1. Installation of the ALICE Software
Peter Hristov
CERN, March 22, 2006

2. Packages Simulation, reconstruction, analysis
Root
Geant3
Fluka
AliRoot
Grid/distributed computing: VO, etc.
LCG
AliEn

3. What use cases are you supporting?
Root, Geant3, Fluka, AliRoot:
User installation: CVS download of recommended versions
Installation for Grid productions/applications: tarballs
AliEn:
User installation: AliEn installer
Production: VO installation

4. Installation: Environment Variables
# ROOT
export ROOTSYS=/home/mydir/root
export PATH=$PATH:$ROOTSYS/bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ROOTSYS/lib
# AliRoot
export ALICE=/home/mydir/alice
export ALICE_ROOT=$ALICE/AliRoot
export ALICE_TARGET=`root-config --arch`
export PATH=$PATH:$ALICE_ROOT/bin/tgt_${ALICE_TARGET}
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ALICE_ROOT/lib/tgt_${ALICE_TARGET}
# GEANT 3
export PLATFORM=`root-config --arch`
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ALICE/geant3/lib/tgt_${ALICE_TARGET}

5. Root Download (CVS)
Login to the ROOT CVS repository if you haven't done it yet:
cvs –d login
CVS password: cvs
Download (check out) the needed ROOT version (v in the example):
cvs -d co -r v root

6. Root Configuration: Pythia6
AliRoot supplies libpythia6.so
This is a modified version from standard for use with ALICE code.
ROOT checks for libPythia6.so and the a common block before the compilation of TPythia6 interface.
AliRoot needs ROOT with TPythia6 to compile successfully.
=> Circular dependence 

7. Root Configuration with Pythia6
Configure and “make” Root: no Pythia6
“make all-pythia6” in AliRoot (see below)
Create symbolic link between libpythia6.so and libPythai6.so
Re-configure Root: libPythia6.so is found
Do “make” in $ROOTSYS: obtain the “final” version of Root
Do “make” for AliRoot

8. Root: Compilation, Tests
After the configuration optionally edit MyConfig.mk. For example add there OPT += -g
Do “make; make map”
Do “cd test; make”
Optionally add “.” (dot) to LD_LIBRARY_PATH
Run “stress”, ”stressgeom”, ”stressLinear”, “stressVector”, etc.
Now you have fully operational Root 

9. Installation of Geant3
Geant3 compiles with minimal problems. Needs Root to make TGeant3 interface
Geant3 must be accessible from $ALICE/geant3
cd $ALICE
cvs -d co -r v1-4 geant3
cd geant3
make

10. Fluka Register and get the Fluka library from http://www.fluka.org
Unpack the library in $ALICE/fluka

11. AliRoot
Login to the AliRoot CVS repository if you haven't done it yet:
cvs –d login
CVS password: cvs
cd $ALICE
Download (check out) the needed AliRoot version (v in the example):
cvs -d co -r v AliRoot
cd AliRoot; make

12. Questions I How the tarballs (rpms) are prepared?
By the program librarian. We also include the relevant gcc libraries.
Do you have a common repository of tarballs?
They are registered/stored in AliEn
What different types and categories of tarballs are you supporting?
Linux (SLC3) on Pentium, Itanium, Opteron

13. Questions II Support for concurrent versions?
What optimizations are put in place to minimize the size of files to download?
Removal of the field maps which are not used
Support for concurrent versions?
Yes, stored in AliEn and described in the JDL file
How do you handle the dependences?
Simple Web page with the recommended sets of Root/Geant3/AliRoot tags

14. Questions III
What tools are used to simplify the task of end-user physicists?
No special tools. The support is via mailing list. Manuals and tutorials recently put in place
Are the users satisfied? What are the problems? – No major problems

15. Questions IV
Connection with the experiment configuration management system
AliEn packman used to register the tarballs
Plans to use AliEnBITS for nightly builds and preparation of tarballs
What is currently used from what is provided by AA/SPI?
What could be provided to simplify your task?

16. Package manager (PackMan)
Definition of a Package
Group of libraries and executables that have to be installed in the worker node
Do not require root access to be installed
Defined either by a VO or by a user
Dependencies with other packages
Packages configure the environment variables before job execution
PackMan was supposed to be the EGEE/gLite package manager

17. (Possible) deployment scenarios
Common
Packages
(ROOT, POOL,..)
VO & user
Packages
Site package cache
Worker node cache

18. Creating a package with PackMan
Creating tar file
tar czf ROOT.tar.gz
Registering the package in the catalogue:
(from the alien prompt)
packman define ROOT file://myhost/ROOT.tar
In the JDL of a job, require the package
Submit a JDL like:
Executable=“myExec.”;
Packages=“ROOT::5.2.0”;
InputFile=….

19. Additional package definition
There is also user defined metadata about the package. The metadata includes:
Size, dependencies, configuration script, pre- and post- installation scripts, installation script, pre- and post- remove scripts
To define any metadata the user has to :
Create the metadata structure for that directory
packman define AliROOT v file:/tmp/aliroot.tar.gz \ Dependencies=‘ROOT:5.2.0’

20. AliEn BITS: Motivation
Automate the process of building AliEn components
Have a current, up to date, installable binary image of AliEn for different architectures
Better understand the dependencies between the packages
Perform functional and unit tests at the build time and receive alerts immediately (4 different platforms!)
Provide software that works to the end-users

21. AliEn BITS: Building Environment
Based on the Konstruct framework used to build KDE and dependencies which is itself based on BSD ports system
Each package has a directory in a hierarchy
For each package there is a Makefile defining a set of variables:
Name, version, author, web page
License information
Build and runtime dependencies
Master sites for downloading the package source
Additional patches for AliEn specifics
Checksums for verifying the integrity of the files

22. Building Process [1] Get the available Releases
Select the one to be (re)built
Fetch the latest changes for this release
Do a (rsync and) cvs update
Select the packages that have to be rebuilt
Based on modifications received on cvs update
Based on last build status
Always rebuild and test AliEn packages
Determine the build order
Analyze the dependencies between packages

23. Building Process [2] For each package Generate web pages
Clean its environment
Fetch source archive from master sites
Generate SLOC statistics
Build, install and run tests
Create the binary image for binary installations
Generate web pages
Build / SLOC / Graph dependencies
Generate the pages for AliEn tests
Cleanup environment
Send notification when status changes

24. AliEnBITS: Summary
AliEn BITS is a tool for automatizing big projects build process (AliEn pkgs)
Intelligently select packages that have to be rebuilt
Offer different views for packages dependencies - very useful in understanding and managing large projects
Provide SLOC statistics
Save and present relevant logs on components testing
Building and continuous testing is important for delivering high quality software to end- users