ATLAS Software Releases and How To Use Them

ATLAS software releases at BNL

ATLAS software releases are compiled on a Scientific Linux platform. Two compiler options are available:

• tag=dbg: debug, unoptimized (but unavailable for most releases)
• tag=opt: optimized (-O2)

These releases are installed from ATLAS kit distribution with Pacman tool, and are available in AFS (under /afs/usatlas/software/downloads/releases), NFS (under /usatlas/OSG/atlas_app/atlas_rel), and cmvfs (under /cvmfs/atlas.cern.ch/repo/sw/software). The release installation in AFS area has stopped. You should use either release in OSG or in cvmfs.

Tools and services for ATLAS releases

Code repository

U.S. ATLAS Tier I Center maintains the read-only mirror of ATLAS SVN repository at SVNROOT=file:///usatlas/projects/svn. Follow this link for details.

LXR

The LXR cross-referencing tool allows to jump easily to the declaration of any global identifier.

Tag Collector

Tag Collector is a database of packages versions with a powerful web interface

Work with ATLAS releases at BNL

The releases installed from ATLAS kit distribution are self-sufficient and include all necessary setup scripts. See for details:

• Installing Atlas Software (on ATLAS Wiki)
• Beginning users should look at the Computing Workbook to get a basic idea on how to setup their account.

A tool AtlasSetup is provided for release setup. The setup through cmt has stopped since release-16.2.2. There are two ways to use AtlasSetup to set up ATLAS release.

Using standalone AtlasSetup

You can use standalone tool AtlasSetup. The setup is very simple:

• Example-1 for setting up AtlasOffline 17.3.1: source /opt/usatlas/kit_rel/AtlasSetup/osgSetup.[c]sh 17.3.1.
• Example-2 for setting up AtlasProduction 17.3.1.1: source /opt/usatlas/kit_rel/AtlasSetup/osgSetup.[c]sh 17.3.1.1.
• Example-3 for setting up with GroupArea: source /opt/usatlas/kit_rel/AtlasSetup/osgSetup.[c]sh --grouparea=${ATLAS_GROUP_AREA} 17.3.1.1.

The default setting has already included your current directory into CMTPATH. If you do not like to add your current directory into CMTPATH, you can specify an option "--testarea=None" something like:

• source /opt/usatlas/kit_rel/AtlasSetup/osgSetup.[c]sh --testarea=None 17.3.1

For more options you can run source /opt/usatlas/kit_rel/AtlasSetup/osgSetup.[c]sh --help. For more details on using AtlasSetup, you can visit its wiki at CERN.

To use releases in cvmfs area, you only need replace "osgSetup" with "cvmfsSetup". For releases in AFS area, use "aSetup".

Please note that HOTDISK and Frontier have already been included in the above setup scripts.

Using AtlasSetup coming with the kit

You can also use AtlasSetup coming with the kit. That is:

• Example-1 for setting up AtlasOffline 17.3.1: source /opt/usatlas/kit_rel/OSG_rel/17.3.1/cmtsite/asetup.[c]sh 17.3.1 --testarea $PWD.
• Example-2 for setting up AtlasProduction 17.3.1.1: source /opt/usatlas/kit_rel/OSG_rel/17.3.1/cmtsite/asetup.[c]sh 17.3.1.1 --testarea $PWD.

You need set up HOTDISK and Frontier yourself.

Use SVN at BNL

All old releases at BNL have been updated to allow to use svn now.

Use SVN repository at CERN

If your account username at CERN is same as that at BNL, then you can simply define the env variable SVNROOT to svn+ssh://svn.cern.ch/reps/atlasoff. Otherwise, you need explicitly specify your CERN account name in SVNROOT in the format of svn+ssh://YourCERNName@svn.cern.ch/reps/atlasoff. There is another option to omit your CERN account name in SVNROOT, i.e., just to add the following lines in $HOME/.ssh/config:

Host svn.cern.ch
   GSSAPIAuthentication yes
   GSSAPIDelegateCredentials yes
   # GSSAPITrustDNS yes
   Protocol 2
   ForwardX11 no
   User YourCERNName

Use SVN repository mirror at BNL

Just define the env variable SVNROOT to file:///usatlas/projects/svn, or use command bnl_cmt instead cmt. Please be aware that the SVN repository at BNL is just a mirror of ATLAS SVN repository, and this mirror is available for checkouts only. The import and commit operations should be performed with CERN ATLAS SVN repository. Please visit here for details.

