Doing Accelerator Physics Using SDDS, UNIX, and EPICS

M. Borland, L. Emery, N. Sereno
Argonne National Laboratory

The use of SDDS-compliant data collection and processing, together with the UNIX operating system and the EPICS controls system, has proved remarkably powerful during the commissioning of the APS accelerator complex. The SDDS (Self-Describing Data Sets) file protocol has permitted a tool-oriented approach to developing applications, wherein generic programs are written that function as part of several applications. While EPICS-specific tools were written for data collection, automated experiment execution, closed-loop control, and so forth, data processing and display is done with the SDDS toolkit. Experiments are implemented as UNIX shell scripts that coordinate the execution of EPICS-specific tools and SDDS tools. Because of the power and generic nature of the individual tools and of the UNIX shell enviroment, new automated experiments can be performed rapidly in response to unanticipated needs or new ideas. Examples are given of application of this methodology to klystron characterization, linac bunch length measurements, and quadrupole offset measurements.