EicRoot is a light-weight GEANT detector simulation software suite based on the FairRoot framework.

This README helps experts who are familiar with the older EicRoot Docker container (r940) to re-create the same working environment under the newer software version. Certain changes to the scripts may become needed, since the suite now uses ROOT6 with a more strict syntax rules compared to the previous version, which only worked stable with ROOT5.

Connection to the container instance through SSH connection will be shown.

Do not forget to prepend the below commands with 'sudo' under Linux.

Choose a free port on your computer (5555 in the below example).

In order to mount a local directory 'full-path-to-my-scratch-directory;' from inside the container, create it first like shown below ('eic' user in the container has UID and GUI 11111)

    mkdir full-path-to-my-scratch-directory 
    chown 11111.11111 full-path-to-my-scratch-directory # this is currently required under Linux

, and use an additional key like '-v full-path-to-my-scratch-directory:/scratch:z' to the 'docker run' command below. 'full-path-to-my-scratch-directory' will be accessible as /scratch in the container.

Now run the container:

docker run -it -p 127.0.0.1:5555:22 -t ayk1964/eicroot-yr:v06

This command also gives root access to the running container. Ctrl-D in this window stops the container (and terminates all the connected SSH processes!).

Open a different terminal on your local host system, and connect to the container:

ssh -Y eic@127.0.0.1 -p 5555 # pwd 'test'

Now once you are in the running container virtual machine, execute the following example sequence of commands:

# Set up the environment;
cd /container/app
. root-v6.14.00.binary/bin/thisroot.sh
. geant4.10.05.p01.build/bin/geant4.sh
. EicRoot/build/config.sh

# 'cd' to a particular example directory;
cd EicRoot/examples/tracking/config.1

# From this point on the situation is similar to what is was in the old eicroot:r940;
# ignore eic-smear-related warnings and 'Error in <TList::Clear>'. Those will be 
# cleaned up in the nearest future;
root -l tracker.C
root -l simulation.C
root -l digitization.C
root -l reconstruction.C
root -l ../analysis.C

# One can optionally change "Geant3" string to "Geant4" in simulation.C and re-run the 
# rest of the above chain with the GEANT4 rather than GEANT3 transport.

# This is optional; consider 'FairEventManager -> Info -> Current Event' to browse events;
# DO NOT USE 'Browser -> Quit ROOT' (crashes), but rather use '.q' command in the terminal;
root -l eventDisplay.C

One needs a reasonable base installation (like an older CERN CC7), with additional packages described in the /container/app/EicRoot/Dockerfile. Partial success was reported with the Ubuntu-based 'escalate' container. Stay tuned.

Any modern ROOT version (6.14.00 as included in the Docker container introduced earlier certainly works; 6.20.04 under CC7 base installation was shown to work either).

GEANT4 version geant4.10.05.p01 is known to work. In order to use it, one needs to install G4 VMC, like version geant4_vmc.4.0.p1 .

In order to use GEANT3 one has to install a recent G3 VMC (like geant3+_vmc.2.7).

In order to use eic-smear (for instance be able to import either ASCII or ROOT files with the simulated events) one has to install this package, obviously.

/container/app/EicRoot/Dockerfile in the Docker image contains enough information for an expert to install these packages.

Important: different to the older EicRoot r940 Docker container it is assumed that the environmet setup steps are performed "by hand", like

. root-v6.14.00.binary/bin/thisroot.sh
. geant4.10.05.p01.build/bin/geant4.sh

See EicRoot CMakeLists.txt file and the Dockerfile.

More detailed instructions will follow soon.

Also /container/app/EicRoot/Dockerfile will be uploaded to a public repository.