Getting Started

The usage of simtools require the installation of the simtools package, its dependencies, and the setting of environment variables to connect to the model database (see also the user’s guide).

Installation

Developers install simtools directly from the simtools GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/gammasim/simtools.git
cd simtools

Create a conda/mamba virtual environment with the simtools dependencies installed:

mamba env create -f environment.yml
mamba activate simtools-dev
pip install -e .

Docker Environment for Developers

Docker containers are available for developers, see the Docker file directory.

Images are available from the GitHub container registry for the latest simtools versions, for each pull request, and the current main branch.

The docker container has python packages, CORSIKA, and sim_telarray pre-installed. Setting up a system to run simtools applications or tests should be a matter of minutes.

Install Docker and start the Docker application (see Docker installation page).

Clone simtools from GitHub into a directory external/simtools:

# create a working directory
mkdir external
# clone simtools repository
git clone https://github.com/gammasim/simtools.git external/simtools

Start up a container (the image will be downloaded, if it is not available in your environment):

docker run --rm -it -v "$(pwd)/external:/workdir/external" \
    ghcr.io/gammasim/simtools-dev:latest \
    bash -c "source /workdir/env/bin/activate && cd /workdir/external/simtools && pip install -e . && bash"

The container includes a CORSIKA and sim_telarray installation; the environmental variable $SIMTOOLS_SIMTEL_PATH and those for the database access are automatically set (if variables are set correctly in the .env file).

Testing your installation

Test the simtools installation the docker image by running the unit tests:

pytest tests/unit_tests/

Test the simtools plus CORSIKA/sim_telarray installation by running the integration tests:

pytest --no-cov tests/integration_tests/