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0001 @page python_bindings Python Bindings for Examples
0002
0003 The examples part of ACTS ships with python bindings using the `pybind11`
0004 library. Building these bindings can be enabled via
0005 `-DACTS_BUILD_EXAMPLES_PYTHON_BINDINGS=ON`, and requires a python installation
0006 including the development files to be installed. You can then build the special
0007 target `ActsPythonBindings` to build everything that can be accessed in python.
0008
0009 The build will create a setup script in `$BUILD_DIR/python/setup.sh` which
0010 modifies `$PYTHONPATH` so that you can import the `acts` module in python.
0011
0012 Here is a minimal example of a python script using the example bindings, which
0013 sets up the particle propagation and runs a few events.
0014
0015 @snippet{trimleft} examples/test_generic.py Basic propagation example with GenericDetector
0016
0017 ## Python based example scripts
0018
0019 The repository contains a set of example scripts that can be used to execute various workflows.
0020 They can be found in `$REPO_ROOT/Examples/Scripts/Python`. Make sure you have run
0021
0022 ```console
0023 source $BUILD_DIR/python/setup.sh
0024 ```
0025
0026 to make sure python can find the `acts` module.
0027
0028 ## Python based unit tests
0029
0030 A number of unit tests based on the `pytest` library are shipped with the
0031 repository. They are located under `$REPO_ROOT/Examples/Python/tests`, and
0032 intend to cover the public API of the python bindings. A set of tests also
0033 executed the standalone example scripts.
0034
0035 To run these python based tests, `pytest` and a few other dependencies need
0036 to be installed. They can be installed via `pip install -r
0037 Examples/Python/tests/requirements.txt` from the repository root. You can
0038 then simply run `pytest` from the repository root.
0039
0040 > [!tip]
0041 > It is **strongly recommended** to use a [virtual
0042 > environment](https://realpython.com/python-virtual-environments-a-primer/)
0043 > for this purpose! For example, run
0044 > ```console
0045 > python -m venv venv
0046 > source venv/bin/activate
0047 > ```
0048 > to create a local virtual environment, and then run the `pip` command above.
0049
0050 ## ROOT file hash regression checks {#root_file_hashes}
0051
0052 In a number of cases, the python based test suite will run hash based regression tests against ROOT files that are
0053 written by the test workloads. These tests use a custom hash algorithm written in python, which hashes each individual
0054 entry of each `TTree` found in a file. These entry hashes are then sorted, concatenated and hashed again for the final output.
0055 This procedure ensures that if the ROOT file content changes, the hash changes, while also giving the same hash when the events
0056 stored in the file are reordered.
0057
0058 The tests are implemented by looking up a reference hash from a central data file `$REPO_ROOT/Examples/Python/tests/root_file_hashes.txt`
0059 that looks like
0060
0061 ```none
0062 test_ckf_tracks_example_full_seeding__performance_seeding_trees.root: 938bcc9b9425b12c620f5d0efa2c592817dfe92a18c309e97aa9d87412918620
0063 test_ckf_tracks_example_full_seeding__trackstates_ckf.root: 2faceafd4a521ff4030557301723e29c3d870edad052965eb644b824b57e2146
0064 test_ckf_tracks_example_truth_estimate__performance_seeding_trees.root: 5c0cf9e84af64e6814ab1ddf4cbaf4be6008ad8b2371b5b0241085b19d0fc52c
0065 test_ckf_tracks_example_truth_estimate__performance_seeding_trees.root: 5c0cf9e84af64e6814ab1ddf4cbaf4be6008ad8b2371b5b0241085b19d0fc52c
0066 test_ckf_tracks_example_truth_estimate__trackstates_ckf.root: ac4485c09a68fca3d056cb8d9adb81695e68d822629e48c71fd2b6d2bbd31f88
0067 ```
0068
0069 where the left side before the `:` indicates the test in which the check is
0070 performed and the name of the ROOT file that is checked. The right side is the
0071 reference hash.
0072
0073 > [!note]
0074 > The file from which reference hashes are loaded can be changed by setting the
0075 > environment variable `ROOT_HASH_FILE` to the desired file.
0076
0077 These checks have two purposes:
0078
0079 1. Detect regressions in the algorithms: if an algorithm produces different
0080 output, the test will catch it. This also means that if algorithmic changes
0081 are made that intentionally change the output, the reference hashes also have
0082 to be updated.
