Mantis

Mantis is the data-acquisition software package for the Project 8 collaboration.

The main component of Mantis is the server, which runs any number of data-acquisition devices. The server is controlled remotely by a client. The Mantis package includes a client, but other clients can also be used (e.g. Dripline). The AMQP protocol is used for communication between the client and server.

Mantis can be extended to control a variety of data-acquisition devices. The devices that are or have been supported include:

• National Instruments PXIe5122 (current)
• ROACH1 (incomplete)
• Signatec PX1500 (past)
• Signatec PX14400 (past)
• Keysight U1084A (past; incomplete)

Two software-based test digitizers are also included with Mantis.

Dependencies

External

• CMake (3.0 or better)
• Boost (atomic, chrono*, system*, uuid; 1.46 or better)
• HDF5*
• pthread**
• rabbitmq-c*
• Drivers for any devices that will be used

* dependency via a submodule ** not required in Windows

Submodules (included with Mantis; must be fetched via Git)

• Monarch (and its submodule, libthorax)
• SimpleAmqpClient
• Scarab

Distributed Code (included with Mantis directly)

• RapidJSON
• msgpack-c

Operating System Support

• Mac OS X (usually tested on OS X 10.10)
• Linux (usually tested on Debian Wheezy)
• Windows (usually tested on Windows 7)

Installing

Mantis is installed using CMake (version 3.0 or better). We recommend an out-of-source build:

  >  mkdir build
  >  cd build

To configure the installation you can use cmake, ccmake, or cmake-gui. To build the server executable, enable Mantis_BUILD_SERVER. Two test digitizers are automatically included.

To build and install:

  >  make
  >  make install

The install prefix is specified by the CMake variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX. The library, binaries, and header files will be installed in the lib, bin, and include subdirectories. The default install prefix is the build directory.

Instructions for Use

The server is typically started with:

  > mantis_server amqp.broker=my.server

The formula for running the client is:

  > mantis_client [client options] do=[verb] dest=[queue].[mantis destination] [instruction options]

For more detailed instructions on running the client, please see the Client Manual

Documentation

Hosted at: http://www.project8.org/mantis

Development

The Git workflow used is git-flow:

• http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/ We suggest that you use the aptly-named git extension, git-flow, which is available from commonly-used package managers:
• https://github.com/nvie/gitflow