ct example output

In a window on waimea, you have issued the ct command. Here is what the output should look like:

1:53pm waimea:~> ct
nirspec  12090 3:37:28  0:01 nirspec_server_bin -noacs
nirspec  12091 3:37:28  0:00 nirspec_server_bin -noacs
nirspec  12092 3:37:28  2:13 nirspec_server_bin -noacs
nirspec  12248 3:37:42  0:03 cmdtool -geometry +0-0 -I xnirspec -noql   ; sleep 180 ; exit
nirspec  12264 3:37:43  0:27 xnirspec -noql
nirspec  25665 7:31:02  0:27
/kroot/kss/nirspec/ui/watch_imrot/specific/nirspec/watch_imrot -s nirs

NOTE that there are 3 nirspec_server_bin processes running. All 3 are required for operation of the instrument.

It is possible that the server is fine but you just need to restart XNIRSPEC. Here is a page discussing that.

If the unresponsiveness involves the image rotator, here is a page discussing that.

On rare occasions, ct shows 3 server processes but one or more of them are hung up.

Here are two quick tests that will tell you most (but not all) of the time if you have a server problem:

Try to show a randomly chosen keyword. Here is what the output will look like if the 3rd process is unhealthy:

3:20pm waimea:nirspec> s itime
rpc_clientOpen: RPC: Program not registered
Sorry, the show command was not able to contact the control system: rpc_clientOpen() for waimea.keck.hawaii.edu.
3:20pm waimea:nirspec> 

If you were able to successfully show a keyword, try to take two short test exposures. If, despite your knowledge to the contrary, a pop-up warns you that you can not take one of these exposures because an exposure is still in progress then the 1st server process is unhealthy.

One other way to tell if one of the server processes is hung up is to try to kill the server. One or more of the process will survive as relic processes that require power cycling hardware somewhere to kill. This is an undesirable test at night because, if the server is really okay, you have needlessly forced yourself to re-initialize the motors once you get going again. This means any calibration spectra already acquired are not guaranteed to be appropriate for subsequent science spectra. If you have exhausted other avenues, try this.