.. PezcaCA documentation master file, created by
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.. image:: logo_hzb_big.png
   :align: right
   :target: https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de

===================================
Welcome to PezcaCA's documentation!
===================================

PezcaCA - An EPICS Channel Access Library
=========================================

PezcaCA is a Perl library for the 
`EPICS <http://www.aps.anl.gov/epics/about.php>`_
`Channel Access Network Protocol <https://docs.epics-controls.org/en/latest/internal/ca_protocol.html>`_.

It is intended to provide an easy way to use Channel access in Perl.

PezcaCA is compatible with `Pezca <https://pezca.sourceforge.io/>`_, an older implementation that uses
the `ezca <https://epics.anl.gov/extensions/ezca/index.php>`_ C library.

An advantage of PezcaCA over Pezca is that this library only needs the Perl 'CA' module, that
is provided with each `EPICS Base <https://github.com/epics-base/epics-base>`_.

You can use PezcaCA as replacement for Pezca, the module and function names are
the same, so you don't have to modify your scripts.

:Author:
    Goetz Pfeiffer (goetzpf@googlemail.com Goetz.Pfeiffer@helmholtz-berlin.de)

:Version:
    |version|

.. seealso::
   `Goetz Pfeiffer's Project site <https://goetzpf.github.io/>`_
   for other open source projects.

Documentation
=============

Reference documents
-------------------

This is the reference of Pezca perl module:

:doc:`Pezca reference <reference-pezca>`

Full list of documents
----------------------

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1

   installation
   reference-pezca
   examples
   license

License and copyright
=====================

Copyright (c) 2026 by `Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin <https://www.helmholtz-berlin.de>`_.

This software of this project can be used under GPL v.3, see :doc:`license`.

Download and install
====================

You can download a tar.gz file here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/pezcaca/files

or clone the repository like this::

  hg clone http://hg.code.sf.net/p/pezcaca/code PezcaCA

Installation is described here:

:doc:`Installing PezcaCA <installation>`

PezcaCA at sourceforge
======================

You find the sourceforge summary page for PezcaCA at
`PezcaCA <https://sourceforge.net/projects/pezcaca>`_.

The source
==========

You can browse the mercurial repository here:

`repository at Sourceforge <https://sourceforge.net/p/pezcaca/code/ci/default/tree/>`_.

or clone it with this command:

Sourceforge::

  hg clone http://hg.code.sf.net/p/pezcaca/code PezcaCA

You can then commit changes in your own repository copy. 

If you plan to share these changes you can create a mercurial 
`bundle <https://www.mercurial-scm.org/help/commands/bundle>`_ and send it to my e-mail
address.