LCIO

LCIO is a persistency framework that defines a data model for linear collider detector studies. It is intended to be used in both simulation studies and analysis frameworks. Its light weight and portability makes it also suitable for use in detector R&D applications. It provides a C++ and a Java implementation with a common interface (API) - a Fortran interface to the C++ implementation also exists.

Almost all groups involved in linear collider detector studies have their own simulation software framework. Using a common persistency scheme would allow to easily share results and compare pattern recognition algorithms. LCIO (Linear Collider I/O) is such a persistency framework. LCIO is used by one US group and will be the standard format for the european simulation applications, where others might join in the near future.

The framework fulfills the requirements of the different groups today and is flexible enough to be adapted to future needs.

Releases

Release version 1.12.2

The current production version of LCIO is available via CVS checkout (v01-12-02). Please refer to the users manual on how to get and build LCIO.
Or browse the complete documetation here.
New features in this release:

v01-12-02

• fix bug with backward compatibility for reading TrackerHits

• optionally build a ROOT dictionary for LCIO
• see: ./examples/cpp/rootDict/README for details
• (library and files fully compatible with v01-12)

• added quality bit field for TrackerHit (issue LCIO-63)
• new features in java/lcio: output directory in split command and Poisson distribution in merge command

older releases:

• made direct (random) access mode in C++ optional
• bug fixes and improvements in C++ (build procedure, gcc4.x)

• new optional attribute CalorimeterHit::getEnergyError()
• optional linkage agains libdcap for dCache (C++)
• added PIDHandler to UTIL for convenient access to ParticleID objects (C++)
• restructured test programs for C++
• made compatible w/ gcc4.3 (C++)

• optionally set the compression level in LCWriter (C++)
• added event weight (LCEvent.getWeight())
• improved handling of stdhep files (conversion to LCIO)
• bug fixes

v01-08 New features in this release:

• C++ runtime (user) extensions and relations
• new Vertex class
• new Java lcio command line tool
• bug fixes

v01-07: New features in this release:

• optional python binding (J. McCormick) - see README
• C++ utility code for encoding/decoding of cell ids in hit classes (UTIL::CellIDEncoder and UTIL::CellIDDecoder)
• introduced additional pathLength in SimTrackerHit for silicon tracker digitization
• UTIL::LCSplitWriter to split large files in C++
• fixed files size limit (2GB) in SIO C++ implementation

v01-06: This release allows to optionally store the momentum for SimTrackerHits and to skip any number of events when reading an LCIO file. versions.readme for details.
--> Files are downward compatible with v01-05.

v01-05: This release adds new classes for raw tracker data: TrackerRawData, TrackerData and TrackerPulse. A number of improvements and bug fixes have been introduced. Some trivial changes might be necessary in user code as the return type of 4-momentum attributes of MCParticle and ReconstructedParticle have been changed to double. Files are downward compatible with v01-04.

v01-04: This release introduces collections that hold subsets of objects in other collections, transient and persistent. Multiple I/O streams are now also supported in C++. LCGenericObjects now also in Java. A small change in subclasses of LCGenericObject is needed (C++ only). Files are downward compatible with v01-03.

v01-03-01: A few bugs have been fixed in this release. No changes in the file format or API. .

v01-03: The new release contains the reconstruction data model, support for user extension classes and relatioships between LCIO objects. Please refer to the manual for a detailed list of changes wrt. v01-00 and an introduction to the data model.

Due to restructuring of the software in some rare cases minor changes to user code might be necessary eventhough we tried to keep the API compatible with v01-00.

v01-00: Eventhough the file format has changed with respect to v00-08 old files can still be read with this new version of LCIO. From now on the file format of LCIO releases will be downward compatible (schema evolution). The API of MCParticle had to be changed in order to allow multiple parents (as used in the fragmentation process by most generators) and an additional simulator status word has been addded.
Please switch to the new version soon.

v00-08: first public release. The file format is incompatible with older (test) releases.

Developer and User Documentation

User Questions and Bug reports

To report a bug in LCIO or request a new feature please go to http://bugs.freehep.org and create a new issue.

Tools and Applications

• Mokka simulation
• Brahms reconstruction - LCIO support under development
• JAS3 provides a plugin to conveniently browse LCIO files

Documents

• Talk given at the CHEP conference 03/25/2003 (pdf)
• Status report for the Miniworkshop at CERN 02/25/2003 (pdf)
• Minutes of Meeting at SLAC (pdf)
• Minutes of Meeting at LLR-Ecole Polytechnique (pdf)
• Considerations on the data model, by Ties Behnke (pdf).
• Simulation output data model: lcio.xml
• Reconstruction output data model (proposal): data.xml
• Design considerations for LCIO (pdf)

Last modified: Mon Feb 8 18:11:14 2010