Using Geant4Make to build Applications

Please note that this system is deprecated since Geant4 v10.0, meaning that it is no longer supported and may be removed in future releases without warning. You should migrate your application to be built using CMake via the Geant4Config.cmake script, or any other build tool of your choice, using the geant4-config program to query the relevant compiler/linker flags.

Geant4Make is the Geant4 GNU Make toolchain formerly used to build the toolkit and applications. It is installed on UNIX systems (except for Cygwin) for backwards compatibility with the Geant4 Examples and your existing applications which use a GNUmakefile and the Geant4Make binmake.gmk file. The files for Geant4Make are installed under:

+- CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/
   +- share/
      +- geant4make/
         +- geant4make.sh
         +- geant4make.csh
         +- config/
            +- binmake.gmk
            +- ...

The system is designed to form a self-contained GNUMake system which is configured primarily by environment variables (though you may manually replace these with Make variables if you prefer). Building a Geant4 application using Geant4Make therefore involves configuring your environment followed by writing a GNUmakefile using the Geant4Make variables and GNUMake modules.

To configure your environment, simply source the relevant configuration script CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/share/Geant4-G4VERSION/geant4make/geant4make.(c)sh for your shell. Whilst both scripts can be sourced interactively, if you are using the C shell and need to source the script inside another script, you must use the commands:

$ cd CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX/share/Geant4-G4VERSION/geant4make
$ source geant4make.csh

You should replace CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX with the actual prefix you installed Geant4 under. Both of these commands work around a limitation in the C shell which prevents the script locating itself.

Please also note that due to limitations of Geant4Make, you should not rely on the environment variables it sets for paths into Geant4 itself. In particular, note that the G4INSTALL variable is not equivalent to CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.

Once you have configured your environment, you can start building your application. Geant4Make enforces a specific organization and naming of your sources in order to simplify the build. We’ll use Basic Example B1, which you may find in the Geant4 source directory under examples/basic/B1, as the canonical example again. Here, the sources are arranged as follows:

+- B1/
   +- GNUmakefile
      +- exampleB1.cc
      +- include/
         ... headers.hh ...
      +- src/
         ... sources.cc ...

As before, exampleB1.cc contains main() for the application, with include/ and src/ containing the implementation class headers and sources respectively. You must organise your sources in this structure with these filename extensions to use Geant4Make as it will expect this structure when it tries to build the application.

With this structure in place, the GNUmakefile for exampleB1 is very simple:

name := exampleB1
G4TARGET := $(name)
G4EXLIB := true

.PHONY: all
all: lib bin

include $(G4INSTALL)/config/binmake.gmk

Here, name is set to the application to be built, and it must match the name of the file containing the main() program without the .cc extension. The rest of the variables are structural to prepare the build, and finally the core Geant4Make module is included. The G4INSTALL variable is set in the environment by the geant4make script to point to the root of the Geant4Make directory structure.

With this structure in place, simply run make to build your application:

$ make

If you need extra detail on the build, append CPPVERBOSE=1 to the make command to see a detailed log of the command executed.

The application executable will be output to $(G4WORKDIR)/bin/$(G4SYSTEM)/exampleB1, where $(G4SYSTEM) is the system and compiler combination you are running on, e.g. Linux-g++. By default, $(G4WORKDIR) is set by the geant4make scripts to $(HOME)/geant4_workdir, and also prepends this directory to your PATH. You can therefore run the application directly once it’s built:

$ exampleB1

If you prefer to keep your application builds separate, then you can set G4WORKDIR in the GNUmakefile before including binmake.gmk. In this case you would have to run the executable by supplying the full path.

Geant4Make System

The Geant4Make system is mainly controlled by the following GNUmake script files (*.gmk scripts are placed in $G4INSTALL/config):

  • architecture.gmk: defining all the architecture specific settings and paths. System settings are stored in $G4INSTALL/config/sys in separate files.

  • common.gmk: defining all general GNUmake rules for building objects and libraries.

  • globlib.gmk: defining all general GNUmake rules for building compound libraries.

  • binmake.gmk: defining the general GNUmake rules for building executables.

  • GNUmake scripts: placed inside each directory in the G4 distribution and defining directives specific to build a library (or a set of sub-libraries) or and executable.

