S4PM 5.6.0 RELEASE NOTES

Release Date

March 28, 2005

Functional Changes

1. New Station Enable/Disable Handling - When a string is built with Stringmaker (see item 3 below), the S4PM Monitor displays all possible stations in a string. Stations not participating in a particular string are "greyed out" and are non functional.
   
   When a string is built with Stringmaster, the S4PM Monitor only shows those strings that are part of the string (same as in previous releases of S4PM).
   
   The ultimate goal is to enable or disable appropriate stations dynamically as configurations change. For example, if you decide that some data types should go into the datapool rather than the archive, a work order would be dropped into the Configurator station which would cause the Insert Datapool station to be configured and enabled.
   
   
2. New Way to Stop a Station - The tkstat GUI now offers two options for stopping a station: 'Stop' generates a work order that causes stationmaster to shut down. 'Stop Fast' kills the stationmaster process. Due to the polling cycle of a station, the 'Stop' may take several seconds whereas the 'Stop Fast' will be instantaneous.
   
   
3. The Debut of Stringmaker - This release includes Stringmaker, an eventual replacement for Stringmaster. Either Stringmaker or Stringmaster can be used to create or modify a string. Stringmaker, however, uses a new set of configuration files. Stringmaster configuration files are kept in a separate directory from Stringmaker configuration files. At the GES DAAC, Stringmaster configuration files are in $HOME/s4pm_cfg
   and Stringmaker configuration files are in $HOME/configurator.
   
   
4. Dynamic Installation of Algorithms Via S4PM Monitor - Algorithms can be added or deleted via a new GUI available from the Configurator station. This functionality is new and should therefore be considered experimental. When using this new tool, disk pools will be automatically and dynamically adjusted accordingly.
   
   NOTE: This functionality is only available for strings built with Stringmaker.
   
   NOTE: This tool assumes that the s4pm_stringmaker_datatypes.cfg (a Stringmaker configuration file) has already been updated as appropriate prior to running the tool. It also assumes that the algorithm packages contain the Stringmaker algorithm configuration file.
   
   Algorithms can still be installed without this new tool as they were in previous S4PM releases.
   

Detailed File Changes

Algorithm.pm

• Ultimate replacement for PGEConfig.pm. Needed to read in new style Select Data configuration files. If sub new() determines that the configuration file is "old" style, it passes the request onto PGEConfig.pm.

AlgorithmIO.pm

• Ultimate replacement for IOGroup.pm. Needed to read in new style Select Data configuration files.

Configurator.pm

• New module to support the Configurator station scripts.

MetFile.pm

• Fixed handling of associated sensor/instrument/platform in xml2odl routines.

PGEConfig.pm

• Added alias functions algorithm_name() for pge_name() and algorithm_version() for pge_version().

S4P::FileGroup.pm

• Changed so that S4P::FileGroup::ftp_get() returns a Net::FTP object instead of true/false (1/0). The revised argument list includes a self reference, an optional remote host name, the local directory name, an optional Net::FTP object, an optional maximum number of attempts for getting a connection, an optional time interval in seconds between attempts. As it returns a Net::FTP object, it is the caller's responsibility to send QUIT command to FTP server.

s4pm_airs_L0_check.pl

• Modified to use S4PM::Algorithm.

s4pm_convert_all_old2new_selectdata.pl

• Front end to s4pm_old2new_selectdatacfg.pl that allows the conversion of old to new Select Data configuration files to be "batched".

s4pm_derived.cfg

• Added support for $dme flag that builds a string enabled for Data Mining Edition.
• Added support for specifying the algorithm root directory (in variable $algorithm_root) if the default isn't preferred. This is actually something backported from s4pm_stringmaker_derived.cfg in order to support the Data Mining Edition.

s4pm_create_string.pl

• New script for the Stringmaster station (not to be confused with the Configurator station). The Stringmaster station was designed with the Data Mining Edition of S4PM in mind. This script in that station creates new S4PM strings. In DME, one such string will be created for each user.

