the essential first steps for setting up the ALS-U EPICS environment locally. You will clone the central environment repository using git from the ALS GitLab server or its GitHub mirror, and then learn how to activate a specific version (e.g., for Debian 12 or Rocky 8) by sourcing the appropriate setEpicsEnv.bash script in your terminal session. Basic verification steps are also included.

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, you will learn how to do the following:

  • Clone the ALS-U EPICS environment repository using git
  • Configure the ALS-U EPICS environment locally
  • Test the cloned EPICS environment with a few EPICS command line tools
  • Activate a specific version of the EPICS environment within a terminal session

Get the ALS-U EPICS environment

Clone the ALS-U EPICS repository using Git.

Clone the ALS-U EPICS environment by using git clone

Users may need to have SSH access to the ALS GitLab repository to clone the following repositories.

# Example for the ALS-U Internal Gitlab (Official)
$ git clone --depth 1 ssh://git@git-local.als.lbl.gov:8022/alsu/epics/alsu-epics-environment.git ~/epics
# or
# Example for the Mirror site on GitHub
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jeonghanlee/EPICS-env-distribution.git ~/epics

By cloning the repository, you have the environment at the ${HOME}/epics folder. In most cases, you are ready to use it.

Configure the ALS-U EPICS enviornment

The ALS-U EPICS environment supports multiple operating system versions and EPICS versions. Please note that the pre-built binaries included in this environment currently target the Linux x86_64 architecture exclusively.

To select and activate a specific environment version in your current terminal session, you need to source the appropriate setEpicsEnv.bash script corresponding to your operating system and desired EPICS version:

# Example for EPICS 7.0.7 on Debian 12 (x86_64)
source ~/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/setEpicsEnv.bash
# or
# Example for EPICS 7.0.7 on Rocky 8.10 (x86_64)
source ~/epics/1.1.1/rocky-8.10/7.0.7/setEpicsEnv.bash

Sourcing the script sets up necessary environment variables like EPICS_BASE, PATH, and LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The output should resemble this (user and specific paths will vary):

Set the EPICS Environment as follows:
THIS Source NAME    : setEpicsEnv.bash
THIS Source PATH    : /home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7
EPICS_BASE          : /home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/base
EPICS_HOST_ARCH     : linux-x86_64  # <-- Note the architecture
EPICS_MODULES       : /home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/modules
PATH                : /home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/modules/pmac/bin/linux-x86_64:/home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/modules/pvxs/bin/linux-x86_64:/home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/base/bin/linux-x86_64:/home/jeonglee/programs/root_v6-28-04/bin:/home/jeonglee/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games
LD_LIBRARY_PATH     : /home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/modules/pmac/lib/linux-x86_64:/home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/modules/pvxs/bundle/usr/linux-x86_64/lib:/home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/modules/pvxs/lib/linux-x86_64:/home/jeonglee/epics/1.1.1/debian-12/7.0.7/base/lib/linux-x86_64:/home/jeonglee/programs/root_v6-28-04/lib/root

Enjoy Everlasting EPICS!

Note how the EPICS_HOST_ARCH variable and the paths explicitly mention linux-x86_64.

Testing the Environment

Once the environment is sourced, verify that the EPICS command-line tools are accessible in your PATH:

# Check help output for an EPICS command-line tool (e.g., caput)
$ caput -h

# Verify the location of an EPICS command-line tool (e.g., caget)
$ which caget

If these commands run successfully and show help/path information, you have successfully configured the ALS-U EPICS environment in your current terminal session.

Alternative Environment for Other Linux Distributions (Training Contingency)

This training and ALS-U Controls officially supports Debian 12 and Rocky 8.10 on the Linux x86_64 architecture, using the primary ALS-U EPICS environment repository cloned into ~/epics as described in the main [Get the ALS-U environment](01.01.installation.md##Get the ALS-U EPICS environment) section.

If, and only if, you are attending this training using Rocky 9.5, Ubuntu 22.04, or Ubuntu 24.04 (on Linux x86_64) and cannot use the officially supported setup, the following alternative environment repository can be used in the training exercises.

Important Considerations:

  • This alternative repository provides builds that are functional for the training but may not be the latest official ALS-U EPICS environment production versions.
  • It is not the recommended environment for actual development or deployment work at ALS-U Controls System.
  • Using this path requires adjusting subsequent commands (like source) and potentially other paths mentioned in the training materials.

Alternative Repository Setup:

  1. Clone the Repository: Use the following command to clone into a separate directory (e.g., ~/epics-training-alt). (This uses HTTPS and typically does not require SSH keys, though ALS GitLab login might be needed).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://git.als.lbl.gov/jeonglee/alsu-epics-environment.git ~/epics-training-alt
  1. Verify Structure: The relevant structure inside this directory should look like this (confirming builds for various OS exist):
$ tree --charset=ascii -L 2 ~/epics-training-alt/1.1.1/
/home/user/epics-training-alt/1.1.1/  # Path will vary based on user/clone location
|-- debian-12
|   |-- 7.0.7
|   `-- vendor
|-- rocky-8.10
|   |-- 7.0.7
|   `-- vendor
|-- rocky-9.5
|   |-- 7.0.7
|   `-- vendor
|-- ubuntu-22.04
|   |-- 7.0.7
|   `-- vendor
`-- ubuntu-24.04
    |-- 7.0.7
    `-- vendor
  1. Configure: Proceed to the main “Configure the ALS-U EPICS environment” steps, but ensure you source the setEpicsEnv.bash script from the correct subdirectory within your chosen alternative path (e.g., ~/epics-training-alt/1.1.1/ubuntu-22.04/7.0.7/setEpicsEnv.bash).

Summary

In this section, you learned the fundamental steps to get started with the ALS-U EPICS environment on your local Linux x86_64 machine. You successfully cloned the environment repository using git and learned how to activate a specific version by sourcing the corresponding setEpicsEnv.bash script. Finally, you verified the setup by confirming that essential EPICS command-line tools are available in your path. You are now ready to use this configured environment for running IOCs and developing EPICS applications.