PvMail

Watches an EPICS PV and sends email when value changes from 0 to 1.

author:Pete R. Jemian
email:jemian@anl.gov
copyright:2009-2017, UChicago Argonne, LLC
license:ANL OPEN SOURCE LICENSE (see LICENSE)
docs:http://PvMail.readthedocs.io
git:https://github.com/prjemian/pvMail
PyPI:https://pypi.python.org/pypi/PvMail
version:3.2.8
release:0.gc9f879d.dirty
published:May 21, 2019

Note

While PvMail is the name of the Python package, the executable installed in <python>/bin is called pvMail using a command line such as:

[user@host,518,~]$ pvMail

PvMail watches (monitor) an EPICS PV and send an email when the value of that PV changes from 0 to 1.

The PV being watched (that triggers the sending of the email) can be any EPICS record type or field that results in a value of 0 (zero) that changes to 1 (one). This includes these EPICS records (and possibly more): ai, ao, bi, bo, calcout, scalcout, swait, …

When an event causes an email to be triggered, PvMail will retrieve the value of another PV that is the first part of the message to be sent. Additional metadata will be appended to the message.

Note

Email is sent using either a call to a configured SMTP server or the sendmail program on the native OS. The sendmail protocol is only supported on Linux systems that provide a sendmail program. The SMTP protocol is more general but requires valid credentials on the SMTP server and the credentials must be stored in a local configuration file.

PvMail provides either a command-line interface or a graphical user interface. Both are accessed from the same command, using different command-line options. The command-line version is intended to run as a background program, it has no user interaction but logs all its output into a log file. The GUI version provides a screen to edit each of the parameters before the background process is started. It also provides buttons to start and stop the background process.