coreflightexec Files

Core Flight Executive Open Source Release Readme

cFE Release 6.4.0

Date: 
September 30, 2014

Introduction:
 The Core Flight Executive is a portable, platform independent embedded system 
 framework developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This framework is 
 used as the basis for the flight software for satellite data systems and 
 instruments, but can be used on other embedded systems. 
 The Core Flight Executive is written in C and depends on another software
 library called the Operating System Abstraction Layer (OSAL). The OSAL
 is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/osal/ 
 and github.com/nasa/osal

 This software is licensed under the NASA Open Source Agreement. 
 http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/opensource/nosa

 The Core Flight Executive consists of the following subsystems:
  - Executive Services - initializes and controls applications
  - Software Bus - A publish and subscribe messaging system based
                   on CCSDS command and telemetry packets
  - Time Services - Manages system time
  - Event Services - Event reporting and logging services for applications
  - Table Services - Data/parameter load and update services for applications  

 The Core Flight Executive is intended to host a suite of applications
 and libraries. The applications and libraries are not included in this 
 distribution. A sample library and sample application are included to 
 help verify that the build and runtime are configured correctly. 
 
Software Included:
 Core Flight Executive ( cFE ) 6.4.0
 Platform Support Package 
 Core Flight System Mission Build system 

 Applications:
    Sample Library -- an example of a CFS library
    Sample App -- an example of a CFS application
    CI_LAB -- A test application to send CCSDS Command packets to 
             the system over UDP/IP
    TO_LAB -- A test application to subscribe to and send CCSDS 
              telemetry packets over UDP/IP
    SCH_LAB -- A test application to schedule housekeeping 
               packet collection.

 Simple Command and Telemetry utilities

    The command and telemetry utilities provide a basic ground system 
    for desktop testing via UDP/IP connections to ci_lab and to_lab. 
    The utilities use python 2.x and the QT 4.x GUI libraries. The forms 
    were designed in the QT4 designer program. The python bindings used are the PyQT4
    bindings. On Ubuntu 12.04 LTS for example: use the following command to install the 
    software needed to run the utilities:
    $ sudo apt-get install python-qt4 pyqt4-dev-tools
    
    cmdUtil -- A simple command line utility to format and send CCSDS command over
               UDP/IP to the CI_LAB application. Located in cfe/tools/cmdUtil.
               Before using cmdGui, run "make" in this directory to build the 
               cmdUtil binary.

    cmdGUI -   A simple python/QT4 based utility that allows you to define and 
               send commands using the cmdUtil program. 
               cmdGui is started by running:
               $ python ./CommandSystem.py

    tlmUtil -- A simple python/QT4 based utility that allows you to define and
               display telemetry received from the TO_LAB application.
               tlmUtil is started by running: 
               $ python ./TelemetrySystem.py 
 
Software Required:

 Operating System Abstraction Layer 4.1.1 or higher
    Can be obtained at http://sourceforge.net/projects/osal
     or github.com/nasa/osal

 Supported Build and Runtime Environment:

 Build Environment Supported:
  This software is built on CentOS/RHEL 6.x x86 ( 32 bit ) 
 
  It should be possible to build on other recent linux distributions
  ( Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE, etc ). It should also build and run
  as a 32 bit application on a 64 bit system.  
  This release was compiled on CentOS 6.5-x86, CentOS-7.0-x64, 
  Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x86, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS x64. 
  Note: On Ubuntu 14.04, the cFE unit tests do not work due to 
        differences in the GCC compiler. 

  It should be possible to build on Windows and Mac OS X, but is
    not currently tested. The platform support packages (psp) for
    mac-osx and pc-cygwin are out of date and will probably not 
    work. 