To build a single library (or a set of sub-libraries) or an executable, you must explicitly change your current directory to the one you’re interested in and invoke the “make” command from there (“make global” for building a compound library). Here is a list of the basic commands or GNUmake “targets” one can invoke to build libraries and/or executables:

  • make

    starts the compilation process for building a kernel library or a library associated with an example. Kernel libraries are built with maximum granularity, i.e. if a category is a compound, this command will build all the related sub-libraries, not the compound one. The top level GNUmakefile in $G4INSTALL/source will also build in this case a dependency map libname.map of each library to establish the linking order automatically at the bin step. The map will be placed in $G4LIB/$G4SYSTEM.

  • make global

    starts the compilation process to build a single compound kernel library per category. If issued after “make”, both ‘granular’ and ‘compound’ libraries will be available (NOTE: this will consistently increase the disk space required. Compound libraries will then be selected by default at link time, unless G4LIB_USE_GRANULAR is specified).

  • make bin or make (only for examples/)

    starts the compilation process to build an executable. This command will build implicitly the library associated with the example and link the final application. It assumes all kernel libraries are already generated and placed in the correct $G4INSTALL path defined for them.

    The linking order is controlled automatically in case libraries have been built with maximum granularity, and the link list is generated on the fly.

  • make dll

    On Windows systems this will start the compilation process to build single compound kernel library per category and generate Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). Once the libraries are generated, the process will imply also the deletion of all temporary files generated during the compilation.

lib/ bin/ and tmp/ directories

The $G4INSTALL environment variable specifies where the installation of the Geant4 toolkit should take place, therefore kernel libraries will be placed in $G4INSTALL/lib. The $G4WORKDIR environment variable is set by the user and specifies the path to the user working directory; temporary files (object-files and data products of the installation process of Geant4) will be placed in $G4WORKDIR/tmp, according to the system architecture used. Binaries will be placed in $G4WORKDIR/bin, according to the system architecture used. The path to $G4WORKDIR/bin/$G4SYSTEM should be added to $PATH in the user environment.

Environment variables

Here is a list of the most important environment variables defined within the Geant4 GNUmake infrastructure, with a short explanation of their use.

Warning

We recommend that those environment variables listed here and marked with (*) NOT be overridden or set (explicitly or by accident). They are already set and used internally in the default setup !

System configuration

$CLHEP_BASE_DIR

Specifies the path where the CLHEP package is installed in your system.

$USOLIDS_BASE_DIR

Specifies the path where the USolids package is installed in your system.

$G4SYSTEM

Defines the architecture and compiler currently used.

Note

This variable is set automatically if the Configure script is adopted for the installation. This will result in the proper settings also for configuring the environment with the generated shell scripts env.[c]sh.

Installation paths

$G4INSTALL

Defines the path where the Geant4 toolkit is located. It should be set by the system installer. By default, it sets to $HOME/geant4, assuming the Geant4 distribution is placed in $HOME .

$G4BASE (*)

Defines the path to the source code. Internally used to define $CPPFLAGS and $LDFLAGS for -I and -L directives. It has to be set to $G4INSTALL/src.

$G4WORKDIR

Defines the path for the user’s workdir for Geant4. It is set by default to $HOME/geant4, assuming the user’s working directory for Geant4 is placed in $HOME.

$G4INCLUDE

Defines the path where source header files may be mirrored at installation by issuing gmake includes (default is set to $G4INSTALL/include)

$G4BIN, $G4BINDIR (*)

Used by the system to specify the place where to store executables. By default they’re set to $G4WORKDIR/bin and $G4BIN/$G4SYSTEM respectively. The path to $G4WORKDIR/bin/$G4SYSTEM should be added to $PATH in the user environment. $G4BIN can be overridden.

$G4TMP, $G4TMPDIR (*)

Used by the system to specify the place where to store temporary files products of the compilation/build of a user application or test. By default they’re set to $G4WORKDIR/tmp and $G4TMP/$G4SYSTEM respectively. $G4TMP can be overridden.

$G4LIB, $G4LIBDIR (*)

Used by the system to specify the place where to install libraries. By default they’re set to $G4INSTALL/lib and $G4LIB/$G4SYSTEM respectively. $G4LIB can be overridden.

