cmsDriver argument and meaning
This page gives an overview of the most important use cases of the cmsDriver command
cmsDriver is a tool to create production-solid configuration files from minimal command line options. For example the command
would create a configuration file that takes the single muon settings from Configuration/Generators/SingleMuPt1_cfi.py and then runs the generator specific parts of CMSSW followed by fast simulation. During this process, it will use the global tag MC_3XY_V10::All for applying alignment and calibration constants. The output of this job will contain RECOSIM content and will have 10 events.
Standard steps for full simulation and real data
Building blocks of the created configurations are the standard processing steps:
GEN : the generator plus the creation of GenParticles and GenJets
SIM : Geant4 simulation of the detector (energy deposits in the detector volumes)
DIGI : simulation of detector signal response to the energy deposits
L1: simulation of the L1 trigger
DIGI2RAW : data format conversion of the digi signals into the RAW format that will be provided in the online system
HLT : high level trigger
Usually all the above steps are executed in one single job. Remaining building blocks are:
RAW2DIGI : data format conversion of the RAW format into digi signals
RECO : full event reconstruction
ALCA : production of alignment and calibration streams
DQM : code run for DQM
VALIDATION : code run for validation
The above list is usually referred to as 'step2'.
Standard steps for fast simulation
For fast simulation, things are slightly different. As the fast simulation combines a lot of things, there are only two standard steps:
GEN
FASTSIM
Command line options
A summary of the cmsDriver.py scriptʼs options with a detailed message about each one can be visualized by getting the help:
The options list is divided into two sections according to the userʼs level of knowledge: Standard Options and Expert Options. The latter is addressed to expert users.
Standard Options
-s STEP, --step=STEP: this option is useful to indicate what kind of steps the user wants to run and in which order. The possible values are: GEN,SIM,DIGI,L1,DIGI2RAW,HLT,RAW2DIGI,RECO,POSTRECO,DQM,ALCA,VALIDATION,HARVESTING or ALL. Look at Standard Steps for full simulation and real data for further informations. An example of usage is: -s GEN,SIM,DIGI,L1,DIGI2RAW,HLT,RAW2DIGI,L1Reco. One or more filters to run on generator level can also be specified: -s GEN:ProductionFilterSequence,SIM,DIGI,L1,DIGI2RAW,HLT,RAW2DIGI,L1Reco.
--conditions=CONDITIONS: this option concerns the alignment and calibration conditions the user wants to apply for producing the dataset: --conditions=MC_3XY_V10::All. The default value is set to frontier conditions ‘STARTUP_V4::ALL’ (FrontierConditions_CMS.GlobalTag,STARTUP_V4::All). For a list of all available tags refer to SWGuideFrontierConditions.
--eventcontent=EVENTCONTENT: the user can select what event content has to be written out in the output by making use of this option: --eventcontent=RECOSIM. Default values are FEVTDEBUG or FEVT for cosmics. The user can choose among those available in the files in Configuration/EventContent/python/ directory in CMSSW/src.
--filein=FILEIN: specifying this option the user can indicate the input-file name. For instance, if in the previous step the processing of events has been run up to the HLT, in the next step the reconstruction can be run. In this case the user has to specify what was the output file of the previous generation as input-file for the new configuration file: --filein file:YOUR-PHYSICS-CHANNEL_CMS-ENERGY_cff_py__GEN_SIM_DIGI_L1_DIGI2RAW_HLT.root or in general the user has to specify this option if he want to produce a full config file running on a already existing dataset.
--fileout=FILEOUT: this option can be used to customize the name for the output file to specify in the configuration file created by cmsDriver.py.
-n NUMBER, --number=NUMBER: indicates the number of events to write out in the event content of the output file. The default is 1.
--mc: this option, if defined, imposes the processing of simulation. A default value is based on all other defined options.
--data: this option, if defined, imposes the processing of real data. A default value is based on all other defined options.
Caution: if neither --mc option nor --data one are specified it will be determined that the user is requiring for simulation.
--no_exec: this option implies to prepare the full python configuration file without execute the cmsRun at the end.
Expert Options
--customise=CUSTOMISATION_FILE: use this option to specify the file where the code needed to modify the process object is stored.
--datatier=DATATIER: specifies what is the data tier to use.
--dirin=DIRIN: indicates in which directory the infile is stored.
--dirout=DIROUT: indicates in which directory the outfile is stored.
--filtername=FILTERNAME: indicates what is the filter name to specify in output module.
--no_output: specifies to not write anything to disk. This option is intended for benchmarking purposes.
--oneoutput: specifies to use only one output module.
--prefix=PREFIX: the user can apply this option to set a prefix to the cmsRun command.
--relval=RELVAL: indicates the total number of events and events per job to set. An example of usage is: --relval 25000,250. This indicates the total number of events required is 25000, divided in 250 events per job.
--dump_python: this option is useful to dump the config file in python and do a full expansion of imports.
--dump_DSetName: the user can call this option to ask for the name of the primary dataset.
--python_filename=PYTHON_FILENAME: the user can choose to move the name of the created config file to PYTHON_FILENAME by using this option.
--secondfilein=SECONDFILEIN: specifies the name of the secondary input-file for the two-file solution. The default is set to no file.
--writeraw: indicates to write out a secondary file, in addition to the nominal output, with just raw.
--processName=NAME: this option sets the process name to NAME.
--scenario=SCENARIO: selects the specified scenario to override the standard settings. Available values are: [‘pp’, ‘cosmics’, ‘nocoll’, 'HeavyIons'].
Advice on using cmsDriver.
It will fail unless you have done "scram b" in your top-level CMSSW_x_y_z/src/ directory.
If you are using it to do the GEN step, try doing "python -i" on your python generator fragment before you run cmsDriver on it. This will check it has no python errors.
If you are using it to do the GEN step, it will fail if the python generator fragment that you are running it on includes the symbol "." in its file name (not counting the final ".py" in its file name).
Examples
cmsDriver.py Configuration/GenProduction/python/ThirteenTeV/LongLivedChi0ToNuLL_Template_TuneCUETP8M1_pythia8_cff.py --mc --eventcontent RAWSIM --customise SLHCUpgradeSimulations/Configuration/postLS1Customs.customisePostLS1,Configuration/DataProcessing/Utils.addMonitoring --datatier GEN-SIM --conditions MCRUN2_71_V1::All --beamspot NominalCollision2015 -s GEN,SIM --magField 38T_PostLS1 -n 20 --no_exec
Last updated
