EPICS Base

This is the main core of EPICS, comprising the build system and tools, common and OS-interface libraries, network protocol client and server libraries, static and run-time database access routines, the database processing code, and standard record, device and driver support.

Unless you are an experienced EPICS user and/or developer, it is highly recommended to start by downloading the bundles from the above links. The bundles contain all that is needed to get started. But of course, you can also download the development versions from the repositories using the links below. The source code for all release branches of Base can be obtained using git by cloning the URL https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base.git. Note that the 7.0 series uses git submodules, so you need to include the –recursive flag.

Latest

git clone --recursive -b 7.0 https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base.git base-7.0

Legacy (3.15)

git clone -b 3.15 https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base.git

Versions

Version Numbering

The EPICS Version numbering system has evolved over the years so older version numbers may not mean quite the same thing as more recent ones, but any version with a zero component in the number such as 3.15.0.1 was a developer release and should not be used for production systems. The first release in the 3.15 series that qualified for production use was version 3.15.1.

Base Downloads

Downloads for EPICS point releases can be found in the EPICS Base Download Area.

Code Management

The EPICS Base source code is being managed using the Git version control software, hosted on Canonical’s Launchpad.net. We also use Launchpad for bug tracking, and to a lesser extent for planning new features. A mirror of the code repository is also available on Github, but please do not file bug reports (issues) or pull requests to that repository.

Bug and Vulnerability Reporting

Bugs discovered in EPICS Base can be reported via email to the tech-talk mailing list or can be filed directly into the Launchpad bug tracker. Private reporting of a security vulnerability can be achieved by filing a “Private Security” issue through the Launchpad bug tracker.

Contributing

Contributions to EPICS Base are welcome, and can be accepted using Launchpad’s code review, or by sending patches to the core-talk mailing list. Some hints on getting started can be found on these wiki pages. Potential contributors should understand the implications of code portability to the different operating systems that we have to support, and are advised to discuss significant developments with the core development team before starting to work to avoid duplication or wasted effort.

Operating System Hints

If you are using vxWorks 6.x, look at the vxWorks 6.x page for help on configuring and patching vxWorks for use with EPICS. The Tornado page provides help for vxWorks 5.x/Tornado 2 users. Look at the Tornado 2.2 and Linux page for building vxWorks 5.5 code on a Linux host. The Power PC page was written for sites upgrading from MC680x0 CPUs. The RTEMS page provides some pointers to information about the host and target support available for that operating system. Several EPICS sites are now working seriously with this operating system. Eric Norum’s Getting started with EPICS on RTEMS tutorial provides a step by step guide for newcomers. The MS Windows page gives pointers to the different tools and compilers both commercial and free (as in beer) that are used to build EPICS on Microsoft Windows systems.

Development Statistics

BlackDuck Software’s Open Hub website provides a separate set of development statistics for each release branch of Base:

• EPICS 7
• Base-3.16
• Base-3.15
• Base-3.14
• Base-3.13