Command line tools

This page lists the executables installed by the sardana package and the subcommands of the sardanactl umbrella command.

Device servers

Each server takes the Tango device server instance name as its only positional argument:

Sardana <instance_name> [options]

Command	Description
Sardana	Runs a Pool and a MacroServer in a single Tango device server process.
Pool	Runs a Pool Tango device server.
MacroServer	Runs a MacroServer Tango device server.

If the instance name is omitted, the server asks for it interactively. If the instance is not registered in the Tango database yet, the server offers to create it and registers the corresponding devices: a Pool device for Pool, a MacroServer and a Door device for MacroServer (also asking which Pools to connect to) and all three for Sardana.

Apart from the standard Tango device server options (-nodb, -dlist, -v<level>, -ORB*…), the three servers accept:

--log-level=LOG_LEVEL

Log output level, one of critical (or 0), error (1), warning (2), info (3), debug (4), trace (5). Default: warning.

--log-file-level=LOG_FILE_LEVEL

Log file level, same choices as above. Default: debug. Ignored if --without-log-file is set.

--log-file-name=LOG_FILE_NAME

Absolute log file name. Default: /tmp/tango-<user name>/<DS name>/<DS instance name lower case>/log.txt. Ignored if --without-log-file is set.

--without-log-file=VALUE

Disables logging into a file. Default: False (the file log is enabled).

Warning

Despite its name and its --help text, this is not a boolean flag: it requires a value, and any non-empty value disables the file log – including --without-log-file=False. Pass it only when you actually want the file log off.

Command line client

spock

IPython-based command line interface for executing macros and general control. It accepts IPython options, notably --profile=<name> to select the profile (and thus the Door) to use. See Spock. Requires the spock extra dependencies.

The sardanactl command

sardanactl is the umbrella command of Sardana. It accepts:

--log-level=[critical|error|warning|info|debug|trace]

Show only logs with priority LEVEL or above. Default: error.

--version

Print the Sardana version and exit.

Subcommands are not hardcoded: they are discovered at runtime from the sardana.cli.subcommands setuptools entry point group, so any installed package may contribute one. A subcommand that fails to load is skipped with a warning instead of aborting the command. Run sardanactl --help to list the subcommands actually installed.

The subcommands registered by this package are:

Subcommand	Description
sardanactl expconf [DOOR]	GUI for configuring experiments: measurement groups, snapshot group and data storage. See Experiment Configuration user interface.
sardanactl expstatus [DOOR_NAME]	GUI showing the elements reserved by a running macro, allowing to stop them if they are stuck. -a/--all shows all elements instead of only the ones currently being used. See Experiment Status user interface.
sardanactl macroexecutor [DOOR]	GUI for executing macros, with parameter editors, history and favourites. See MacroExecutor User’s Interface.
sardanactl sequencer [DOOR]	GUI for executing macro sequences. -f/--file loads a sequence from a file (XML or spock syntax). See Sequencer.
sardanactl showscan DOOR	GUI for online plotting of scan data. --group=single|x-axis (default x-axis) selects the plot organization and --taurus-log-level the Taurus log level (default error). See Showscan online.
sardanactl spock	Same command line client as the spock executable above.

All of them except sardanactl spock require the qt extra dependencies.

Note

sardanactl config, the YAML-based configuration tool, is contributed by the separately distributed sardana-config package and therefore does not appear in this repository’s entry points. See Sardana configuration and Installation.

Standalone Qt applications

These executables require the qt extra dependencies.

Command	Description
diffractometeralignment <model> [door_name]	Diffractometer alignment: h, k, l movements and scans, go to maximum… model is a diffractometer controller.
hklscan <model> [door_name]	Performs hkl scans. model is a diffractometer controller.
ubmatrix <model>	Sets diffractometer parameters: ub matrix, lattice, reflections… model is a diffractometer controller.
macroexecutor [options]	Deprecated since 3.4.0, use sardanactl macroexecutor.
sequencer [options]	Deprecated since 3.4.0, use sardanactl sequencer.
showscan DOOR	Deprecated since 3.4.0, use sardanactl showscan.

Optional dependencies

Some tools are only usable if the corresponding extra requirements are installed:

Extra	Needed by
spock	spock and sardanactl spock.
qt	all sardanactl subcommands except spock, and all the standalone Qt applications.
all	both of the above.

Install them with e.g. pip install "sardana[all]", see Installation.