Overriding DBRelease and poolcond

Overriding DBRelease

A default (symbolically linked by current under DBRelease/) version is provided in the kit distribution. Sometimes, esp. for AtlasProduction patches, other later version is required, which can found Atlas Database Release. You can override the default version of DBRelease with other versions already installed under DBRelease/ in that release by setting the following env variable:

   export DBRELEASE_OVERRIDE=${DBRELEASE_VERSION}

before setting up runtime environment.

There are more DBRelease versions installed at /afs/usatlas/software/downloads/DB/DBRelease, to use them, you need set both env variables DBRELEASE_OVERRIDE and export ATLAS_DB_AREA=/afs/usatlas/software/downloads/DB before runtime environment setup.

For setup using AtlasSetup (recipe-1), you need specify option --dbarea="/afs/usatlas/software/downloads/DB" and --dbrelease="${DBRELEASE_VERSION}" to override the default DBRelease, e.g.

   source /opt/usatlas/kit_rel/AtlasSetup/aSetup.sh 16.0.1 --dbarea="/afs/usatlas/software/downloads/DB" --dbrelease="12.7.1"

In case you are interested in overriding geomDB or sqlite200, part of DBRelease, you can simply create a sym-link to them under your run directory.

In case of pathena jobs, you can specify an option --dbRelease such as --dbRelease=ddo.000001.Atlas.Ideal.DBRelease.v070401:DBRelease-7.4.1.tar.gz. You can dq2-ls command to look up the available DBRelease datasets.

Overriding poolcond

The file catalogues (poolcond) of condition database coming with the kit may not be up-to-date enough. For event reprocessing, a more up-to-date poolcond might be necessary. We also provide a nightly replication in /usatlas/workarea/atlas/PFC/catalogue/poolcond with condition files residing in dcache. You can make your athena job to use this poolcond by creating a sym-link to this path under your working directory (or ${ATLAS_TEST_AREA}) by:

   ln -s /usatlas/workarea/atlas/PFC/catalogue/poolcond ${working_directory}/InstallArea/share/poolcond

Or you can add path /usatlas/workarea/atlas/PFC/catalogue directly into ${DATAPATH} before running your jobs.

Using poolcond in HOTDISK

Since release 15.4.0, IOVDbSvc provides a new way to use poolcond replicated in HOTDISK to override the default poolcond in the kit. To use HOTDISK, you can just need define an env varilable in the following:

• export ATLAS_POOLCOND_PATH=/usatlas/workarea/atlas/PFC_HOTDISK for zsh/bash/ksh;
  setenv ATLAS_POOLCOND_PATH /usatlas/workarea/atlas/PFC_HOTDISK for tcsh

In case of pathena jobs, pilot job will take care of defining this env variable for you.

CernVM? -FS at BNL

• CVMFS tests on aplay3 machine

Relevant links

• ATLAS Offline Release Page
• Beginniners should consult the Computing Workbook and the Physics Analysis Workbook for an introduction to ATLAS computing, physics topics, analysis recipes, etc. These two workbooks are actively maintained.
  Older guides/tutorials are available at,
  • Physics Analysis Tutorial with ATLAS software How To recipes
  • ASK tool tutorial with event generation, simulation, digitization and reconstruction recipes
• Additional information for ATLAS software users (complementary to ATLAS Workbooks). This page contains many useful recipes and workarounds.
• List of stable releases at U.S. ATLAS Tier I Center
• Status of nightlies downloads at BNL
• Status of nightlies at CERN
• Nightly Control System (NICOS) web page
• CMT documentation

Questions and comments

• Please send your concerns to Shuwei Ye and Alex Undrus