Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Andrew Johnson via Core-talk <core-talk at aps.anl.gov> · Sat, 10 Feb 2024 00:52:13 -0000

Hi Dirk, I know we probably haven’t changed the instructions somewhere
(feel free to point out where if you know), but other than the emails
that Launchpad sends out we don’t often look at bug reports on Launchpad
now, please file new bugs EPICS Base on GitHub instead of here.

I saw this exact same issue myself a few weeks ago so I agree that it’s
a bug that has a fairly easy fix (remove the conditional check and
always call the macLib expansion routine). If you’d like to post a PR on
GitHub that would be great; I might get around to it at some point
if/when I look at the bugs here, but it’s a lower priority for me than
my APS Upgrade project work, so I’d welcome your help.

Thanks,

- Andrew

** Changed in: epics-base
       Status: New => Confirmed

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of EPICS
Core Developers, which is subscribed to EPICS Base.
Matching subscriptions: epics-core-list-subscription
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2052814

Title:
  dbLoadRecords with subs=NULL fails to expand macros with defaults

Status in EPICS Base:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  A template file that only contains macros with default values can be
  loaded with `dbLoadRecords("file.db","")` but not with
  `dbLoadRecords("file.db",NULL)`. In particular, in the startup script,
  it cannot be loaded with `dbLoadRecords "file.db"` but only with
  `dbLoadRecords "file.db",""`. (VxWorks shell as well as iocsh.)

  Using such a macro in a record name results in the error message:
  ERROR: Bad character '$' in Record/Alias name "$(P=)Name"

  Using macros with defaults in fields shows error messages like this:
  ERRORName.PREC Has unexpanded macro
  Can't set "Name.PREC" to "$(PREC=3)"  : Bad Field value
  ERRORERROR failed to load 'file.db'

  (Unrelated: Someone please fix the missing blanks after ERROR and the
  ERRORERROR.)

  The reason is that `dbReadCOM`, the function that does the real work,
  only creates a `macHandle` when `substitutions` is not `NULL`. Not
  having a `macHandle` prevents any macro substitution from working,
  even those which provide a default value.

  In the old times, when macros could not have defaults, this was fine,
  but not any more. A macro handle should always be created, even if it
  stays empty when `substitutions` is `NULL`.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/epics-base/+bug/2052814/+subscriptions

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System