s4pm_old2new_selectdatacfg.pl

• Stand-alone program that converts the old style Select Data configuration files (pre-5.6.0) into the new style Stringmaker/Select Data configuration files (5.6.0 and above).

s4pm_old2new_stringcfg.pl

• Stand-alone program that converts the old style string-specific Stringmaster configuration files (pre-5.6.0) into the new style (5.6.0 and above) Stringmaker configuration files.

s4pm_prepare_run.pl

• Modified to use S4PM::Algorithm.

s4pm_prepare_run_resync.pl

• New script for the Prepare Run station to process the new RESYNC work order.

s4pm_preprocess_order.pl

• Removed. It is no longer needed.

s4pm_preselect_data.pl

• Modified to use S4PM::Algorithm.

s4pm_regular_block.pl

• Implemented START_OF_MONTH and START_OF_AIRS_8DAY blocks.

s4pm_select_data.pl

• Modified to use S4PM::Algorithm.
• Bug fix to address problems seen with the AIRS Level 3 PGEs.
• Implemented START_OF_AIRS_8DAY production rule.

s4pm_split_services.pl

• Modified to use S4PM::Algorithm.

s4pm_string.cfg

• Added support for $dme flag that builds a string enabled for Data Mining Edition.

s4pm_stringmaker.pl

• Ultimate replacement for s4pm_stringmaster.pl. Lots of changes due to major refactoring. Refer to man page for details.

s4pm_stringmaker_algorithm.cfg

• Template for the new algorithm configuration file for s4pm_stringmaker.pl. The actual file would be named: _.cfg, for example: MoPGE02_FPROC.cfg. The file contains information that had been spread across two configuration files before: the Select Data configuration files for each algorithm and the Stringmaster s4pm_pge_esdt.cfg configuration file.

s4pm_stringmaker_datatypes.cfg

• New configuration file for s4pm_stringmaker.pl. Contains information on data types only for all strings. Similar to s4pm_pge_esdt.cfg file, but without the PGE-related stuff.

s4pm_stringmaker_derived.cfg

• New configuration file for s4pm_stringmaker.pl. Very similar to the s4pm_derived.cfg file, but updated for the refactoring.

s4pm_stringmaker_host.cfg

• Template for the new host configuration file for s4pm_stringmaker.pl. The actual file would be named: .cfg, for example: g0spg10.cfg. The file contains similar information to the s4pm_global.cfg file, but now it is recognized as a host-specific configuration file rather than a global configuration file.

s4pm_stringmaker_jobs.cfg

• Identical to the s4pm_max_children.cfg configuration file, but for s4pm_stringmaker.pl.

s4pm_stringmaker_static.cfg

• New configuration file for s4pm_stringmaker.pl. Very similar to the s4pm_static.cfg file, but updated for the refactoring.

s4pm_stringmaker_string.cfg

• Template for the new string-specific configuration files for s4pm_stringmaker.pl. Very similar to those used with s4pm_stringmaster.pl, like S4PM10_MO_RE.cfg, but modified somewhat for the new paradigm.

s4pm_tk_algorithm_info.pl

• Modified to use S4PM::Algorithm. If old style, it uses the old S4PM::PGEConfig. If new, it uses the S4PM::Algorithm instead.
• Modified so that if it cannot read one of the Select Data configuration files, the GUI still comes up but with a bright red error indicator for that algorithm. In previous releases, the tool would fail outright.

s4pm_tk_delete_data.pl

• Modified window title to "View/Delete Data" since it does function as both.

s4pm_tk_install_algorithm.pl

• New GUI for installing algorithms in S4PM.

s4pm_tk_uninstall_algorithm.pl

• New GUI for uninstalling algorithms in S4PM.

stationmaster.pl

• Changed order of processing work orders to do DO.STOP and DO.RECONFIG before processing regular job work orders.
• Changed handling of the umask.

tkstat.pl

• Changed STOP menu item to drop a DO.STOP work order, and added STOP FAST to kill the stationmaster process.