Runtime Targets Supported:
   The "out of the box" targets in this distribution include:
     1. 32 bit x86 Linux ( CentOS 6.x )
     2. Motorola MCP750 PowerPC vxWorks 6.4

Other targets: 
    Other targets are included, but may take additional work to
    run. They are included as examples of other target 
    environments.
    1. mcf5235-rtems - This is for the Axiom MCF5235 Coldfire board running
                       RTEMS 4.10. It requires a static loader component for the
                       OS abstraction layer. The static loader is currently
                       not available as open source, so this target is not
                       considered complete. RTEMS 4.11 will have a dynamic
                       loader which will be supported by a future release
                       of the OS Abstraction Layer, completing the RTEMS support
                       for the cFE.
          
                       Once RTEMS 4.11 is released, the goal is to support
                       an RTEMS simulator platform such as SPARC/sis or 
                       quemu.

    2. mac-osx and pc-cygwin - These targets are included for examples. They
                       will most likely be removed in the future. 
                       The pc-linux target is highly recommended. If you 
                       have a windows or mac computer it is relatively easy to 
                       set up a free virtual machine environment with 32 bit 
                       Cent OS 5.x.

Quick start:
  The following assumes you are in a CentOS/RHEL terminal. The cFE distribution
  file is in a directory called "Projects". 

  Unpack the cFE distribution

  [cfe@localhost ~]$ cd Projects
  [cfe@localhost Projects]$ tar -zxf cFE-6.4.0-OSS-release.tar.gz
  [cfe@localhost Projects]$ cd cFE-6.4.0-OSS-release

  Unpack the OSAL distribution ( obtain from sources above )
  Assuming the file is in your Projects directory
  ( example: /home/acudmore/Projects/osal-4.1.1-release.tar.gz)

  [cfe@localhost cFE-6.4.0-OSS-release]$ tar -zxf ../Projects/osal-4.1.1-release.tar.gz
  [cfe@localhost cFE-6.4.0-OSS-release]$ mv osal-4.1.1-release osal

  Build the cFE source code

  NOTE: In the first command, make sure you enter a '.' then a space 
        then './setvars.sh' !!!
        ( see the bash command "source" )

  [cfe@localhost cFE-6.4.0-OSS-release]$ . ./setvars.sh
  [cfe@localhost cFE-6.4.0-OSS-release]$ cd build
  [cfe@localhost build]$ cd cpu1 
   ( Note: cpu1 is configured for the pc-linux target ) 
  [cfe@localhost pc-linux]$ make config
   ( Note: this copies all of the needed configuration make and header files ) 
  [cfe@localhost pc-linux]$ make     
   ( Note: this builds the OSAL, cFE, and apps ) 

  When the build completes, the cFE core executable that runs on on CentOS is i
  in the exe directory. It can be run by doing the following:
   
  [cfe@localhost cpu1]$ cd exe
  [cfe@localhost exe]$ ./core-linux.bin 

  At this point, the linux version of the cFE will start running. Note that the 
  OSAL uses POSIX message queues to implement the inter-task communication 
  queues.
  The cFE by default needs a larger "msg_max" parameter in linux to run. There 
  are two solutions to this problem:
    1. increase the /proc/sys/fs/mqueue/msg_max parameter 
    2. run the cFE core as root
       [cfe@localhost exe]$ su
       ( type in root password )
       [cfe@localhost exe]# ./core-linux.bin

  Root/sudo is also required to enable the linux real time scheduler for
  more accurate priorty control. 

  With the cFE starting, it should initialize, then read the cFE startup 
  script and load the library and applications.  
  New applications can be added by editing the cfe_es_startup.scr file.
  Stop the cFE and all applications by hitting control-c in the terminal

  When the cFE and CFS applications are running, you can start the 
  CommandSystem.py and TelemetrySystem.py and try some simple commanding. 
 
Where to find more info:
  There is much more information that is beyond the scope of a readme file.

  The current documents can be found in the following directories:
  cFE-6.1.1-OSS-release/docs
  cFE-6.1.1-OSS-release/osal/docs ( once the OSAL is installed )
  cFE-6.1.1-OSS-release/cfe/docs

  cFE-6.1.1-OSS-release/cfe/docs/doxygen/index.html -- a good place to start
         for the cFE