Next generation input-output file format for particle experiments
ProMC is a library for file input and output of Monte Carlo event records or any HEP structural data. The main features are:
- Content-dependent compression. Event records are encoded using Google protocol buffers with variable number of bytes ("varints"). This leads to 30% (and more) smaller file sizes compared to any known compression based on a fixed-length representation of numeric information.
- Multiplatform. Data records can be read and can be written natively in C++, Java and Python.
- Self-describing data format. Analysis source codes can be generated from ProMC files with unknown data layouts.
- Forwards-compatible and backwards-compatible binary wire format.
- Random access. Events can be read starting at any index.
- Fast. No CPU overhead on decompression of events
- Simplicity. No external dependence. The library is small and self-contained. The library has been deployed on BlueGene/Q.
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S.Chekanov, E.May, K.Strand, P. Van Gemmeren, ProMC: Input-output data format for HEP applications using varint encoding, ANL-HEP-PR-13-41, arXiv:1311.1229, Computer Physics Communications 185 (2014), pp. 2629-2635
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S.Chekanov, “Next generation input-output data format for HEP using Google protocol buffers”, ANL-HEP-CP-13-32, Snowmass 2013 Proceedings. arxiv.org:1306.6675
Read the manual: https://atlaswww.hep.anl.gov/asc/wikidoc/doku.php?id=asc:promc
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Compile: ./build.sh
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Install libraries and include files to a given directory (must have permissions!):
./install.sh [promc_dir] [hepmc_dir]
(the location of HEPMC libraries are optional)
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Setup the ProMC as:
source [promc_dir]/setup.sh
./uninstall.sh
Clear the build directory:
./clear.sh
Look at the examples in $PROMC/examples directory
S.Chekanov (ANL), E.May (ANL), P. Van Gemmeren (ANL)
October 2014