Bernese GPS Software Version 5.0 - Bernese GNSS Software

19. Bernese Processing Engine (BPE)
• The BPE can be run in interactive mode (with the graphical user interface) as well as
in non-interactive mode. In the non-interactive mode the BPE process can be started
from the command line or its start can be scheduled using, e.g., the cron utility on
UNIX systems or a task scheduling utility on Windows. The different ways of running
the BPE are described in Section 19.8.
The BPE may be used to perform all possible tasks, sequentially or in parallel. A processing
sequence of Bernese programs can be defined, scripts may be included which download data,
perform quality reports and processing protocols, submit or archive result files. The BPE
processing tasks are defined by the user in so-called Process Control Files. The BPE is able
to run more than one task at a time on different CPUs, and can even divide a single task
across different CPUs. The new BPE, unlike its predecessor, also includes control structures
that allow to perform conditioned jumps forward and backward in the processing sequence,
further enhancing the capabilities of the BPE as a powerful automatization tool.
Four sophisticated example BPEs are delivered together with the software (description in
Chapter 20) which can be used directly or may be adapted by the user to his particular
needs.
Figure 19.1 shows a flow diagram describing the functioning of the BPE server. In this
chapter we describe the three main parts of the BPE (server, client, and user scripts),
important files used by the BPE and the way the BPE can be setup and executed. However,
prior to this description we have to make a remark concerning the directory structure used
by the BPE.
19.2 Directory Structure Used by the BPE
The BPE uses several directory trees. Standard Bernese environment variables contain
the names of these directories (e.g., the variable ${X} may contain the directory
name /home/bernese/BERN50/GPS on a UNIX system or something like
C:\Program Files\Bern50\GPS on a Windows machine) and we use these variables when
we refer to the corresponding directories in a platform-independent manner. The directories
may be divided into the following four categories (see also Section 22.2):
(1) Software-directories (${BPE}, ${X}/EXE, ${XG}, ${XQ}). The following directories are
particularly important for the BPE:
${XG} Executables of the main (i.e. Fortran) Bernese programs.
${XQ} The menu program (acting as BPE server at the same time).
${X}/EXE Scripts for the compilation of the software, starting the menu
program, etc. The file LOADGPS.setvar, that defines the
Bernese environment, is located here, too.
${X}/SCRIPT Auxiliary scripts that keep old user scripts running.
${BPE} The so-called BPE client and several BPE tools used by the
BPE (written in Perl).
(2) User area (${U}, and subdirectories). The following directories are particularly important
for the BPE:
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