Typical Steps in SAS Projects

  Many newcomers to STAR offline computing and software will be primarily interested in doing a simulation project of some kind, for example: a study of detector performance, an evaluation of the effects of a proposed design modification on the reconstruction performance, or perhaps testing the feasibility of a potential physics signal of the QGP. Others will be interested, or will find it necessary, to modify the existing software or to develop entirely new modules, tables and/or kumac files. After going through this lengthy overview and the following tutorials, the beginner may understandably feel overwhelmed and might have become totally dazed and confused about how to get started on their project.

The following lists of steps are intended to provide overall guidance to help beginners get started. No details are given and these steps are not rigid requirements, but they should help organize the work plan. The typical steps in a simulation project are listed first, followed by the steps for an offline software development project. The first list applies to projects that do not involve any module development, where existing STAF executables can be used or new executables only need to be linked from existing libraries.

Typical Steps in a Simulation Project:

(Examples will be included in the STAF tutorials.)

• Determine what detectors, reconstruction and physics analysis are required. Survey the relevant documentation to get an idea of what software is available and which PKGs, PAM and tables are involved. Discuss the project with the SAS group leader most directly responsible for this area of software, or with the physics working group convenor if appropriate.
• Create a local, dummy PKG directory tree structure to work in, edit the Makefile.control file to link the required ASPs, PAMs (by PKG), user Libraries and CERNLIB; build the STAF executable on the desired platform.
• Run a STAR event generator to produce simulated events or use existing events in /star/mds/data.
• Run GSTAR/g2t using the event generator output, the appropriate STAR geometry files, and the necessary physics process switches and threshold parameters.
• Develop the KUIP macro (kumac file) to control the execution of STAF for your specific application. This involves loading the necessary initialization and setup kumacs for each PAM, determining the dataset organization, GSTAR/g2t event stream input, calling the modules, saving the desired output tables in PAW ntuples. The best approach is to edit a similar, existing kumac file if available.
• Run the STAF executable and analyze the results with PAW.

Steps in a Typical Software Development Project:

(Examples will be included in the STAF tutorials.)

• Determine what existing PKGs, PAMs and tables are necessary, and if existing PKGs need to be modified or if new PKGs need to be created. Discuss the project with the SAS group leader most directly responsible for this area of software, or with the physics working group convenor if appropriate.
• If a new PKG is needed, submit a Package Proposal Form to the appropriate Software Branch Manager. If the new PKG is approved the manager will create the new PKG using CVS and the corresponding AFS group. The STAR web servant (Al Saulys) will set the necessary links to install the PKG documentation files.
• ``Check-out'' the PKG into your local directory area. This is where all development, debugging, testing and running will be done.
• Edit or write the PKG_table.idl files in the PKG/inc directory.
• Edit or write the analysis module(s) and the PAM.idl files in the PKG/src directory.
• Edit the Makefile.control file and compile and build STAF. When the PKG builds and runs satisfactorily, edit Makefile.control and include any other required ASPs and PAMs to build a complete STAF executable for further testing and simulation studies.
• When the new or modified PKG is working and tested to your satisfaction, write or update the PKG/doc/*.html files.
• Add (remove) files in the PKG which you want CVS to (to no longer) manage. These should be text files only, no binaries! Also do not include temporary files, working junk files, etc.
• ``Check-in'' the PKG to the CVS repository. Install the binary object libraries and *.inc files, being sure to build and install the PKG libraries on each, principal architecture.
• Verify installation including doc files and libraries.
• Announce the new or modified PKG to starsoft-l.