Contact

Dr. Roland Beyer

Beam line scientist, radiation protection officer FWK
Nuclear Physics
roland.beyer@hzdr.de
Phone: +49 351 260 3281

Data Analysis with Go4

Go4 is the GSI Analysis Framework that stands for GSI Object Orientated On-line Off-line system. It is based on the ROOT framework (CERN) an therefore provides full ROOT functionality.

Useful Links

For further information the Go4 homepage the documentation and the tutorials might be useful.

The ROOT homepage also provides tutorials, howto's, user manual and a reference guide.

Data Analysis

The data stream or the list-mode data (LMD) files written by MBS can be analysed using those packages.

Go4 is installed and working on the zirkonia and the fwk108 at the moment. The working directories are:

zirkonia:/home/ntofdaq/go4/nng/

  1. login on zirkonia ssh -X ntofdaq@zirkonia   password: ***********
  2. set environment variables go4log

fwk108:/home/ntofdaq/go4

  1. login on fwk108 ssh -X ntofdaq@fwk108   password: ***********
  2. start bash  (.bashrc is not loaded automatically) bash

Environment variables as user ntofdaq@fwk108 are set automatically when calling bash as specified in ~/.bashrc

Example

There is an example on the fwk108 that will make you familiar with basic functions of the Go4 packages, e.g. data unpacking, filling histograms, using parameters and conditions and creating tree-files. The example folder is the following:

fwk108:/home/ntofdaq/go4/example

Copy this folder and have a look at the files inside:

ntofdaq@fwk108:~/go4/example > ls

AnalysisStart.sh   file.C                                    MainUserAnalysis.cxx   rename.sh*       TXXXEvent.h        TXXXProc.cxx

data.lmd              Go4UserAnalysisLinkDef.h   Makefile                        setup.C             TXXXParam.cxx   TXXXProc.h

DefineObjects.C   LoadObjects.C                      Module.mk                   TXXXEvent.cxx   TXXXParam.h

With the different files one can handle different tasks that should be executed while the analysis is running. A short description is given in the following table:

Filename Function Step by step
MainUserAnalysis.cxx main file that calls the analysis scripts and methods  
TXXXProc class for unpacking and creating and filling histograms and conditions Unpacking and Filling histograms
TXXXParam class for the definition and handling of parameters for the analysis Including parameter and conditions
TXXXEvent class for the definition of ROOT tree files Creating ROOT tree files
DefineObjects.C, LoadObjects.C code that has been outsourced from the TXXXProc.cxx to get the source code more clearly arranged  
setup.C, file.C predefined configuration scripts called by MainUserAnalysis.cxx  
AnalysisStart.sh user analysis startup script use by GUI analysis  
Makefile, Module.mk, Go4UserAnalysisLinkDef.h information needed for compiling  
rename.sh rename script - use to change text patterns in all filenames and files in this directory  
data.lmd sample lmd data file used as example  

Building the code

Once finished with the changing of your source code one need to compile it. This is done with the Makefile:

  • make - compiles and links as defined in the Makefile (Makefile, Module.mk, Go4UserAnalysisLinkDef.h)
  • make clean - removes links, deletes object files and libraries

When the compilation finished without errors one is ready for the analysis.

Analysis via batch mode

The analysis via batch mode can be used to analyse the lmd-files written by the data acquisition. Just type

  • ./MainUserAnalysis -f data.lmd [opt]

The argument -f is required  when using a file input followed by the path  of the file to analyse. With [opt] one can define a maximum number of events to be processed (integer number).

After the analysis finishes two *.root files should have been added to the directory:

  • data_AS.root - autosave file where all of the histograms, conditions and parameters are stored
  • tree.root - file that contains the ROOT trees

These files can be opened using the Go4 GUI or the ROOT TBrowser.

Analysis via GUI

Start the Go4 graphical user interface typing go4 in the command line. The offline anlysis of the lmd files is done in the following way:

  • Analysis -> Launch analysis

In the "Start Client" window one has to check whether the Executable and the Directory is chosen correctly. In our case it is "MainUserAnalysis" and "/home/ntofdaq/go4/example/". Click "Start" and wait for the Analysis Terminal to pop up. I f it does not show up click

  • Analysis -> Analysis Window

Watch the status messages and when the scripts are executed a second window should show up. Here one can disable the "Store" option and has to configure the Event Source. The Event Source has to be set to MBS file and in "Name" one has to specify the path where the lmd file is stored. In our case it is "/home/ntofdaq/go4/example/data.lmd". The other options need no change. Click "Submit" to initialise the event classes.

On the left side (browser) one can double click on Analysis and can see inside the directories the histograms that are not filled yet.

The analysis is started with

  • Analysis -> Start

The status line at the bottom shows you the events processed. When the analysis is finished (after less then a second, only 40 events) one can look at the filled histograms.

The analysis is correctly closed with

  • Analysis -> shutdown analysis server

After the Terminal window outputs "done", go4 can be closed.

Online Analysis

The online analysis is similar to the analysis via GUI, except that the Event Source is a different one: MBS Stream Server or Remote Event Server. The name is for example rio4 or rio7.