Re: PV names

[wbrown@csg.lbl.gov (Bill Brown)]

> From: kerstien@luke.atdiv.lanl.gov (Deb Kerstiens)
> Subject: PV names
 
> 
> 
> Bill writes :
> <What characters are allowable in PV names?  If there is a document that
> <spells out the restrictions, could some kind soul pas me a pointer?
> and the failing example is
>     BL09.0%PLC%BM00%EPS
> 
> The character "." is a special one in EPICS because it is used to
> separate the record name and field name.
> When dbFindRecord is called it does:
> 
>   while (*precordName && (*precordName != '.') && (lenName < PVNAME_SZ)){
> 	        *pconvName++ = *precordName++;
>         lenName++;
>     }
>  
> i.e. it's looking for the "." as the end of the record name, so that pretty much
> makes "." a character to avoid in pv names.  ":" and "_" work in names--could you
> possibly substitute one of those.  It doesn't look like anything else is illegal,
> but I wouldn't put money on it just yet. And don't forget the limitation on length.
> 
> 	Deb

We got bit trying to use multiple ":" in PV names, like
	blah:blech:arf:urp

dbLoad seemed to object - didn't chase it, just thrashed around until I
found that "%" seemed to work everywhere.

And no, I didn't dream up the convention.  But the "period" thing looks
like it's gonna get ugly, locally speaking.......

-bill