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mctrl(1) - animation progress scrollbar

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Name

mctrl - animation progress scrollbar

Synopsis

mctrl [ -r ] [ -m mcastid ] [ -t title ]
mctrlsrv
mctrl -exit

Description

mctrl `animates' a scrollbar that allows to control other `connected' animation viewers like anifsm(1), aniwait(1), mscviewer(1), and also xtorx(1). After start up, mctrl connects to the given mcast(1) session, creates a window (with the given title) containing a scrollbar, and waits for animation step commands on the mcast connection. It reads step numbers (integers, one per line) on its standard input, and uses them to update the scrollbar. The mcastid will usually be of the form tcp!hostname!portnumber like tcp!localhost!3456. On end of file on standard input, mctrl waits for the user to remove the window (or press the Quit button), after which it exits.

Actually, mctrl is a shell-level command that uses a running mctrlsrv to create or reuse a scrollbar window, and animate it using animation commands received over the mcast connection. The connection between mctrl and a running mctrlsrv will not be closed until the complete standard input of the mctrl command has been processed by mctrlsrv. If mctrl cannot find a running mctrlsrv, it will start a new one. In general, it should not be necessary to start mctrlsrv by hand. However, if startup time of mctrl is an issue, it may be advantageous to start mctrlsrv (by hand) in advance, because a starting mctrlsrv may spend some time to check if another mctrlsrv is already running.

To display a new scrollbar, mctrlsrv will reuse windows that contain a completed animation and have the Reuse toggle activated. If more windows are needed, they are created.

The -r command line option of mctrl will activate the Reuse toggle button for the mctrl window.

The animation in the window will follow the step numbers read from standard input and the animation commands read from the mcast connection. The animation can be be done manually using the scrollbar, and/or with the Step up and down arrow buttons (as discussed below).

As stated above, the animation can be remotely controlled. Using the -m mcastid command line option, if given, or environment variable TORXMCASTID if set, mctrl will attempt to make a remote control connection to the tcp address in mcastid. (If neither -m mcastid is given nor TORXMCASTID if set, mctrl will exit with a usage message.) If it succeeds, it will then interpret lines of text read from the remote control connection consisting of a single number as commands to show the corresponding step in the animation. Additionally, whenever the user uses the scrollbar and/or navigation commands to show a different step, its step number is written to the remote control connection. The remote control connection allows multiple viewers to show the same test step.

To stop a running mctrlsrv, invoke mctrl with the -exit command line option.

Buttons

At the bottom of an mctrl window there are several buttons. The step number of the animation step in the trace is shown in the Step field. Step numbers start at 0, for the initial state. To visualize the animation step for a known step, enter the step number in the Step entry field, and hit the return key. If a step number is present in the Step field, the down and up arrow buttons can be used to step backwards resp. forwards in the animation.
The 'media player control buttons' can be used to go to the beginning or end of the animation, to (re)play the animation backwards or forwards with a given delay between the steps, and to stop or pause a playing animation. The delay between the steps in an animation is given in the Delay entry field (in seconds). To change the delay, enter a positive real number in the Delay entry field, and hit the return key, or use the up and down arrow buttons next to the entry field. If the Loop toggle button is set when a playing animation reaches the beginning (when playing backwards) or the end (when playing forwards) of the animation, the animation will 'wrap around' and restart at the end resp. beginning.
The Reuse toggle button indicates that its window may be reused for a new animation, when end-of-input has been seen for the animation currently displayed in it. While an animation is in progress (so, when end-of-input has not yet been seen) the Reuse button is disabled. (default value: unset, except when overridden by a -r command line option of mctrl).
The Close button closes the window, and, if this was the last remaining mctrl window, exits the progam.
The Quit button closes all mctrl windows and exits the progam.

Diagnostics

Error messages and navigation diagnostics appear on standard error.

Bugs

The environment variable TORX_ROOT is not supported.

It should be possible to replay an animation or torx-log(4) using the timing information present in the original animation or log (i.e. use the same time between the steps as during the original test run).

A more appropriate name might be anictrl.

See Also

torx-intro(1), torx-logclient(1), tmcs(1), anifsm(1), aniwait(1), mscviewer(1), xtorx(1), environ(5)

Contact

By Email: <torx_support@cs.utwente.nl>

Version

This manual page documents version 3.9.0 of torx.

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Appendix D: TorX Manual Pages: m4mkprimer(1) - preprocess input with m4 before invoking mkprimer Valid HTML 4.01! Appendix D: TorX Manual Pages: mctrlsrv(1)