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The current handler accepts the format as described in EDOC073.
There exists offline tape and disc versions, and online sort-spy and TapeServer-spy versions.
All versions accept block lengths of 16k, 32k or 64k.

Eurogam Tape handler ... input and output


The tape uses ANSI format. It should only be necessary to investigate this format if tape reading problems arise.

Eurogam Disc handler ... input and output


Automatic de-compression on input is performed for
(a) compressed files written by the DiscCompressed output handler.
(b) standard gzip compressed files.

Eurogam DiscgzCompressed handler .. output only


The data is compressed using the gzip algorithm to create a disc file that is compatible with g(un)zip, and for input to the Eurogam handler.

Eurogam DiscCompressed handler .. output only


The data is compressed block-by-block for safety, although losing some compression performance, using the Range Encoder Algorithm. This is a fast Arithmetic Compression algorithm variant.

Eurogam OnlineTS handler .. input only


Data blocks are retrieved from a locally running Tape server, on a best-efforts basis. There is no interlocking of blocks and hence at high rates, some data blocks may be skipped.

The sort program must be re-started, at present, if the local Tape Server is re-started.

Eurogam RemoteTS handler .. input only


Data blocks are retrieved from a remote running Tape server, on a best-efforts basis. There is no interlocking of blocks and hence at high rates, some data blocks may be skipped.

Requires the running of the TapeServer relay task, which may be obtained from the MIDAS web site.

This handler accepts any blocks arriving on port 10305, and is not affected by the remote relay task stopping or starting.

Eurogam Online (network spy) handler .. input only


Use of this handler is not recommended when spying on tcp packets. The OnlineTS handler is preferred in this case.
Data blocks are retrieved from the network as they pass from Event Builder to Tape server, on a best-efforts basis. There is no interlocking of blocks and hence at high rates, some data blocks may be skipped.

Requires a sort-spy daemon running as root. The data blocks are then shared with the sort program via a memory-mapped file.

/MIDAS/MTsort/bin_Linux/sort-spy device event-builder-host tcp/udp nstreams

for example ...

/MIDAS/MTsort/bin_Linux/sort-spy eth1 ppdata_eb tcp 1 &

Tape file details

The runfile details to be provided for the input handler for tape sorts should be of the form ...

TAPE1 RUN3
TAPE1 RUN4
TAPE2 RUN5
etc.
The first word on each line (tape volume name field) is the ANSI volume name of the tape. Tapes are expected to have unique volume names, as a name change in this field provokes a tape change.
The second field (tape file name) is checked against the ANSI file header.


Maintained by Janet Sampson and John Cresswell (University of Liverpool)
Email to support@ns.ph.liv.ac.uk