Converting intermediate streamer files to root files

Currently the MTCC is putting out data files in the so-called intermediate streamer format. These files have the .dat extension, and you read them by specifying "source = NewEventStreamFileReader" in your configuration file.

These files are awkward to work with, since they are large and one can read in only one file per job. It would make sense to convert them to root files, for the sake of convenience.

It is easy and quick to make this conversion. You can use any CMSSW program with the followig minimal configuration file:

process CONVERT = {

# Use this for the MTCC files written after 16-Aug
  source = NewEventStreamFileReader{
    string fileName = "/tmp/schmittm/mtcc.00002596.A.testStorageManager_0.28.dat"
    int32 max_event_size = 200
    int32 max_queue_depth = 5
    untracked int32 maxEvents = -1
  }

# Specify the output file for the reconstructed events.
  module out = PoolOutputModule {
    untracked string fileName = "/tmp/schmittm/output.00002596.28.root"
  }

# Do not specify any reconstruction or analysis path.

# Specify the output:
endpath e = {out}

}

Some important points:

• It is important that the process name ("CONVERT" in this example) be different from the name you will use in your analysis job.
• Do not specify an analysis path. If you do, then you must use the same analysis path for all conversion jobs. The framework will reject input files if the set of incoming objects changes. It is probably best to produce no new objects and just convert the file. If everyone keeps to this rule, then we can all use each other's files.
• The job is very fast so it does not take much time to process an input file.