Xlog user manual
Wolfgang Schwegmann

Abstract:

Table of contents:

1   Introduction

2   Usage

3   Format of Xlog configuration file

3.1   Description of directives of Xlog configuration file
3.2   Example configuration file

4   Installing Xlog

5   Restrictions

1   Introduction

Xlog is the automated version of the program PWXCB; it performs most tasks done by Pwxcb automatically. Xlog creates cable and weather calibration files to be used as input for VLBI databases by program Dbcal. Xlog extracts cable and weather data from Mark 3/4/5 log files, determines the cable sign, stores the data in weather and cable calibration files and creates the control file for Dbcal. Additionally, the program can be used to check and plot the data of existing cable and weather calibration files or to extract the system temperature data from log files. The data will be checked with respect to their plausibility, wrong points will be deleted automatically and in case of suspicious data, the analyst's attention will be directed to the data. Xlog can automatically download all necessary files (e.g. station log files) from an IVS Data Center. The program can be used to generate plots of the calibration data in GIF or POSTSCRIPT format which can be sent directly to a local printer. Xlog supports two user modes: in the normal mode progress information will be printed to the screen and the extracted calibration data can be edited via an user interface. This mode is meant for interactive processing under control of the analyst. In the silent mode everything is done automatically and only error messages will be displayed on the screen. This mode is meant for automatic processing under the control of Xlog. For the user interface the "Dialogue Graphic Interface (DiaGI)" developed by Leonid Petrov, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has been applied. To control the usage of Xlog several command line options are available as well as a configuration file, where all parameters necessary for the usage of Xlog can be specified. These options and parameters are described in the following sections.

2   Usage

Usage: xlog [-h] [-help] -s <ivs-session-code> [-c <config_file>] [-p <protocol_file>] [-v <verbosity_level>] [-r] [-b] [-x] [-f] [-u] [-d] Options: -help -- prints this information to screen. -h -- prints help on available options to screen. -s -- IVS session code of the experiment (this option is mandatory). -c -- specifies configuration file for Xlog, the default is "${MK5_ROOT}/local/{Center_label}.xlg". The format of the configuration file is described in section "Format of Xlog configuration file". -p -- specifies name of Xlog protocol file; a default name is being used if not specified. The default name is being build from the 6-character IVS session code followed by the suffix ".xlp" (e.g. for experiment IVS-R4135: "R4135.xlp"). The default directory is specified by keyword "CONTROL_DIR" in the Xlog configuration file. -v -- sets verbosity level: 0 - silent mode, only error messages will be printed to screen. 1 - normal mode (default), progress information will be printed to screen. -r -- run DBCAL after processing log-files; DBCAL control file is being generated before as long as -b switch is not selected. The name of the control file is being build from the 6-character IVS session code followed by the suffix ".dbc" (e.g. for experiment IVS-R4135: "R4135.dbc"). The default directory is specified by keyword "CONTROL_DIR" in the Xlog configuration file. -b -- don't build DBCAL control file (option "-r" will be suppressed). -x -- to process existing calibration files. -f -- fast mode: plausibility check of the data won't be done. -u -- update file "xlog_stations.txt" and set of master schedule files. -d -- discard processed data, i.e. don't save the data.

3   Format of Xlog configuration file

Syntax of the configuration file: 1) lines starting with ## are recognized as comments and ignored. 2) directives for Xlog: lines starting with # and which are not a comment line. Directive consists of three or more words separated by one or more blanks. Word1 -- symbol # -- directive attribute Word2 -- keyword Word3,4... value(s) of the keyword Each keyword has ending symbol ":" which is considered as a part of the keyword. Keywords are case-insensitive, but values are case-sensitive. There are mandatory and optional keywords which may follow in arbitrary order. Default values will be used for not specified optional keywords. All supported keywords are listed in the next subsection.

