physino/geant4 repository overview

Docker⁠ images of official binary releases of Geant4 libraries on amd64 AlmaLinux⁠ since v11.2.1. Apple Silicon⁠ users need to specify the platform during pulling:

docker pull --platform linux/amd64 physino/geant4

⁠Tags

• physino/geant4:11.m.n is recommended for container development. It includes the official binary release of Geant4-11.m.n in /usr/ + minimal C++ development environment (GCC⁠, CMake⁠, etc.). Geant4 datasets⁠ are not included to minimize the size of the image.
• physino/geant4:latest is recommended for general use. On top of physino/geant4:11.m.n, it provides a modern command-line UI, consisting of the fresh⁠ editor, the tmux⁠ terminal multiplexer, and the yazi⁠ file manager, all with mouse enabled.

⁠physino/geant4:latest

With the modern command-line UI, a container created from this image is fully functional as a development environment inside a terminal. Its usage is documented on https://physino.xyz/geant4/platform/docker⁠.

⁠physino/geant4:11.m.n

With a size of <300 MB, this image only contains

• the corresponding Geant4 binary release for AlmaLinux⁠
• HepRepFile⁠ library for Geant4(>=11.4.0) (348 kB)
• Mini (70 lines of C++) Geant4 Learning Example (MinGLE⁠) with HepRepFile⁠ enabled (107 kB)
• Geant4 Example Application with Rich features and Small footprints (GEARS⁠) with HepRepFile⁠ enabled (140 kB)

Note that NO Geant4 datasets⁠ is included! However, if there are already datasets in the host machine (e.g. in /absolute/path/to/geant4/datasets/in/host), one can map that folder to /root/geant4/datasets in a container created from this image so that the datasets in the host can be used in the container:

docker run -v /absolute/path/to/geant4/datasets/in/host:/root/geant4/datasets -it physino/geant4:11.m.n

The following compose.yml can be used to reduce the command above to docker compose run --rm g4.

services:
  g4:
    image: physino/geant4:11.m.n
    command: /usr/bin/bash
    volumes:
      - relative/path/to/geant4/datasets/in/host:/root/geant4/datasets

If there is no dataset in the host machine, one can use geant4-config --install-datasets in a container created with the command above to download and install all datasets to /root/geant4/datasets. Since this folder in the container is mapped to /path/to/geant4/datasets/in/host, the datasets downloaded in the container will stay in the host for future uses.

Assuming that datasets are available, one can run MinGLE⁠ or GEARS⁠ in the container to launch an interactive Geant4 UI:

root@c1938c18153f:~/geant4;) mingle
Environment variable "G4RUN_MANAGER_TYPE" enabled with value == Serial.
Overriding G4RunManager type...
**************************************************************
 Geant4 version Name: geant4-xx-xx-patch-xx [MT]   (date)
                       Copyright : Geant4 Collaboration
                      References : NIM A 506 (2003), 250-303
                                 : IEEE-TNS 53 (2006), 270-278
                                 : NIM A 835 (2016), 186-225
                             WWW : http://geant4.org/
**************************************************************

G4PhysListFactory::GetReferencePhysList <FTFP_BERT>  EMoption= 0
<<< Geant4 Physics List simulation engine: FTFP_BERT

Available UI session types: [ tcsh, csh ]
PreInit>