Build specific

$G4TARGET

Specifies the target (name of the source file defining the main()) of the application/example to be built. This variable is set automatically for the examples and tests placed in $G4INSTALL/examples .

$G4DEBUG

Specifies to compile the code (libraries or examples) including symbolic information in the object code for debugging. The size of the generated object code can increase considerably. By default, code is compiled in optimised mode ($G4OPTIMISE set).

$G4OPTDEBUG

Only available for the g++ compiler, specifies to compile the code (libraries or examples) in optimised mode, but including symbolic information in the object code for debugging.

$G4USE_STD11

Specifies to compile the code (libraries or examples) with C++11 Standard enabled on compilers supporting the C++11 Standard.

$G4NO_OPTIMISE

Specifies to compile the code (libraries or examples) without compiler optimisation.

$G4PROFILE

On Linux systems with the g++ compiler, it allows to build libraries with profiling setup for monitoring with the gprof tool.

$G4_NO_VERBOSE

Geant4 code is compiled by default in high verbosity mode ($G4VERBOSE flag set). For better performance, verbosity code can be left out by defining $G4_NO_VERBOSE.

$G4LIB_BUILD_SHARED

Flag specifying if to build kernel libraries as shared libraries (libraries will be then used by default). If not set, static archive libraries are built by default.

$G4LIB_BUILD_STATIC

Flag specifying if to build kernel libraries as static archive libraries in addition to shared libraries (in case $G4LIB_BUILD_SHARED is set as well).

$G4LIB_BUILD_DLL (*)

Internal flag for specifying to build DLL kernel libraries for Windows systems. The flag is automatically set when requested to build DLLs.

$G4LIB_USE_DLL

For Windows systems only. Flag to specify to build an application using the installed DLL kernel libraries for Windows systems. It is required to have this flag set in the environment in order to successfully build an application if the DLL libraries have been installed.

$G4LIB_USE_GRANULAR

To force usage of “granular” libraries against “compound” libraries at link time in case both have been installed. The Geant4 building system chooses “compound” libraries by default, if installed.

UI specific

The most relevant flags for User Interface drivers are just listed here. A more detailed description is given also in section 2. of this User’s Guide.

G4UI_USE_TERMINAL

Specifies to use dumb terminal interface in the application to be built (default).

G4UI_USE_TCSH

Specifies to use the tcsh-shell like interface in the application to be built.

G4UI_BUILD_XM_SESSION

Specifies to include in kernel library the XM Motif-based user interfaces.

G4UI_USE_XM

Specifies to use the XM interfaces in the application to be built.

G4UI_BUILD_WIN32_SESSION

Specifies to include in kernel library the WIN32 terminal interface for Windows systems.

G4UI_USE_WIN32

Specifies to use the WIN32 interfaces in the application to be built on Windows systems.

G4UI_BUILD_QT_SESSION

Specifies to include in kernel library the Qt terminal interface. $QTHOME should specify the path where Qt libraries and headers are installed

G4UI_USE_QT

Specifies to use the Qt interfaces in the application to be built.

G4UI_NONE

If set, no UI sessions nor any UI libraries are built. This can be useful when running a pure batch job or in a user framework having its own UI system.

Visualization specific

The most relevant flags for visualization graphics drivers are just listed here. A description of these variables is given also in section 2. of this User’s Guide.

$G4VIS_BUILD_OPENGLX_DRIVER

Specifies to build kernel library for visualization including the OpenGL driver with X11 extension. It requires $OGLHOME set (path to OpenGL installation).

$G4VIS_USE_OPENGLX

Specifies to use OpenGL graphics with X11 extension in the application to be built.

$G4VIS_BUILD_OPENGLXM_DRIVER

Specifies to build kernel library for visualization including the OpenGL driver with XM extension. It requires $OGLHOME set (path to OpenGL installation).

$G4VIS_USE_OPENGLXM

Specifies to use OpenGL graphics with XM extension in the application to be built.

G4VIS_BUILD_OPENGLQT_DRIVER

Specifies to build kernel library for visualization including the OpenGL driver with Qt extension. It requires $QTHOME set to specify the path where Qt libraries and headers are installed.

G4VIS_USE_OPENGLQT

Specifies to use OpenGL graphics with Qt extension in the application to be built.

