Getting Started

Getting Started#

The usage of simtools requires the installation of the simtools package, its dependencies (mostly CORISKA/sim_telarray), and the setting of environment variables to connect to the model database.

Installation#

There are four options to install simtools for users:

All simtools applications are available as command-line tools. Note the naming of the tool, starting with simtools- followed by the application name. See the applications section for more details.

Note to update the .env file with the credentials for database access (see Model Database Access).

The conda/pip installation method requires to install CORSIKA/sim_telarray separately, see [CorsikaSimTelarrayInstallation].

Conda Installation#

Prepare and install a conda environment with the simtools package:

conda env create -n gammasimtools
conda install gammasimtools --channel conda-forge
conda activate gammasimtools

Pip Installation#

Prepare a python environment (in this example for python version 3.11):

mamba create --name simtools-prod python=3.11
mamba activate simtools-prod

Use pip to install simtools and its dependencies:

pip install gammasimtools

The pip installation method requires to install CORSIKA/sim_telarray separately.

Container (docker)#

OCI-compatible images are available for simtools users, developers, and for CORSIKA/sim_telarray from the simtools package registry. These allows to skip all installation steps and run simtools applications directly.

See the Docker description for more details.

Installation of CORSIKA and sim_telarray#

CORSIKA and sim_telarray are external tools to simtools and are required dependencies for many applications. Recommended is to use the Docker environment, see description in Docker Environment for Developers.

For a non-Docker setup, follow the instruction provided by the CORSIKA/sim_telarray authors for installation. CTAO users can download both packages from the sim_telarray web page (CTAO password applies) and install the package with:

tar -czf corsika7.7_simtelarray.tar.gz
./build_all prod6-sc qgs2 gsl

The environmental variable $SIMTOOLS_SIMTEL_PATH should point towards the CORSIKA/sim_telarray installation (recommended to include it in the .env file with all other environment variables).

Model Database Access#

Simulation model parameters are stored in a MongoDB-type database. Many simtools applications depend on access to this database.

Note

Ask one of the developers for the credentials to access the database.

Credentials for database access are passed on to simtools applications using environmental variables stored in a file named .env. Copy the template file .env_template to a new file named .env and update it with the credentials.