In order to setup partitions in the CDB database or to set the truncate time for a run it is important to know exactly the start or stop time of the run, i.e. when the first and last event were taken.

The start and stop time of the run that is recorded in the oracle tables and can be found running ir2runs might not be exact. It is filled by looking at the time on a computer running in IR2 which is different than the computer that is doing the data taking. The exact time is recorded in the XTC file.

These times can be obtained by looking in a logfile from a previous processing of this run.

• Find a log-directory for a previous processing of this run, PC or ER pass, or retrieve one from tape, see instructions here: Logdir Archiving and Retrieving.
• Grep in the flog files for, beginRun or endRun:
  zgrep beginRun flogs/*
  zgrep endRun flogs/*
  You should see the same output for all flog files, e.g.
  flogs/f-noma0128-024.log.gz:OprFTestModule:(10:31:20) -- OprFTestModule:beginRun(1)... 2b2850/f7ecbbbb Size: 4876
• Translate the funny event time format to human readable time:
  The event time is the string, e.g. 2b2850/f7ecbbbb
  Use the decodeOdfTime script to get the time:
  decodeOdfTime 2b2850/f7ecbbbb
  Sun Jun 22 00:11:42.866215000 2003 UTC
  Sat Jun 21 17:11:42.866215000 2003 PDT
  You want to use the PDT time since that is local to SLAC.