$G4VIS_BUILD_OI_DRIVER

Specifies to build kernel library for visualization including the OpenInventor driver. It requires $OIHOME set (paths to the OpenInventor installation).

$G4VIS_USE_OI

Specifies to use OpenInventor graphics in the application to be built.

$G4VIS_BUILD_OIX_DRIVER

Specifies to build the driver for the free X11 version of OpenInventor.

$G4VIS_USE_OIX

Specifies to use the free X11 version of OpenInventor.

$G4VIS_BUILD_RAYTRACERX_DRIVER

Specifies to build kernel library for visualization including the Ray-Tracer driver with X11 extension. It requires X11 installed in the system.

$G4VIS_USE_RAYTRACERX

Specifies to use the X11 version of the Ray-Tracer driver.

$G4VIS_BUILD_OIWIN32_DRIVER

Specifies to build the driver for the free X11 version of OpenInventor on Windows systems.

$G4VIS_USE_OIWIN32

Specifies to use the free X11 version of OpenInventor on Windows systems.

$G4VIS_BUILD_DAWN_DRIVER

Specifies to build kernel library for visualization including the driver for DAWN.

$G4VIS_USE_DAWN

Specifies to use DAWN as a possible graphics renderer in the application to be built.

$G4DAWN_HOST_NAME

To specify the hostname for use with the DAWN-network driver.

Hadronic physics specific

$G4NEUTRONHP_USE_ONLY_PHOTONEVAPORATION

When using high precision neutron code, user may choose to force the use of Photon Evaporation model instead of using the neutron capture final state data.

$G4NEUTRONHP_SKIP_MISSING_ISOTOPES

User can force high precision neutron code to use only exact isotope data files instead of allowing nearby isotope files to be used. If the exact file is not available, the cross section will be set to zero and a warning message will be printed.

$G4NEUTRONHP_NEGLECT_DOPPLER

Sets neglecting Doppler broadening mode for boosting performance.

GDML, zlib and g3tog4 modules

$G4LIB_BUILD_GDML

If set, triggers compilation of a plugin module gdml for allowing import/export of detector description setups (geometrical volumes, solids, materials, etc.). By default, the flag is not set; if set, the path to the installation of XercesC package must be specified through the variable $XERCESCROOT.

$G4LIB_USE_GDML

Specifies to use the gdml module. The flag is automatically set if $G4LIB_BUILD_GDML is set in the environment.

$G4LIB_USE_USOLIDS

Specifies to adopt the USolids primitives in place of the original Geant4 solids.

$G4LIB_BUILD_ZLIB

If set, triggers compilation of a specific zlib module for the compression of output files (mainly in use currently for the HepRep graphics driver). By default, the flag is not set and the built-in system library for compression is adopted instead. Setting this flag will also implicitly set the flag below. On Windows systems, if OpenGL or OpenInventor visualization drivers are built, this module is automatically built.

$G4LIB_USE_ZLIB

Specifies to use the zlib module, either system built-in or Geant4 specific.

$G4LIB_BUILD_G3TOG4

If set, triggers compilation of the g3tog4 module for conversions of simple legacy geometries descriptions to Geant4. By default, the flag is not set and the module’s library is not built. Setting this flag will also implicitly set the flag below.

$G4LIB_USE_G3TOG4

Specifies to use the g3tog4 module, assuming the related library has been already installed.

Analysis specific

$G4ANALYSIS_USE

Specifies to activate the appropriate environment for analysis, if an application includes code for histogramming based on AIDA. Additional setup variables are required ($G4ANALYSIS_AIDA_CONFIG_CFLAGS, $G4ANALYSIS_AIDA_CONFIG_LIBS) to define config options for AIDA (“aida-config --cflags” and “aida-config --libs”). See installation instructions of the specific analysis tools for details.

Directory paths to Physics Data

$G4NEUTRONHPDATA

Path to external data set for Neutron Scattering processes.

$G4NEUTRONXSDATA

Path to external data set for evaluated neutron cross-sections.

$G4LEDATA

Path to external data set for low energy electromagnetic processes.

$G4PIIDATA

Path to external data set for shell ionisation cross-sections.

$G4LEVELGAMMADATA

Path to the data set for Photon Evaporation.

