SCIATRAN parameter values in pyatran

Internally, pyatran represents a set of SCIATRAN parameter values as JSON struct. An example can be found in the file sciaconf.json in the project’s root directory.

Structure of the JSON configuration

Basically, the JSON is one single dictionary, with the top-level keys being the SCIATRAN parameter file names, e.g., control.inp. There are some exceptional (i.e., additional) optional top-level keys:

base_directory

If this configuration key is present, any relative path in any SCIATRAN configuration file will be prepended with the value of base_directory from the JSON struct, i.e., base_directory is the base to which all relative paths to input files are interpreted (see below).

sciatran_md5

The MD5 checksum of the SCIATRAN executable to be run. If this configuration key is present, the MD5 hash of the SCIATRAN executable (parameter scia_exec to pyatran.runtime.setup_runtime()) will be checked against it. The purpose of this parameter is to ensure that a given SCIATRAN simulation actually uses the proper executable. Otherwise, a ValueError will be raised.

How to specify paths to input files

File paths in SCIATRAN configuration files can be relative, absolute with a tilde character, absolute without a tilde character.

In any path the user wants to set in any SCIATRAN configuration file, the tilde character ~ can be used. If the optional parameter Home directory from the parameter file control.inp is set, then all occurrences of ~ will be replaced by its value. If the Home directory parameter is not set, then all occurrences of ~ will be replaced by the user’s $HOME directory (just as in Unix-like shells).

Any relative path will be prepended with the value of the top-level JSON configuration key base_directory (see above). If this key is not present, the current working directory is prepended to all relative paths.

Any absolute path is untouched.