3.1   Description of directives of Xlog configuration file

Mandatory keywords: LOG_DIR: Directory where log-files to be processed by Xlog are stored. CAL_DIR: Directory where calibration files generated by Xlog will be stored. When Xlog is called with -x switch calibrations will be read from this directory. CONTROL_DIR: Directory where Xlog protocol files and DBCLA control files generated by Xlog will be stored. SKED_DIR: Directory where schedule files of the VLBI experiments are being stored. The schedule files are used by Xlog to read read the system temperature at a VLBI station from the stations log-file (cf. keyword EXTRACT_TSYS). MASTER_DIR: Directory where master files are stored. When Xlog is being called with -u switch the current set of master files is being downloaded from the URL specified by keyword URL_IVS_CONTROL. URL_IVS_AUX: URL for the root directory in the IVS Data Center which contains the station log-files. Value should end with letters "aux/". Since there are several IVS Data Centers user can select the Data Center to which connection is the best. If value is NO then log-files won't be downloaded. URL_IVS_CONTROL: URL for the root directory in the IVS Data Center which contains master files and file "ns_codes.txt". Value should end with letters "ivscontrol/". Since there are several IVS Data Centers user can select the Data Center to which connection is the best. If value is NO then switch -u is not possible. TMP_DIR: Directory where temporary files created by Xlog are being stored. WGET_EXE: Filename with path of program wget. Program wget should be installed before calling Xlog. GZIP_EXE: Filename with path of program gzip. Program gzip should be installed before calling Xlog. STATIONS_FILE: Filename with path of file with station abbreviations (IVS station codes, station names as they appear in the log-files) used to build calibration filenames for program DBCAL automatically. The file also contains information about the default cable calibration sign of the station. When Xlog is being called with -u switch this file is being updated with respect to the file "ns_codes.txt" downloaded from the ftp directory specified by keyword URL_IVS_CONTROL. Optional keywords: LOG_DIR_LONG: Possible values: YES or NO (default). In the latter case station log-files are stored in directory specified by keyword LOG_DIR:. If YES log-files are stored in a session specific sub-directory of the above log-file directory. The name of the sub-directory corresponds to the IVS session code. Example: LOG_DIR: /data/logs/ LOG_DIR_LONG: YES IVS session code is R4116 Directory for log-files is: /data/logs/r4116/ CAL_DIR_LONG: Possible values: YES or NO (default). In the latter case calibration files generated by Xlog are stored in directory specified by keyword CAL_DIR:. If YES calibration files are stored in a session specific sub-directory of the above calibration file directory. The name of the sub-directory corresponds to the IVS session code. Example: CAL_DIR: /data/cals/ CAL_DIR_LONG: YES IVS session code is R4116 Directory for calibration files is: /data/cals/r4116/ COMPRESS_FILES: Possible values: YES or NO (default). In the first case log-files will be compressed after processing. EXTRACT_TSYS: Possible values: YES or NO (default). In the latter case system temperature data won't be extracted. EXTRACT_MET: Possible values: YES (default) or NO. In the latter case weather data won't be extracted. If Dbcal control file will be generated, i.e. command line switch "-b" is not selected, the value for this keyword will be set to YES. EXTRACT_CABLE: Possible values: YES (default) or NO. In the latter case cable calibration data won't be extracted. If Dbcal control file will be generated, i.e. command line switch "-b" is not selected, the value for this keyword will be set to YES. PLOT_DIR: Directory where plots of the calibration data should be stored. If value is NO (default) then plots won't be generated. Otherwise plots are saved in directory: "PLOT_DIR"/"YearOfSession"/"IVS session code"/xlog/ Additionally Xlog protocol file and DBCAL control file are stored in directory: "PLOT_DIR"/"YearOfSession"/"IVS session code"/control/ The sub-directories will be created in case they do not exist. PLOT_FMT: Format of plots of calibration data. Possible values: gif (default) or ps. PRINT_FILES: Possible values: YES or NO (default). If YES then plots of the calibration files will be sent to printer using command specified by keyword PRINT_COMMAND:. PRINT_COMMAND: Command to print plots of calibration files. Default: "". GAP: Xlog prints a warning message if there are gaps in the data which are greater than the value of this keyword (in hours). Possible values: INTEGER greater than 0 and less equal 24. Default value: 3 GAP_START: Possible values: .TRUE. (default) or .FALSE.. If .TRUE. then Xlog prints a warning message if the difference in time (in hours) between start of experiment and first point with data is greater than the value of keyword GAP:. GAP_END: Possible values: .TRUE. (default) or .FALSE.. If .TRUE. then Xlog prints a warning message if the difference in time (in hours) between last point with data and end of experiment is greater than the value of keyword GAP:. MAX_DEL: Xlog sends a warning message if more than (MAX_DEL)% of all points with data were deleted. Possible values: INTEGER greater than 0 and less equal 100. Default value: 20 MAX_EQUAL: Xlog sends a warning message if more than (MAX_EQUAL)% of all points with data have got the same values. Possible values: INTEGER greater than 0 and less equal 100. Default value: 60

3.2   Example configuration file

############################################################################# ## ## ## Xlog configuration file for BKG Frankfurt ## ## ## ## 14-DEC-2006 ## ## ## ############################################################################# ## ## Mandatory keywords: ## # LOG_DIR: /disk1/mk5_data/log/ # CAL_DIR: /disk1/mk5_data/delog/ # CONTROL_DIR: /disk1/mk5_data/control/ # SKED_DIR: /disk1/mk5_data/log/ # MASTER_DIR: /disk1/mk5_data/master/ # URL_IVS_AUX: ftp://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbi/ivsdata/aux/ # URL_IVSCONTROL: ftp://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/vlbi/ivscontrol/ # TMP_DIR: /disk1/mk5_data/tmp/ # WGET_EXE: /usr/bin/wget # GZIP_EXE: /bin/gzip # STATIONS_FILE: /disk1/xlog/xlog/xlog_stations.txt ## ## Optional keywords: ## # LOG_DIR_LONG: YES # CAL_DIR_LONG: YES # COMPRESS_FILES: NO # EXTRACT_TSYS: NO # EXTRACT_MET: YES # EXTRACT_CABLE: YES # PLOT_DIR: NO # PLOT_FMT: gif # PRINT_FILES: NO # PRINT_COMMAND: lp -d laser3 # GAP: 5 # GAP_START: .TRUE. # GAP_END: .TRUE. # MAX_DEL: 20 # MAX_EQUAL: 60 #!

4   Installing Xlog

------------------- Firstly DiaGI should be installed. For details see: http://gemini.gsfc.nasa.gov/solve_root/help/diagi_1.hlp

5   Restrictions

--------------- 1. No more than 50 files can be processed in the same run (this is specified by parameter MNIC in file xlog.i). 2. No more than 3000 data points should be contained in the same file (this is specified by parameter MNDP in xlog.i).


Questions and comments about this guide should be sent to:

Wolfgang Schwegmann ( wolfgang.schwegmann@bkg.bund.de )


Last update: 2006.12.15