0083
0084 > [!warning]
0085 > Please make sure to check the contents of a changed file are
0086 > correct/reasonable before updating the reference hash!
0087
0088 2. Detect potential reproducibility issues. Tests that run with multiple
0089 threads should produce the same output every run, event ordering aside. If a
0090 test workload has a thread-reproducibility issue, the output hash should also
0091 change.
0092
0093 ### Running the hash checks locally and how to update the reference hashes
0094
0095 By default, the hash checks are not executed when the `pytest` command is run. To enable them, you need to set the environment
0096 variable `ROOT_HASH_CHECKS` needs to be set to `ON`, for example like:
0097
0098 ```console
0099 ROOT_HASH_CHECKS=ON pytest
0100 ```
0101
0102 If any hash mismatches are observed, the corresponding tests will fail, and `pytest` will print a summary at the end that looks like
0103
0104 ```console
0105 ------------------------------------------- RootHashAssertionErrors -----------------------------------------------------
0106 The ROOT files produced by tests have changed since the last recorded reference.
0107 This can be be expected if e.g. the underlying algorithm changed, or it can be a test failure symptom.
0108 Please manually check the output files listed below and make sure that their content is correct.
0109 If it is, you can update the test reference file Examples/Python/tests/root_file_hashes.txt with the new hashes below.
0110
0111 test_seeding__estimatedparams.root: 8bbc97cb3d4777c61dd0b483a1c8268fc8411ad182c35bc731e5ed222450deca
0112 test_material_recording__geant4_material_tracks.root: 019ce62ce378efa5c02a94768039686ed3cdfbd60c115c1f0cab2cbc53def57b
0113 test_material_mapping__material-maps_tracks.root: c03215e8b53733a3a7d7a0a5f9aec5bf2df20e8e40cc0492a8fa22400491d216
0114 test_material_mapping__propagation-material.root: a15a5c1e92fc3b848efb232eea1d40c422ee3a1d9ef1f7140294415621a04ce5
0115 test_ckf_tracks_example_full_seeding__tracksummary_ckf.root: 9e4d14169f20961be38d0305853a7cf7eeea4a647f0c94a48aada22c3c2c7a51
0116 test_ckf_tracks_example_truth_estimate__tracksummary_ckf.root: 3d56b26788163852e2c1f7288920f60a505bd14deeabb6f9189b680fcd90bfc5
0117 test_ckf_tracks_example_truth_smeared__tracksummary_ckf.root: ca2ce4069d2a2388c3d3c826dec8bea9f9d1e622239a20f8b985784d6c546c6e
0118 =========================================== short test summary info =====================================================
0119 FAILED Examples/Python/tests/test_examples.py::test_seeding
0120 FAILED Examples/Python/tests/test_examples.py::test_material_recording
0121 FAILED Examples/Python/tests/test_examples.py::test_material_mapping
0122 FAILED Examples/Python/tests/test_examples.py::test_ckf_tracks_example_full_seeding
0123 FAILED Examples/Python/tests/test_examples.py::test_ckf_tracks_example_truth_estimate
0124 FAILED Examples/Python/tests/test_examples.py::test_ckf_tracks_example_truth_smeared
0125 ================================== 6 failed, 183 passed in 199.82s (0:03:19) ============================================
0126 ```
0127
0128 Here, we see that 7 hash checks have failed. The error output conveniently has the same format as the reference hashes found in `root_file_hashes.txt`.
0129 To update the reference hashes, simply replace the corresponding entries in `root_file_hashes.txt` with the output from the `pytest` run.
0130
0131 > [!note]
0132 > CI runs the ROOT hash checks. However, we have observed the hashes to change
0133 > between different machines. This is believed to be due to differences in math
0134 > libraries producing slightly different outputs. As a consequence, locally
0135 > obtained file hashes might cause CI failures, as the CI hashes are different.
0136 >
0137 > For local testing, it is therefore advisable to use `ROOT_HASH_FILE` to use a
0138 > different file for the reference hashes and populated it with known-good
0139 > reference hashes from the `main` branch, before testing your developments.
0140 >
0141 > To make the CI succeed if it obtains different hashes than you get locally:
0142 > make sure that the output is correct, and then update the central
0143 > `root_file_hashes.txt` with the hashes reported in the failed CI job.