MCR2 INI File Settings

The mcr2 INI file is located, by default, in the C:\PICS\Config folder (along with all other PICS INI files). In general, one should never need to access this file directly because mcr2 updates it with all of the settings in effect when the program is exited. However, examples and descriptions are provided here for the curious.

Section Item Possible Value(s) Description

Settings

PICS App ID PICS application ID string Sets the PICS application name/ID that MCR2 will use to register with the local real time and static data agents. Defaults to MMI01.

Pattern Type regexp or custom Tells mcr2 what type of pattern matching to use with the pattern provided. REGEXP is an accepted standard pattern matching system, CUSTOM

Script Pacing (ms) numeric Number of milliseconds between execution/entry of lines in a script file.

User Caption MCR2 Text for base window name (shown in window caption/title bar)

Admin Caption MCR2 Admin Mode Text for base window name (shown in window caption/title bar) when the program is operating in administrator mode.

Region KB 4 Size of the IPC command region used between mcr2 and SDB. Because batch commands are very concise, the default value of 4KB should always be sufficient.

RTDB Region KB 4 Size of the IPC command region used between mcr2 and RTDB. Since MCR2 only sends a single "subscribe all" command, the minimum size (4) should always be fine.

RTDB Pipe KB 512 Size of the IPC data pipe used between mcr2 and RTDB. Depending on the data volume and local work load, this number may be adjusted up (or down on very fast machines) to prevent real time data from being dropped due to pip overflows.

Scroll History 32000 Sets the maximum number of lines that will be retained in the scrollback buffer. If this number is too small, the beginning of some reports may be lost. If the number is too large, MCR2 will consume too much memory. (The default of 32,000 results in a 32MB scrollback buffer.)

Display All Points FALSE When set to TRUE (or a non-zero number), this will cause some of the reports to include the PICS and non-unit-oriented points (i.e. everything that has been added by PICS, but was not available on the previous system).

Verify off, on, or auto [future] This setting will determine what kind of change verification mcr2 performs on its own. Currently, the user must issue a VERIFY command, no verification is performed automatically.

Pattern as appropriate by pattern type The last pattern string used in the pervious session. Will be the initial pattern in the next session, too.

User mcr2 Change Username for ALL record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2. May be superceded by any (or all) of the next three entries.

User-Alarm mcr2 Change Username for alarm record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.

User-Point mcr2 Change Username for point record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.

User-Const mcr2 Change Username for constant record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.

Comment Automated mcr2 Change Procedure Comment for ALL record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2. May be superceded by any (or all) of the next three entries.

Comment-Alarm Automated mcr2 Change Procedure Comment for alarm record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.

Comment-Point Automated mcr2 Change Procedure Comment for point record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.

Comment-Const Automated mcr2 Change Procedure Comment for constant record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.

Point Type Analog, Digital or Any This may further limit the points that match a pattern to a specific class (analog or digital).

Shift Log

First Shift Start Time (hh:mm:ss) 08:00:00 mcr2 logs all activity to one or more disk files. At a minimum, of one log per shift per day.

Shifts Per Day 3 Number of shifts per day. If this number is not evenly divisible into 24, the shift change monitoring results are undefined.

Log Path %log% Sets the path where the log files will be stored. The special value "%log%" translates to the local PICS Logs folders (based on the local PICS root path setting in the control panel). The value may also be an absolute path, if desired.

Log Name mcr2 The base name for the log files. The full name of a log file will be in the form "base-Sn-YYYYMMDD.log" where base is the value entered for this setting, n is the shift number and YYYYMMDD is the date the log was created.

Log History all This sets the number of old log files to retain. The special value "all" causes all old logs to be retained (manual maintenance will be necessary to avoid eventual disk overflow).

External Print Program

Command File notepad.exe Name of the external print program's executable file

Command Line /p %s Command line required by the external program to print a text file. Some of the reports mcr2 generates are 132 characters wide, if special settings are required to enable printing that wide, they would be put here.

