topic Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target in Actor Framework Discussions

Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 17:33:08 GMT

Hello all,

Thought this might be the best place to go for some advice. I have a large application for a PXI-RT target that utilizes AF heavily. I have unfortunately been a bad developer and have not been building my application as I go along and have now hit a wall with the exe. I am able to build the application with no errors but the exe is broken on the target (checked this by debugging the application). It appears that every VI that has some aspect of the Actor.lvclass (such as Launch Actor Core) is broken. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Anything that I should be looking at? One other thing to note is that this application uses a web service to ship data between the client and the server.

Cheers, cirrus

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

justACS — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 17:52:04 GMT

Here is something you might consider.

Executables don't have access to items vi.lib, unless those items are statically linked to the VIs included in your build. Many components of Actor.lvclass only get loaded at run time. Try including actoframework.lvlib in the build spec.

By the same token, the actor core VIs of any actor you build are also loaded dynamically, so be sure to include any of that code as well.

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 18:34:32 GMT

Hmmmm... will add the reference to the AF lib, but nothing is necessarily dynamic about the loading of the actors in the application. For instance, if I have a top level actor called "Controller", this actor will explicitly launch nested actors directly (i.e. the icon for the actor is laid down on the diagram and pumped into the VI Launch Nested Actor). It would seem to me that the only time you would have issues is if you load the actor via a call using something like Get LV Class Default Value where the reference to the object is simply a path, no? Or maybe I am missing something here?

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

justACS — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 18:42:21 GMT

That's a good point. Cube dropping an actor on the block diagram should pull in everything in that class, and everything to which it statically links. But it's easy to miss something. As I said, it's something to look at.

Also, since there is an inheritance relationship, if *any* actor is broken, all actors will be broken, including Actor.lvclass. So perhaps the issue is with one of the other actors?

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 19:01:27 GMT

Sigh...that is a possibility. The problem is that none is broken in development, just in the run time environment. And to pile on, the error list indicates that nothing is broken despite the broken arrow. Ugh.

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

justACS — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 19:07:22 GMT

Oof. I feel your pain. Can you strip down your RT application, i.e. remove subsystems until you get a build that loads and runs, and then replace them until you find the failure point?

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 20:04:51 GMT

That's a good idea; have done that before and will do that in this case...this does seem to be the best way to approach this.

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 03:43:59 GMT

OK...so the real problem with this approach is that it drags in the other actors because they are explicitly called even if they are never launched. Trying to build a launcher for the individual actors doesn't seem to do any good as they stop at pre-launch when certain parameters are not met. Building a test harness for this case will require some significant work. Is there something else I may be missing? Logs, maybe, that might explain why the build succeeded but the actual run failed? This is incredibly frustrating.

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

justACS — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 22:10:33 GMT

OK, if you build a launcher for the individual actors, but you error our in Pre Launch Init, that strongly implies that the actor in question has loaded unbroken into memory. You have launched Actor.vi for that actor, and Actor Core.vi is statically linked to Actor.vi (it is dynamic dispatch, but it should have loaded with the rest of the class). If Actor Core.vi was broken, Launch Actor would return an Error 1003.

Your test harnesses don't have to be complex in this case - just launch the actor and immediately send it a Stop message. If you error out, great, that actor - and its nested actors - are not loading broken. If the test harness won't run because its broken, then the problem is with that nested actor or one of its nesteds.

Just to clarify: your EXE loads broken, correct? It doesn't load, run, and immediately exit?

Also, how many actors do you have in this system?

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

JohannesM — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 04:27:38 GMT

What is the console output? You said you found it by debugging?

I once run into a similar problem with extremly_long_file_names. Using af tends to long filenames also. Doesn't necessarily have to do anything with af itself.

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 04:41:09 GMT

So the problem is that the debugger doesn't even launch so I am not exactly sure what is happening. Can't see errors, etc. etc. I thought there was a wait on debugger option, but I can't seem to find it.

Just to clarify: your EXE loads broken, correct? It doesn't load, run, and immediately exit?

And yes, the EXE loads broken, i.e. when attaching a debug session the top level VI the run arrow is broken.

Also, how many actors do you have in this system?

Lots. Depends on the configuration.

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 04:41:32 GMT

Can you give an example?

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 05:01:57 GMT

So, digging through the log file, it is not clear to me that it has pulled everything in. For instance, I have the NI VI 'Get Terminal Name with Device Prefix.vi' and I can not find this anywhere in the log despite it explicitly being in the dependencies. Any thoughts on this? Is there a possibility that the exe could build but not have everything it needs to run? Seems odd to me.

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 05:27:14 GMT

Ugh...attempting to debug this is almost untennable. I have tried to bring to the front the issue of web services and deployment to AEs, but they have stated that the front panels opening on deployment (and apparently when debugging an rtexe) is normal. And it just gets worse on the rtexe as these things take even longer to pop up (in this build, I have not included the web service so I am not even sure why they are there)...

