you are willing to look at phenix data but are not an expert
if working under Windows ,  this page should give you informations about ways to use and test efficient basic  tools.
if there is yet no information associated to the item please ask  one of these persons to add it.
you can also send a question to the offline list,  and particularly if this is not in this list or in the wiki
suggestions for improvements  (in particular concerning the typical macros) are much welcomed.  Part of the information here are guesses, please help to make it accurate. Perhaps there are  living (not ancient ones) webpages or wiki pages that answers questions underlined here, if so thanks for passing the information.
At the moment it is a suggestion on test.  If found useful by new users, then it would migrate to wiki.
Is this  effort  worth continuing ?     put your opinion here  (this does not mean enrolment in maintenance)



one complete set of programs and file (from prdf to picodst and plots) that should run (please add difficulties you just discovered) in a stable directory

connexion      ssh,  rssh01 a 4 , rftpexp         tunnels, logbook access

machines      rcas  2067 .....  

NX  to get an  efficient unix graphical environment in RACF

root
adding files (pico, histos)
looking at root phenix files

editors: avoid microsoft windows

disks and uses
    afs   acces to  cvs,  direct connexion from other afs sites
    user
    personal workarea: to use root, analyses and small datasets (nx get access here)
    group (hhj and phlf     ) :  to produce and store simulated or experimental data sets (nx doest not have access here)
    data directories:  phnxreco  often used for production
    /direct,   /phenix,   /a,b,c etc   : why it changes

where are the programs in CVS ?





-------------------------------------------
persons
jouan@ipno.in2p3.fr  

ssh, rftpexp, winscp
rftpexp and rssh  gateways allows respectively  (and exclusively)   ftp (drag and drop files with winscp or other program)   and interactive login (from the gateway then ssh rcas2070 or other phenix computer  (not only rcas)
A ssh key (re usable on different computers, not only at RACF)  is needed

free programs allowing ssh interactive access under microsoft windows  ..... ? (winscp is ok for ftp)
 
NX    good environment for interactive graphical activities
 
 To all RCF users of X Window applications, a NX test bed            *
*          is available for testing. NX is technology that is designed         *
*          to significantly enhance the usability of X window                  *
*          applications over the WAN. Information on how to use the NX         *
*          test bed is available at                                            *
*                                                                              *
*                https://www.racf.bnl.gov/docs/services/NXTestBed

a ssh  connexion to one of the nx machines is needed.
The nx machines  does not get directly access to all disks, for instance group disks.  
 So the beautiful Gnome desktop and associated tools (file manager, editor, ...) does not reach all directories  (user, workarea are OK).   It is necessary to connect through a terminal (ssh rcas2078 for instance)  to a rcas machine to  get complete access.
root is not available,  as stated in NX page :
 Note that the NX servers should NOT be used for analysis or computation. This type of activity should be done on the rcas nodes.

A very nice feature of NX is also that it keeps your activities on when it stops for staying idle for some time.

XWING is a free windows client server,   but the result (edition, root,..) is not as efficient (speed)  as using NX (I did not tried when logged to NX machine though)


tunnels, logbook access
it is explained in the wiki    
under windows  programs, the structure of the information is similar,  for instance,
 for the tunnel allowing to work as being in bnl  (see wiki):
Tunnel=S:asifthere,.... ( information removed )....,0,tcp    in the file of the type .ssh2 (in C:...user.... /AppData/Roaming/SSHdefining each connexion for the SSH secure shell program V3.0.0 (asifthere is just an arbitrary label)
for  ssh connexion  to   nx01  (needed to be able to start NX)
Tunnel=S:all,... (information removed)...  ,0,tcp

(information removed as long as it is on an external webpage)
machines
list  from ARGO (under "hosts")
rcas2061.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxbbc) 
rcas2062.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxcrk) 
rcas2063.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxbdch) 
rcas2064.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxbemc) 
rcas2065.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxbmui) 
rcas2066.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxbmut) 
rcas2067.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxmvd)
rcas2068.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxpad)
rcas2069.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxtec)
rcas2070.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxtof)
rcas2071.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxglobal)
rcas2072.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxhadron)
rcas2073.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxhard)
rcas2074.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxheavy)
rcas2075.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxlight)
rcas2076.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxphoton)
rcas2077.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxspin)
rcas2078.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxofl)
rcas2079.rcf.bnl.gov   (phnxsim)              but using unused machines temporarily is OK.   Identification of machines  mostly regards  their local disks ? 