NOTE: The %s is absolutely required as part of the command line! It tells mcr2 where to put the name of the file to be printed. Since different programs have different requirements for such things, it must be included on the command line. Also, if the filename must be quoted, double-quote characters must be escaped with a backslash!

Command Path Path to the external print program's executable file. If the program will be in one of the entries in the local PATH environment variable (as NOTEPAD is), this entry may be empty.

Command Name Notepad Name (for display only) of the external print program.

Window Class Window class of the external print program. This may be used by mcr2 to locate an existing instance of the program. Leave this blank to have mcr2 ignore previous instances.

Window Title Window title (or caption) of the external print program. This may be used by mcr2 to locate an existing instance of the program. Leave this blank to have mcr2 ignore previous instances.

Colors

Error Foreground RGB(0xFF,0xD7,0x00) mcr2 uses these color pairs for various types of output displayed in the log window. The RGB color sets specific the amount of red, green and blue in the color with values from 0x00 to 0xFF (or 0 to 255) for each.

Error Background RGB(0xDC,0x14,0x3C)

Warning Foreground RGB(0xFF,0x00,0x00)

Warning Background RGB(0xFF,0xFF,0xF5)

Info Foreground RGB(0x00,0x90,0xB0)

Info Background RGB(0xF5,0xF5,0xF5)

Menu Foreground RGB(0x00,0x00,0x00)

Menu Background RGB(0xF5,0xF5,0xF5)

Input Echo Foreground RGB(0x8B,0x00,0x8B)

Input Echo Background RGB(0xF5,0xF5,0xF5)

MRE

DO NOT MODIFY this section. It is for internal program use ONLY. The MRE section contains the Most Recently Entered command history. mcr2 uses this to maintain the command history between executions. This section may be safely deleted, but modification is discouraged and the results due to modification errors are undefined.

Window Position

DO NOT MODIFY this section. It is for internal program use ONLY. The window position section is used by mcr2 to save (and restore) the program's position and size on your display. This allows mcr2 to always return in the exact same location when restarted.