$G4RADIOACTIVEDATA

Path to the data set for Radiative Decay processes.

$G4ENSDFSTATE1.0

Path to the data set for NuclideTable

$G4ABLADATA

Path to nuclear shell effects data set for INCL/ABLA hadronic model.

$G4REALSURFACEDATA

Path to the data set for measured optical surface reflectance for precise optical physics.

Linking External Libraries with Geant4

The Geant4 GNUmake infrastructure allows to extend the link list of libraries with external (or user defined) packages which may be required for some user’s applications to generate the final executable.

Adding external libraries which do not use Geant4

In the GNUmakefile of your application, before including binmake.gmk, specify the extra library in EXTRALIBS either using the -L...-l... syntax or by specifying the full pathname, e.g.:

EXTRALIBS := -L<your-path>/lib -l<myExtraLib>

or

EXTRALIBS := <your-path>/lib/lib<myExtraLib>.a

You may also specify EXTRA_LINK_DEPENDENCIES, which is added to the dependency of the target executable, and you may also specify a rule for making it, e.g.:

EXTRA_LINK_DEPENDENCIES := <your-path>/lib/lib<myExtraLib>.a

<your-path>/lib/lib<myExtraLib>.a:
      cd <your-path>/lib; $(MAKE)

Note that you almost certainly need to augment CPPFLAGS for the header files of the external library, e.g.:

CPPFLAGS+=-I<your-path>/include

See Listing 101.

Listing 101 An example of a customised GNUmakefile for an application or example using an external module not bound to Geant4.
# --------------------------------------------------------------------
# GNUmakefile for the application "sim" depending on module "Xplotter"
# --------------------------------------------------------------------

name := sim
G4TARGET := $(name)
G4EXLIB := true

CPPFLAGS  += -I$(HOME)/Xplotter/include
EXTRALIBS += -L$(HOME)/Xplotter/lib -lXplotter
EXTRA_LINK_DEPENDENCIES := $(HOME)/Xplotter/lib/libXplotter.a

.PHONY: all

all: lib bin

include $(G4INSTALL)/config/binmake.gmk

$(HOME)/Xplotter/lib/libXplotter.a:
        cd $(HOME)/Xplotter; $(MAKE)

Adding external libraries which use Geant4

In addition to the above, specify, in EXTRALIBSSOURCEDIRS, a list of directories containing source files in its src/ subdirectory. Thus, your GNUmakefile might contain:

EXTRALIBS += $(G4WORKDIR)/tmp/$(G4SYSTEM)/<myApp>/lib<myApp>.a \
             -L<your-path>/lib -l<myExtraLib>
EXTRALIBSSOURCEDIRS += <your-path>/<myApp> <your-path>/<MyExtraModule>
EXTRA_LINK_DEPENDENCIES := $(G4WORKDIR)/tmp/$(G4SYSTEM)/<myApp>/lib<myApp>.a

MYSOURCES := $(wildcard <your-path>/<myApp>/src/*cc)
$(G4WORKDIR)/tmp/$(G4SYSTEM)/<myApp>/lib<myApp>.a: $(MYSOURCES)
      cd <your-path>/<myApp>; $(MAKE)

See the Listing 102.

Listing 102 An example of a customised GNUmakefile for an application or example using external modules bound to Geant4.
# -----------------------------------------------------------------
# GNUmakefile for the application "phys" depending on module "reco"
# -----------------------------------------------------------------

name := phys
G4TARGET := $(name)
G4EXLIB := true

EXTRALIBS += $(G4WORKDIR)/tmp/$(G4SYSTEM)/$(name)/libphys.a \
             -L$(HOME)/reco/lib -lreco
EXTRALIBSSOURCEDIRS += $(HOME)/phys $(HOME)/reco
EXTRA_LINK_DEPENDENCIES := $(G4WORKDIR)/tmp/$(G4SYSTEM)/$(name)/libphys.a

.PHONY: all
all: lib bin

include $(G4INSTALL)/config/binmake.gmk

MYSOURCES := $(wildcard $(HOME)/phys/src/*cc)
$(G4WORKDIR)/tmp/$(G4SYSTEM)/$(name)/libphys.a: $(MYSOURCES)
        cd $(HOME)/phys; $(MAKE)