Please check the News, in the upper right corner of the
Geant4 Homepage
Which versions are available on your machine:
Geant4 at Fermilab is available in ups/upd. To find out which versions are
available on your machine please follow the instructions :
> ups list -aK+ geant4
If ups is not installed on your machine, a user will NOT
be able to setup Geant4.
Which versions are available at Fermilab:
There may be more versions of Geant4 available in kits (upd) than are
installed on your machine. To obtain the information please
follow the instructions :
> setup upd
> upd list -aK+ geant4
You will not be able to setup versions which are only available in upd.
They must be installed on your machine first.
On which machines one can run Geant4 at
Fermilab :
Geant4 is supported at Fermilab on the Linux platform only.
On the central cluster FNALU we recommend flxi02 and flxi03 machines.
CDF users can run on any of the machines served by ncdf209 or the interactive
cluster fcdflnx2,fcdflnx3,...
For Geant4 installation on a PC, please see
specific instructions. How to choose the correct versions of Geant4:
We suggest the use of the latest version available on your machine.
You will need to select the flavor that corresponds to your machine.
Depending on the needs of your project, may choose either the regular
version or the version built with OpenGL.
Please note that starting from release v4_8_1_p01 and onward, in addition
to the Linux+2.4-2.3.2 flavor (SL3),
Geant4 product is also available in the Linux+2.6 flavor (SL4).
How do you know the flavor of your machine:
To determine the flavor use the following command:
> cat /etc/redhat-release
How to setup a particular version:
Use a qualifer (-q) to specify the desired compiler, for example:
> setup geant4 v4_9_2_p01 -q GCC_3_4_3-OpenGL
In general it is not necessary to specify the flavor, but you wish,
you may do so with the of use of the (-f) qualifer, for example:
> setup geant4 v4_9_2_p01 -q GCC_3_4_3-OpenGL
-f Linux+2.4-2.3.2
For SL4, we used the default compiler g77 or gcc-4.3.2; the build still has a qualifiers,
to identify the featured OpenGL-based visualization option;
to set it up, you may use either:
> setup geant4 v4_9_2_p01 -q g77-OpenGL
> setup geant4 v4_9_2_p01 -q GCC_4_3_2-OpenGL
How to find the Release Notes for a
particular version :
Release Notes are linked in the
Download section of the Geant4 page
Once you setup Geant4, you can also find Release Notes in the subdirectory: $G4INSTALL/ReleaseNotes
Currently the Release Notes are available in the html format.
They typically contain information on:
1. Supported and Tested Platforms
2. AIDA and CLHEP
3. Compiler Specific Problems
4. Known Run-Time Problems
5. Compilation Warnings
6. Known Run-Time Warnings
7. Major items for migration of user code
8. Detailed list of changes and fixes
Which version of CLHEP is being used:
Geant4 depends on the CLHEP product; it will be automatically set up
along with the Geant4; no specfic action from the user is needed.
If you want to check the version of CLHEP, use one of the following commands:
> echo $CLHEP_BASE_DIR
> echo $CLHEP_DIR
Geant4 Examples
Geant4 comes with a set of examples of various complexity.
We suggset that new Geant4 users start with the examples from the
novice category.
They can be found in the hierarchy of subdirectories, from /N01
to /N07, in the following area: $G4INSTALL/examples/novice
For each example a README file with instructions is provided along
with the source code.
How to build and run novice exampleN01:
This is the fisrt - and the simplest - example that introduces users
to the Geant4 basics.
The instructions below show how to build and run it.
First of all, you will need to set up Geant4 (see setup section).
After that, you will create your local work directory MyG4Test
(or any name of your choice):
> mkdir MyG4Test
and will copy into it all sources of the exampleN01:
> cp -r $G4INSTALL/examples/novice/N01 MyG4Test/.
