LIGOtools Package: dataviewer

This package contains the LIGO CDS Data Viewer software. It should generally be started from the Diagnostic Test Tools main menu, not from the unix command line.

Author: Hongyu Jane Ding, now maintained by Alex Ivanov
(uses Xmgr plotting package, developed by Paul Turner and others)

LIGOtools contributor: Peter Shawhan

Version 65.2

Release date: February 3, 2005

Frequently Asked Questions related to this package

Notes

This package is only available as a binary distribution for Solaris.
CDS version numbers begining with the letter G have been translated into LIGOtools version numbers by replacing the G with the numeral 6. For instance, CDS version G5.2 becomes LIGOtools version 65.2 .
Important note: Recent releases of Data Viewer, with version numbers above 60, are primarily designed to be used with the xmgrace display software. However, this LIGOtools version of Data Viewer includes only xmgr, not xmgrace. Therefore, you must select XMGR as the Plotter in the "Display" tab of the Data Viewer main window before you attempt to display any data. A little reminder to do this is printed in the terminal window which is created along with the Data Viewer main window. If you forget to do this, you will get an error message along the lines of "Could not start .../xmgrace", followed by "no grace subprocess" repeatedly until you kill the process. If you do kill the process, it leaves a "message queue" allocated which you can clear by following this recovery procedure.
Starting with version 7.0, Data Viewer is able to display DMT trend channels through the 'playback' feature.
It is generally best to start the Data Viewer from the Diagnostic Test Tools main menu, after using the "Setup" menu choice to specify the server to connect to. Data Viewer can also be started by typing dv (or dataviewer) on the unix command line, but you will need to add certain argument(s) to get it to connect to the appropriate data server. For example:
```
     dataviewer -s red.ligo-wa.caltech.edu -p 8089
```
If you use Data Viewer to look at real-time data, remember not to close the Xmgr display without first stopping the display (by pressing the "X" button in the Data Viewer window). Doing so can leave message queues allocated, which will cause problems later. If this happens, then see this recovery procedure.
There can be problems if you try to run more than one Data Viewer on the same computer at the same time. However, it seems to work OK as long as they do not try to request data at the same time.
At Hanford, the current version of Data Viewer used by the CDS computers in the control room is kept in /cvs/cds/project/daq/dv.

Documentation

Documentation about Data Viewer is available here.
Recent versions of Data Viewer include code to read frame files directly, but that feature requires linking to certain shared-object libraries and is not supported by this LIGOtools version of Data Viewer.
If Data Viewer locks up (i.e. refuses to respond to user actions and/or fails to update GUI windows when they are exposed) and restarting does not fix it, then see this recovery procedure.

Distribution files

Normally, you should use the ligotools_update utility to download and install new packages or new versions of existing packages, since it automatically figures out what packages need to be updated. However, if you wish to do so manually, then click on the name of the appropriate distribution file (below) with the right mouse button and choose "Save Link As..." from the popup menu. Note that you must save it on your disk with exactly the same name as it has on this web site. After the file has been downloaded, do:
ligotools_install <file>
where <file> is the file which was downloaded. This procedure will be quicker if the environment variable LIGOTOOLS is set to the main LIGOtools directory.

Binary distribution for Solaris: dataviewer_65.2_SunOS.tar.gz (837 kb)