adding files (pico, histos)
the first step is to make a list of files
for instance in  sampling_of_progs_and_scripts
[jouan@rcas2078 merge_pico]$ ls /direct/phenix+u/workarea/jouan/samples_root_files/*pico* > samplepico.list
this leads to
[jouan@rcas2078 merge_pico]$ cat samplepico.list                     
/direct/phenix+u/workarea/jouan/samples_root_files/picodstobj_Muon_500GeV_pro86-0000336436-9001.root
/direct/phenix+u/workarea/jouan/samples_root_files/picodstobj_Muon_500GeV_pro86-0000337121-9001.root

then do                     (no space in merge.. etc)
root -b .x merge_picoDST_TT.C\(\"samplepico.list\",\"sumpico.root\"\) 
more details here

hadd:   to combine histos files  (more to come)




looking at root phenix files

one  cannot look directly with TBrowser at a phenix root file, it often crashes and looking at plots  is generally very slow. Only root -b is allowed. But it is possible to plot variable  using a macro.
 But working with NX  + rcas    allows  running root interactively (root, root -l, .. ) with a satisfactory speed.
scanpico (in the complete set) is an example (very rough, to be improved) of looking and plotting from a picodst, or a dst


editors: avoid microsoft
some applications allows to edit files while being remotely looking, through ssh for instance. This could look normal but create very  uncomfortable (days to loose) and unpredictable effects when using for instance a script file.  So better edit only when connected on a unix system
under NX machines,  the gnome editor works for  user and workarea directories.
on rcas,  various editors can be used (under NX,  otherwize it is too slow)   nedit,  emacs,  ...  [and of course the simplest without own window like  VI  (VIM to use the mouse)]
Disks

afs  phenix :     acces to  cvs    (CVSROOT=/afs/rhic.bnl.gov/phenix/PHENIX_CVS)  ,  direct connexion from other afs sites.
  To get access to afs do klog (same password as for rcas machines).  Acces to CVS needed  for some activities  (train).

user    /direct/phenix+u/
personal workarea:    for analyses and small datasets      /direct/phenix+u/workarea

group    (hhj and  phlf     ) :  to produce and store simulated or experimental data sets (nx doest not have access there)  /direct/phenix+hhj/

data directories: /direct/phenix+u/phnxreco  often used for production
/phenix contains many data directories "dataxx" which are in fact links to directories of the form phenix+dataxx  (obsolete ?)

data are often separated in different subkinds:  particles, triggers.   MWG,  EWG, ERT,..... (link to definitions still to be added)  
memories of taxis  are in /direct/phenix+analysis/anatrain/TrainV2  unde directories with names such as /Run10AuAu200MuonUp  or Run9pp200MinBias
 why names or even existence of directories  change depending on the way they are accessed /direct,   /phenix,   /a,b,c etc   :
probably because it depends on the machine on which one is logged , each machine can have special directories in addition to the ones common to all machines.
under /direct rcas2066 sees phenix+subsys+mutrg  and  phenix+u
whereas rcas2070 sees phenix+ndata02  phenix+spin         phenix+subsys+ncc  phenix+upgrades phenix+plhf     phenix+subsys+mutr  phenix+u
and   rftpexp sees   phenix+u,   star+u and u0b

under /direct one do not see the directories phenix+dataxx  that one sees under /phenix  but nevertheless  they can be reached :  
[jouan@rcas2070 phenix+u]$ cd /direct
[jouan@rcas2070 /direct]$ ls
phenix+ndata02  phenix+spin         phenix+subsys+ncc  phenix+upgrades phenix+plhf     phenix+subsys+mutr  phenix+u           phobos+u
[jouan@rcas2070 /direct]$ cd phenix+zdata01
[jouan@rcas2070 phenix+zdata01]$ pwd
/direct/phenix+zdata01
 
explanation:    ...?      all this dataxx system is not used anymore
                                 the automount process creates the strange effect



programs in CVS

find a program in CVS:   cd $CVSROOT   puis   find .  -name "*nomprog*"  -file   (need first do  klog, to access afs)
many analysis programs are in offline section



one complete set :
files are in /direct/phenix+u/workarea/jouan/
the directory sampling_of_progs_and_scripts  contains programs,   and the directory samples_root_files contains small files for tests.  
copy  thiese directories,   

scanpico shows some ways  to look at root files, see its  structure, variable names,  and  make a plot.  (improvements very much welcomed)
it can be run (in sampling_of_progs_and_scripts/scan_rootphenix/ )   by       root -l  .x scanpico.C    (acting by default on  a file in  the  ../../samples_root_files directory)
it can be run  for any file for instance by   root -l scanpico.C\(\"/direct/phenix+hhj/jouan/taxi/Run11pp500MWGMuon/picodstobj_nocut__anatrain_taxi273/data/picodstobj_nocut_340512_0.root\"\)

merge_picoDST_TT.C  merge  psdt  or dst files

adding histograms  can also be needed

not yet complete
other examples to come
fun4all
condor
taxi  
new difficulties with test set