xtce_converter: uninitialized constant USERPATH

[stanislaw]

Describe the bug

Background: We are learning about the support of XTCE in COSMOS.

We get uninitialized constant USERPATH error when we run the following command:

xtce_converter --system "cosmos/spec/install/config/system/system.txt" --export exported-configs

To Reproduce

1. Install all necessary system and Ruby dependencies based on this Docker file: https://github.com/BallAerospace/cosmos-docker/blob/master/ubuntu18.04/Dockerfile.

2. Run the xtce_converter command above.

3. See the following error message:

... COSMOS (master)$ xtce_converter --system "cosmos/spec/install/config/system/system.txt" --export exported-configs
uninitialized constant USERPATH
Usage: xtce_converter [options] --import input_xtce_filename output_dir
       xtce_converter [options] --export output_dir

    -h, --help                       Show this message
    -v, --version                    Show version
        --system VALUE               Use an alternative system.txt file
    -i, --import VALUE               Import the specified .xtce file
    -e, --export                     Create .xtce file(s) from the COSMOS Configuration

Expected behavior

We see no error messages and can export/import XTCE.

Screenshots

-

Environment (please complete the following information):

• OS: Ubuntu 18.04
• ruby 2.5.5p157 (2019-03-15 revision 67260) [x86_64-linux-gnu]
• COSMOS Version, latest master 194c0fe

[stanislaw]

Some more information here:

I can confirm that the import command seems to work:

xtce_converter --import '.../test.xtce' test-output
Processing .../test.xtce...
  Ignoring Unknown: <AncillaryDataSet>
  Ignoring Unknown: <AncillaryData>
  Ignoring Unknown: <AncillaryData>
  Ignoring Unknown: <ValidRangeSet>
Converting to COSMOS config files in test-output
Success

$ ls -l test-output/
total 8
drwxrwxr-x 3 stanislaw stanislaw 4096 Jul 29 11:07 MYCOMMAND
drwxrwxr-x 3 stanislaw stanislaw 4096 Jul 29 11:07 MYSTRUCTURE

At the same time I don't understand what are the preconditions for running the export command. The help says:

       xtce_converter [options] --export output_dir

      -e, --export                     Create .xtce file(s) from the COSMOS Configuration

Should the argument to --export to be a pass to the COSMOS configuration or simply to the output folder (I assume the latter)? If the latter is true, then what is the expectation of the xtce_converter about the folder from which it should be run?

So far all my attempts result in the uninitialized constant USERPATH and the help message like in the first message in this issue.

The documentation here does not provide enough detail for us to understand the expected workflow. We are happy to submit a PR to the docs once we know how to use the export command.

[ghost]

Can you try running the xtce_converter from the root of your COSMOS configuration, e.g. where the config, lib, outputs, tmp directories are?

It looks like specifying the --system option uses the USERPATH variable. Try leaving this off and using the default system.txt file and see if that helps.

[stanislaw]

Sorry for not getting back to this one. We have paused the XTCE/CCDD track for some time because of some other errors (usability of CCDD and interfacing with COSMOS) and are working with COSMOS text files directly.

We are also looking into moving to ASN1 as a primary TM/TC storage format but no decisions are being made yet.