synApps

This page is the home of synApps. synApps is a collection of software tools that help to create a control system for beamlines. It contains beamline-control and data-acquisition components for an EPICS based control system. synApps is distributed under the EPICS Open license.

Please email any comments and bug reports to Tim Mooney who is responsible for coordinating releases.
Where to find it

You can download the software from the links in the table.
Included Modules

SynApps includes the following modules. Follow the links to find information on a specific module.
Installation and Building of synApps

After obtaining a copy of the distribution, it must be installed and built for use at your site. These steps only need to be performed once for the site (unless versions of the module running under different releases of EPICS and/or the other required modules are needed).

  1. Create an installation directory for synApps, usually this will end with
    • .../synApps/
  2. Place the distribution file in this directory. Then issue the commands (Unix style)
    • gunzip <file>.tar.gz
    • tar xvf <file>.tar
  3. This creates a synApps installation.
    • .../synApps_X_Y/support/...
    • where X-Y is the release. For example.
    • .../synApps_5_6/support/...
  4. Edit the synApps_X_Y/support/configure/RELEASE file, and any SUPPORT.<arch> and EPICS_BASE.<arch> files in that directory that specify architectures you will build, to set the paths to your installation of EPICS base and the synApps support directory. Run 'gnumake release' in the support directory to propagate the content of RELEASE to the modules.
  5. Run gnumake in the synApps_X_Y/support directory and check for any compilation errors.
  6. See support/documentation/synApps.html for more detailed instructions, including required tools. Note that synApps 5.6 is newly dependent on the most recent version of msi (to build the softGlue module).
Documentation

The following documentation is available:
In Use

This software was originally developed by many people at APS and elsewhere. synApps is in use at the following sites:

  • APS
  • BESSY
  • SLS
  • NSLS
  • Diamond
  • Cosylab
  • ASRP
  • CHESS