spget

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Read one PV, print it, exit. The equivalent of EPICS Base pvget.

spget [OPTIONS] [PV]

Requires the client feature. Takes exactly one PV — pass several names and it errors with Unexpected argument. Loop in the shell if you need more than one.

Flags

The shared client flags apply (see the index). spget adds none of its own.

-F/--fields is the one worth knowing: it narrows the field request sent to the server, so -F value fetches the value without the alarm, timestamp, and display blocks.

Output

$ spget VAC:PRESSURE
VAC:PRESSURE 2026-08-04 10:35:23.578 0.000001

Three columns: name, the record's timeStamp, and the value. An alarm appends severity and status:

$ spget DEMO:SETPOINT
DEMO:SETPOINT 2026-08-06 09:14:58.052  46 MAJOR READ HIHI

Structured payloads print inline:

$ spget SIM:STATE
SIM:STATE 2026-08-06 09:14:32.958 {index=0, choices=["Idle", "Running", "Error"]}

$ spget VAC:RGA
VAC:RGA 2026-08-06 09:35:20.331 [0.909297, 0.808496, 0.675463, ...]

The array above is elided for the page; spget prints every element, however many there are. A 1024-point waveform is one very long line.

Gotchas

The printed value is formatted, not raw. Small doubles collapse:

$ spget VAC:SETPOINT     # the record holds 5e-7
VAC:SETPOINT 2026-08-06 09:35:33.545   0

The wire value is intact — but neither -F value nor --json will show it to you, because both go through the same formatter:

$ spget -F value VAC:SETPOINT
VAC:SETPOINT   0

$ spget --json VAC:SETPOINT
{"alarm":"alarm=OK status=NO_ALARM(0)","pv":"VAC:SETPOINT",
 "timestamp":"2026-08-06 09:35:33.545","units":null,
 "value":"value=0.000000, ts=1786008933"}

spget --raw dumps the payload bytes, which does contain the true double; otherwise read the PV from a client library rather than a CLI.

Search failure looks like a timeout. If nothing answers, you get Timeout("search response") — not "PV not found". No server on the network can distinguish the two, so neither can the client. Check the PV name, then splist, then --server.

See also

Reading and writing does the same thing from the Rust and Python APIs.