svalue [setup=setupList] [name=variableName] [value=integer]
The name keyword identifies the variable that should be acted on.
If it is not present, then it defaults to the variable obscnt.
The value keyword provides a new value to be assigned to the variable.
If the value keyword is not present, then svalue simply
returns the value of variable.
For example, calling svalue without any arguments is the same as
asking for the current value of the variable obscnt.
The value keyword must be an integer but may be
either an absolute value or
a relative value (so that the current value may be incremented or
decremented relative to the current value).
For example, if value=+1, then the variable
identified by the name keyword (or obscnt) will be incremented by 1.
If value=1, the variable is set to 1.
In order to keep variables distinct for each setup, the optional keyword setup may be used. This keyword, if present, is used to prepend the setup name in front of the variable. This keyword can actually be a list of setups. No logic is applied to the list of setups. If more than one setup is present, the value that is written is the sum of the returned values for each setup in the list. For example, the command
svalue setup='A,B' value=+1
would increment the value of the variable obscnt by 1 for both
setups A and B and will echo the sum of the new value of
obscnt for each setup.
Hence, if the value of obscnt was 2 for
setup A and 4 for setup B before svalue was called in
the above example, then,
after the call,
the new value of obscnt would be 3 for setup A and 5 for B.
Also, svalue would echo the value of 8
(the sum of 3 and 5 from the two setups).
The svalue command provides a handy way to determine if something has been observed previously and how often. An example of how to use this command in an observing script .