5.1. Usage

This section explains how to run Converter from a command line. In particular, it describes:

5.1.1. Starting Converter

Converter runs as a separate application. The script to run the executable is in <NDDSHOME>/bin. (See Section 1.2 for the path to NDDSHOME.)

rticonverter [options]

To start Converter with a default configuration, enter:

$NDDSHOME/bin/rticonverter

Converter is pre-loaded with a builtin configuration that has default settings. See Section 5.2.21.

Converter is provided for both the host platform and, for certain architectures, the target platform. By default, Converter runs for the host platform (located in resource/app/bin/<host>). To configure the script to run Converter for a target platform (located in resource/app/bin/<target>), specify the target architecture in either of the following variables:

  • The environment variable CONNEXTDDS_ARCH.

  • The variable connextdds_architecture in the file rticommon_config.[sh/bat]. (The file is resource/scripts/rticommon_config.sh on Linux or macOS systems, resource/scripts/rticommon_config.bat on Windows systems.)

These instructions (configuring the script to run Converter for a target platform) do not apply to embedded systems; for those, see the “Building and Running” section for your platform in the Getting Started Guide Addendum for Embedded Systems. Follow the instructions for loading and running your application. (The rticonverter application is already compiled; you do not need to compile it.) Copy rticonverter from /resource/app/bin/<target_architecture>/rticonverter to your target platform.

5.1.2. Converter Command-Line Parameters

The following table describes all the command-line parameters available in Converter. To list the available parameters, run rticonverter -help.

All command-line parameters are optional; if specified, they override the values of any corresponding settings in the loaded XML configuration. See Section 5.2.4 for the XML elements that can be overridden with command-line parameters.

Table 5.1 Converter Command-Line Parameters

Parameter

Description

-cfgFile <string>

Semicolon-separated list of configuration file paths.
Default: Unspecified

-cfgName

Configuration name. This name is used to find a matching <converter> tag in the configuration file.

-D<name>=<value>

Defines a variable that can be used as an alternate replacement for XML environment variables, specified in the form $(VAR_NAME).
Note that definitions in the environment take precedence over these definitions.

-help

Shows this help.

-verbosity <service_level>[:<dds_level>]

Controls what type of messages are logged.
<service_level> is the verbosity level for the service logs and <dds_level> is the verbosity level for the DDS logs. Both can take any of the following values:

  • SILENT

  • ERROR

  • WARN

  • LOCAL

  • REMOTE

  • ALL

Default: ERROR:ERROR

-version

Prints the program version and exits.

5.1.3. Working With Large Data

The built-in SQLite plugin implementation available in Converter is prepared to handle any type size and storage format. However, when working with large data types and massive files (or filesets), Converter may take a while to prepare SQL statements to work with the data, resulting in a delay when starting the conversion process.

Because of this delay, it is recommended that you index the user data tables for those large topics before running Converter on them. Indexing can massively improve Converter’s startup time for those topics. You can create the indexes offline, after Recording Service has finished recording all the data. Index the tables on the SampleInfo_reception_timestamp field. For example, imagine a table, VeryLargeTopic@0, has been created by Recording Service; you can use the following index creation statement:

CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS [VeryLargeTopic@0_idx_rt]
        ON [VeryLargeTopic@0] (SampleInfo_reception_timestamp)