[Halld-offline] Offline Software Meeting Minutes, March 20, 2013

[Mark M. Ito]

Find the minutes below and at 
https://halldweb1.jlab.org/wiki/index.php/GlueX_Offline_Meeting,_March_20,_2013#Minutes 
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GlueX Offline Meeting, March 20, 2013
Minutes

    Present:
      * CMU: Will Levine, Paul Mattione
      * IU: Kei Moriya, Matt Shepherd
      * JLab: David Lawrence, Mark Ito (chair), Simon Taylor, Elliott
        Wolin, Beni Zihlmann
      * UConn: Alex Barnes, Richard Jones

Making REST skims

    Paul reviewed the change that he checked in to allow users to skims of
    REST format data. Previously the REST-writing capability was bound up
    with other code used during the data challenge. See [33]his email for
    details.

Simple Email Lists: Mark

    Mark reviewed the mechanism we are using for three notification-type
    email lists:
     1. nightly builds of GlueX software
     2. b1pi reconstruction tests
     3. single-track reconstruction tests

    The system is described on [Simple Email Lists|his wiki page]. The idea
    is to have a light-weight system suited for cron jobs and targeted at a
    limited audience.

No more hardwired run numbers

    David reviewed [34]his announcement of changes that removed a few
    instances of hard-wired run numbers in our code. Up until recently
    there was no run dependence in calibration constant look-up, so there
    was little practical effect.

Switch back to use of public version of ROOT at JLab?

    Mark proposed that at JLab, we go back to using the
    IT-Division-provided versions of ROOT. Some months ago we switched to
    using privately built (Hall D specific) versions. The intent is to
    support any effort IT Division makes to support physics analysis in
    general by using the products they offer, i. e. demonstrate that we can
    play nice with others. There was general support for this move. Mark
    will work on making the change.

HDDM changes: Richard

    We reviewed some proposed changes from Richard to rationalize the data
    model for Monte Carlo data to more clearly identify information that is
    known only from the simulation and would not be available in real data.
    This information had been incorporated in a somewhat ad hoc fashion.
    The need for this information is real; this is an attempt to clean up
    the implementation. See [35]his talk, presented in various versions at
    a [36]series of meetings held over the past couple of weeks, for
    details of the proposal. Feedback from David, Beni, Simon, Paul, and
    Mark has been incorporated in the plan.

    Richard wants to do these changes before doing a conversion of the
    simulation from Geant3 to 4. He hopes to have this set of changes done
    by the Summer.

JANA 0.6.6

    David announced that he has tagged a new version of JANA, version
    0.6.6. Simon and Paul have been using it. New features include:
      * resources
      * start-up time improvement for multi-threaded jobs
      * warnings due to conflicting autoconf makefiles eliminated

Computer Resource Request

    Graham Heyes has asked us to estimate the resource use at JLab for the
    FY14, 15, and 16. From his message:
     1. What computing capacity do you require in units of cores of the
        current generation of machines in the Farm.
     2. What disk capacity do you need, volatile, work etc, units of
        terabytes.
     3. How much data do you anticipate writing to tape, units of
        terabytes.

    Mark will work on drafting a response. Input from the collaboration
    welcome.

Policy on Virtual Machines at JLab

    David mentioned that Andy Kowalski of CNI recently circulated a draft
    proposal for use of virtual machines at the Lab. Previously, these have
    been forbidden and he is outlining situations where their use may be
    allowed. The policy is aimed at maintaining cyber security by insuring
    that only vetted operating systems are running on Lab-owned equipment.
    There is some DOE-oversight context to these policies as well. There
    has been a lot of internal discussion at the Lab about the document
    since the use of virtual machines is...well...useful in many contexts
    and the policy would not allow users free rein to install them. Such
    use is not unprecedented, despite the existing policy.

    Retrieved from
"https://halldweb1.jlab.org/wiki/index.php/GlueX_Offline_Meeting,_March_20,_2013"

References

   33. 
https://mailman.jlab.org/pipermail/halld-offline/2013-February/001271.html
   34. 
https://mailman.jlab.org/pipermail/halld-offline/2013-March/001296.html
   35. http://zeus.phys.uconn.edu/halld/datamodel/hitView_v3b.ppt
   36. https://halldweb1.jlab.org/wiki/index.php/Geant4_Upgrade_Meetings

-- 
Mark M. Ito, Jefferson Lab, marki at jlab.org, (757)269-5295