Run Geant4 validation via Docker

Copyright (c) Andrea Dotti (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory), 2016

This image contains the first application for G4 validation in a containerazied environment. The current application is ProcessTest an application used to perform simulation of a single interaction.

This documentation serves as a brief overview of how to run the application container.

Geant4 docker images: https://hub.docker.com/r/andreadotti/geant4/ images created following instructions at: https://github.com/andreadotti/docker-geant4

and application source-code: https://gitlab.cern.ch/adotti/ProcessTest (not a public repo yet).

Build the container image

1. To build the image it is assumed you already have the binaries of the application following the instructions at: https://github.com/andreadotti/docker-geant4 .
2. Edit Dockerfile.ProcessTest if needed, in particular you will need to modify the Geant4 version number in the FROM field.
3. Build the image: docker build -f Dockerfile.ProcessTest -t <tag> .

Get the container image

Get the container image via: docker pull andreadotti/geant4-val:<tag>. The value of <tag> will tell you which version of Geant4 is used and other useful information. Test it with: docker run --rm <imageID> ProcessTest --version and ignore the errors about databases not found. The last line will tell you the version of the application being used.

Geant4 Databases: Databases are not included in the image, specify as a docker volume the location of the databases.

Labels

In the following we make use of docker labels to store values of paths and others.
The labels have the format: org.geant4.processtest.<variable>. To see all labels exported by the this image type: docker inspect --format='{{.Config.Labels}}' <inageID>.
Some useful variables:

• org.geant4.processtest.installation_dir : Where code is installed
• org.geant4.processtest.macro_dirs : List of directories where macros can be found
• org.geant4.processtest.readme : This file
• org.geant4.processtest.docs : List of additional documentation files/dirs
• org.geant4.processtest.output : List of output files

In the following text $org.geant4.processtest.<variable> should be replaced with the value of the corresponding label.

Additional Documentation

Additional documentation is included with the software: docker run --rm <imageID> cat $org.geant4.processtest.docs[idx]

Running ProcessTest

Cross-sections

Cross-sections script will produce json files containing total cross-section plot for selected EM and HAD proceses.
Cross-sections validation files can be found under $org.geant4.processtest.cross_sections_dir. Documentation is available at: $org.geant4.processtest.docs[1].
The scripts being executed are: $org.geant4.processtest.cross_sections_dir/doXS_{had|EM}.sh.

To run cross-section validations:

docker run -v "<dbdir>:/usr/local/gent4/data:ro" -v "$PWD:/output:rw" <imageID> \
		/runme.xs.sh <options>

Where:

• <dbdir> is the location, on the host of the Geant4 DB
• <imagename> is the docker image name for the validation
• <options> specify the material list to run the validation, three options are available: 1. A single material name is specified as known to Geant4 NIST database (e.g. G4_Cd) 2. A sub-set of the periodic table (up to G4_U included, e.g. 92 elements) can be specified passing two integers: <group> and <numgr> as in: docker run [...] runme.xs.sh 2 10 that means: divide the periodic table in 10 groups and run the second group, e.g. elements from number 10 (G4_Ne) to number 18 (G4_Ar). Note: the last group contains all elements up to G4_U included. So in the example groups 1 to 9 have each 9 elements and group 10 calculates cross-sections for the remaining 11 elements. 3. Passing nothing will run calculations on the entire periodic table

Ouput will be located in the docker instance /output directory, in the example shared with host's $PWD. The output consists of a tarball files: crosssections*.tgz Note on timing: Calculating cross-sections can take some time, as an example on my laptop a single element takes ~20 minutes and tarball dimension is ~2MB.

Single Interaction

Single interactions can be simulated using one of the run.mac macros the location of the macro defines the interaction property to be studied. For example to study compton scattering at 100 keV on carbon, run with the macro: ${org.geant4.processtest.installation_dir}/${org.geant4.processtest.macro_dirs}/Compton/0.1MeV/G4_C/run.mac.
For interactive sessions, the application should be executed from: ${org.geant4.processtest.installation_dirs}/${org.geant4.processtest.macro_dirs}/../.

Run the following command to see all available macros: docker run --rm $instanceid find validation -name run.mac.

To run a given configuration:

docker run -v "<dbdir>:/usr/local/geant4/data:ro" -v "$PWD:/output:rw" <imageID> \
		/runme.sh <physicslist> <macro>

Where:

• <dbdir> is the location, on the host of the Geant4 DB
• <imagename> is the docker image name for the validation
• <physicslist> is the physics list name to be used (e.g. FTFP_BERT)
• <macro> is the macro file to be executed (e.g. validation/Compton/0.1MeV/G4_C/run.mac)

Ouput will be located in the docker instance /output directory, in the example shared with host's $PWD. The output consists of a tarball file.