Section	Item	Possible Value(s)	Description
Settings
	PICS App ID	PICS application ID string	Sets the PICS application name/ID that MCR2 will use to register with the local real time and static data agents. Defaults to MMI01.
	Pattern Type	regexp or custom	Tells mcr2 what type of pattern matching to use with the pattern provided. REGEXP is an accepted standard pattern matching system, CUSTOM
	Script Pacing (ms)	numeric	Number of milliseconds between execution/entry of lines in a script file.
	User Caption	MCR2	Text for base window name (shown in window caption/title bar)
	Admin Caption	MCR2 Admin Mode	Text for base window name (shown in window caption/title bar) when the program is operating in administrator mode.
	Region KB	4	Size of the IPC command region used between mcr2 and SDB. Because batch commands are very concise, the default value of 4KB should always be sufficient.
	RTDB Region KB	4	Size of the IPC command region used between mcr2 and RTDB. Since MCR2 only sends a single "subscribe all" command, the minimum size (4) should always be fine.
	RTDB Pipe KB	512	Size of the IPC data pipe used between mcr2 and RTDB. Depending on the data volume and local work load, this number may be adjusted up (or down on very fast machines) to prevent real time data from being dropped due to pip overflows.
	Scroll History	32000	Sets the maximum number of lines that will be retained in the scrollback buffer. If this number is too small, the beginning of some reports may be lost. If the number is too large, MCR2 will consume too much memory. (The default of 32,000 results in a 32MB scrollback buffer.)
	Display All Points	FALSE	When set to TRUE (or a non-zero number), this will cause some of the reports to include the PICS and non-unit-oriented points (i.e. everything that has been added by PICS, but was not available on the previous system).
	Verify	off, on, or auto	[future] This setting will determine what kind of change verification mcr2 performs on its own. Currently, the user must issue a VERIFY command, no verification is performed automatically.
	Pattern	as appropriate by pattern type	The last pattern string used in the pervious session. Will be the initial pattern in the next session, too.
	User	mcr2 Change	Username for ALL record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2. May be superceded by any (or all) of the next three entries.
	User-Alarm	mcr2 Change	Username for alarm record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.
	User-Point	mcr2 Change	Username for point record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.
	User-Const	mcr2 Change	Username for constant record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.
	Comment	Automated mcr2 Change Procedure	Comment for ALL record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2. May be superceded by any (or all) of the next three entries.
	Comment-Alarm	Automated mcr2 Change Procedure	Comment for alarm record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.
	Comment-Point	Automated mcr2 Change Procedure	Comment for point record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.
	Comment-Const	Automated mcr2 Change Procedure	Comment for constant record changes. This should be changed to the name of the user running mcr2.
	Point Type	Analog, Digital or Any	This may further limit the points that match a pattern to a specific class (analog or digital).
Shift Log
	First Shift Start Time (hh:mm:ss)	08:00:00	mcr2 logs all activity to one or more disk files. At a minimum, of one log per shift per day.
	Shifts Per Day	3	Number of shifts per day. If this number is not evenly divisible into 24, the shift change monitoring results are undefined.
	Log Path	%log%	Sets the path where the log files will be stored. The special value "%log%" translates to the local PICS Logs folders (based on the local PICS root path setting in the control panel). The value may also be an absolute path, if desired.
	Log Name	mcr2	The base name for the log files. The full name of a log file will be in the form "base-Sn-YYYYMMDD.log" where base is the value entered for this setting, n is the shift number and YYYYMMDD is the date the log was created.
	Log History	all	This sets the number of old log files to retain. The special value "all" causes all old logs to be retained (manual maintenance will be necessary to avoid eventual disk overflow).
External Print Program
	Command File	notepad.exe	Name of the external print program's executable file
	Command Line	/p %s	Command line required by the external program to print a text file. Some of the reports mcr2 generates are 132 characters wide, if special settings are required to enable printing that wide, they would be put here. NOTE: The %s is absolutely required as part of the command line! It tells mcr2 where to put the name of the file to be printed. Since different programs have different requirements for such things, it must be included on the command line. Also, if the filename must be quoted, double-quote characters must be escaped with a backslash!
	Command Path		Path to the external print program's executable file. If the program will be in one of the entries in the local PATH environment variable (as NOTEPAD is), this entry may be empty.
	Command Name	Notepad	Name (for display only) of the external print program.
	Window Class		Window class of the external print program. This may be used by mcr2 to locate an existing instance of the program. Leave this blank to have mcr2 ignore previous instances.
	Window Title		Window title (or caption) of the external print program. This may be used by mcr2 to locate an existing instance of the program. Leave this blank to have mcr2 ignore previous instances.
Colors
	Error Foreground	RGB(0xFF,0xD7,0x00)	mcr2 uses these color pairs for various types of output displayed in the log window. The RGB color sets specific the amount of red, green and blue in the color with values from 0x00 to 0xFF (or 0 to 255) for each.
	Error Background	RGB(0xDC,0x14,0x3C)
	Warning Foreground	RGB(0xFF,0x00,0x00)
	Warning Background	RGB(0xFF,0xFF,0xF5)
	Info Foreground	RGB(0x00,0x90,0xB0)
	Info Background	RGB(0xF5,0xF5,0xF5)
	Menu Foreground	RGB(0x00,0x00,0x00)
	Menu Background	RGB(0xF5,0xF5,0xF5)
	Input Echo Foreground	RGB(0x8B,0x00,0x8B)
	Input Echo Background	RGB(0xF5,0xF5,0xF5)
MRE
	DO NOT MODIFY this section. It is for internal program use ONLY.		The MRE section contains the Most Recently Entered command history. mcr2 uses this to maintain the command history between executions. This section may be safely deleted, but modification is discouraged and the results due to modification errors are undefined.
Window Position
	DO NOT MODIFY this section. It is for internal program use ONLY.		The window position section is used by mcr2 to save (and restore) the program's position and size on your display. This allows mcr2 to always return in the exact same location when restarted.