Anyways, AF messages are not broken but it appears that anything inherited or containing Actor type stuff is broken.

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

justACS — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 17:50:45 GMT

I think you're missing a dependency. It's worth looking for what calls Get Terminal Name with Device Prefix.vi and making sure it gets loaded.

At any rate, I think this issue has outgrown the forums. I am looping in some additional resources to help, and I will PM you with my e-mail address so we can work more easily.

We'll post back here when we have a resolution.

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

BrianGShea@NGC — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 13:24:56 GMT

cirrusio,

I feel your pain, I have been though your exact issue(s) before, and i cannot offer any direct fixes, but i an offer a few things to look for:

1) Try clearing compile cache and rebuilding the executable. Sometime things get a bit mixed up and need to get refreshed.

2) Don't use the arrows on text labels. There was a bug with them that caused me much heart ache. It may have been fixed but I would just steer clear for a few more versions of LabVIEW

3) Follow niACS instructions. He is very knowagable of the subject and had assisted me.

4) If you not using AF from 2015 or newer you may be running into an existing bug that's been fixed in the Launch Actor process. I only mention this because I didn't see a specific LabVIEW version stated.

5) If you are using LVLIBP's make sure you have them deployed in the same folder structure as they are used on the development system.

6) Does the application run interactivly? If so, it probably a dependancy issue. Sometimes things need to be expliciatly included.

I would strip down until you have a running App, then add back in other actors. By running, I mean it executes without being broken.

If you can post the debug window contents after the app launches, that would be most usefull. Theres a debug terminal (i belive the one niACS is refering to). I had just put that in my startup folder to launch when ever i logged in. Very useful to know what's going on.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Brian

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 15:30:10 GMT

So, I am currently about on the back channel with Allen et al. and will report back if we make any forward progress. But, thanks for your response Brian and to answer some of your questions/points above:

1) Try clearing compile cache and rebuilding the executable. Sometime things get a bit mixed up and need to get refreshed.

This has become an unfortunate step in the development process for me. It took me forever to figure out that when running in the development environment, if I got errors on deployment I need to clear this cache and restart. This ought to be fixed by NI or at the very least documented because it is a hard earned bit of knowledge for everyone dealing with large projects on RT.

That being said, this is not in the development environment but rather in the RTE.

2) Don't use the arrows on text labels. There was a bug with them that caused me much heart ache. It may have been fixed but I would just steer clear for a few more versions of LabVIEW

Not sure what this means. As this is RT, there are no front panels so no text labels. But maybe I am missing something?

3) Follow niACS instructions. He is very knowagable of the subject and had assisted me.

Yup.

4) If you not using AF from 2015 or newer you may be running into an existing bug that's been fixed in the Launch Actor process. I only mention this because I didn't see a specific LabVIEW version stated.

This is 2014. Can you elucidate on the bug? I haven't run into anything on other projects concerning a bug.

5) If you are using LVLIBP's make sure you have them deployed in the same folder structure as they are used on the development system.

Don't use packed projects.

6) Does the application run interactivly? If so, it probably a dependancy issue. Sometimes things need to be expliciatly included.

Agreed and that is what we are trying to identify now.

I would strip down until you have a running App, then add back in other actors. By running, I mean it executes without being broken.
If you can post the debug window contents after the app launches, that would be most usefull. Theres a debug terminal (i belive the one niACS is refering to). I had just put that in my startup folder to launch when ever i logged in. Very useful to know what's going on.

Will look into this, but with the build broken it would seem there would be nothing to debug. And the build log does not indicate any problems.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate it.

Cheers, c

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

BrianGShea@NGC — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 17:52:17 GMT

If you are using 2014 there was an issue with the way the static reference to “Actor CORE.vi” was being handled. It was fixed in 2015. There are several documented fixes for this on the forums.

You may want to verify that you have applied these fixes.

The label arrows are on the block diagram. In 2014 or may it was 2015 you can drag an arrow off of a text label on the block diagram and attach it to some other item as a reference arrow. Breaks RT deployments. You may not have used them, but other code may have.

Unfortunately, I have switched jobs, and do not have references to the CAR or Bug fixes for the above two items, but I’m sure if you ask niACS he can point you in the right direction.

Thanks,

Brian Shea

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

cirrusio — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 20:49:25 GMT

The label arrows are on the block diagram. In 2014 or may it was 2015 you can drag an arrow off of a text label on the block diagram and attach it to some other item as a reference arrow. Breaks RT deployments. You may not have used them, but other code may have.

Ok...so this is interesting. When you say "breaks RT deployments", do you mean builds or just deployments from the development environment? I have these things everywhere...

Re: Problem Building an AF Executable on a RT Target

BrianGShea@NGC — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 22:33:44 GMT

I think it was both. It may have been patched as a bug fix since then (about 1yr ago). Please check with niACS. I just know that we wrote a VI using VI Scripting to remove all the arrow’s on all Vis in the project and all Vis referenced by Vis in the project.