Next, you will need to prepare your environment:
> cd MyG4Test/N01
> setenv G4WORKDIR $PWD
Please note that you should set environment variable G4WORKDIR to point explicitely
to your work area; otherwise the build (gmake) procedure will fail because
it will try to create ``service'' /tmp and /bin subdirectories
in the ``default'' $G4INSTALL area, where a typical user does not have the ``write''
access.
Next step is to build the executable, which will be done via issuing statement:
> gmake
This will produce binary file exampleN01 in the $G4WORKDIR/bin/$G4SYSTEM subdirectory
(G4SYSTEM
is one of the environment variables defined upon Geant4 setup; for details see
Information on Environment Variables
).
It may also be useful
to define an environment variable to point to the area
where your executable is located, for example:
> setenv G4EXE $G4WORKDIR/bin/$G4SYSTEM
This example does not need any input; you can run it as follows:
> $G4EXE/exampleN01
which will produce an output on your screen, or you can redirect output into
a file FileName.out (any name of your choice):
> $G4EXE/exampleN01 >& FileName.out
You may compare your output with the ``standard'' output file exampleN01.out provided
along with the example (you will
find it in your $G4WORDIR area)
How to build and run novice exampleN02 with
the openGL visualization:
The instructions are simular to those for exampleN01.
However, there are several differences.
First of all, you will need to set up Geant4 product built with
the OpenGL (see setup section).
In addition, you will need to set several environment variables specific
to the OpenGL use:
> setenv G4VIS_BUILD_OPENGLX_DRIVER 1
> setenv G4VIS_USE_OPENGLX 1
> setenv OGLHOME /usr/X11R6
> setenv OGLFLAGS "-I$OGLHOME/include"
> setenv OGLLIBS "-L/usr/X11R6/lib -lGL -lGLU"
Now you can copy exampleN02 and build it following the instructions
provided above for exampleN01.
Visualization is initialized and controlled via a set of /vis/ user
interface commands provided in the example input file vis.mac.
The vis.mac will be automatically read by the main() if you
run exampleN02 without any input argument:
> $G4EXE/exampleN02
This mode is called ``interactive'', and at the end of the job you will
need to type exit at the program command prompt:
Idle> exit
Alternatively, you can run exampleN02 with either vis.mac , or run1.mac,
or run2.mac explicitely on input, for example:
> $G4EXE/exampleN02 vis.mac
This mode is called ``batch''. Please note that if you run in the ``batch''
mode with the vis.mac file on input, the OpenGL window
will be closed automatically upon the program termination.
Running with run1.mac or run2.mac will NOT employ openGL visualization.
Tips on other examples:
1. Building other examples is similar to exampleN01.
2. In case you choose to put several examples in the same area MyG4Test,
you may want to set your environment variable
G4WORKDIR to point directly to MyG4Test, rather than to the area of a specific
example. In this case all the executables
will be in the same area, because
the build procedure (gmake) always creates /tmp and /bin in G4WORKDIR.
However, you will still need to move to the area of one or another
example and to issue the gmake statement there, in order
to build the example.
3. Some examples will need specific data and will require setting up
additional environment variable. For instance, to be able
to run exampleN04 you will have to:
> setup g4photon v2_0
> setenv G4LEVELGAMMADATA g4photon
> setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$G4LIB/plists/$G4SYSTEM/:$G4LIB/$G4SYSTEM/
For more details please check
Information on additional products
Whether you need to do all this each
time you logon:
A convenient way is to write a short shell script.
An example shell script
start_geant4.tcsh is offered; typically it refers to the latest
version available at Fermilab.
Each time you logon you source the file:
> source start_geant4.tcsh
(You will need to make sure it is executable. If it is not, you can change
the protection assigned to the file:
chmod 744 start_geant4.tcsh)
Those who are interested in using OpenGL visualization option, please see an example
shell script
start_geant4_OGL.tcsh
that includes setting up several specific environment variables.
You will need to make sure that the file protections allows its execution, after
that you can source it.
