Cleanup of track container filing code in ProtoTrackCreationAndFitAlg + test improvs

This is a follow up of: !68479 (closed) While working on the issue related to the last ACTS bump I have seen opportunity to simplificationof track container use and also simplifications to the test scirpt (i.e. I need to hack it like in this changeset to enable debugger).

Basically, in the flags system was designed so that in most cases we should not need additional python parsers.

@sabidi @goblirsc

Tracking/Acts/ActsConfig/python/ActsProtoTrackCreationAndFitConfig.py

@@ -55,32 +55,22 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
         histSvc = CompFactory.THistSvc(Output= ["{streamName} DATAFILE='{data_file}', OPT='RECREATE'".format(streamName=streamName, data_file = dataFile )])
         result.addService(histSvc, primary=True)
         return result
-
-    def SetupArgParser():
-        from argparse import ArgumentParser
-
-        parser = ArgumentParser()
-        parser.add_argument("--inputRDOFile", "-i", default=["/cvmfs/atlas-nightlies.cern.ch/repo/data/data-art/PhaseIIUpgrade/RDO/ATLAS-P2-RUN4-03-00-00/mc21_14TeV.900498.PG_single_muonpm_Pt100_etaFlatnp0_43.recon.RDO.e8481_s4149_r14697/RDO.33675668._000016.pool.root.1"], help="RDO file to run", nargs="+")
-        parser.add_argument("--outputFile", "-o", default="refits.root", help="NTuple to write", type=str)
-        parser.add_argument("--ntupleTreeName",default="Refits",type=str, help="name of NTuple tree to write")
-        parser.add_argument("--evtMax",  default=-1,type=int, help = "Events to run (-1 for all)")
-        parser.add_argument("--skipEvents",  default=0,type=int, help = "Events to skip")
-        return parser
     
     # Key names for the different track containers
     ACTSProtoTrackChainTrackKey = "ACTSProtoTrackChainTestTracks"
     FinalProtoTrackChainTracksKey="TrkProtoTrackChainTestTracks"
     FinalProtoTrackChainxAODTracksKey="xAODProtoTrackChainTestTracks"
 
-    ap = SetupArgParser()
-    args = ap.parse_args()
     from AthenaConfiguration.AllConfigFlags import initConfigFlags
     flags = initConfigFlags()
 
+    # this job specific flags
+    flags.addFlag("outputNTupleFile", "refits.root")
+
     # Disable calo for this test
     flags.Detector.EnableCalo = False
 
-    flags.Input.Files = args.inputRDOFile
+    flags.Input.Files = ["/cvmfs/atlas-nightlies.cern.ch/repo/data/data-art/PhaseIIUpgrade/RDO/ATLAS-P2-RUN4-03-00-00/mc21_14TeV.900498.PG_single_muonpm_Pt100_etaFlatnp0_43.recon.RDO.e8481_s4149_r14697/RDO.33675668._000016.pool.root.1"]
 
     # ensure that the xAOD SP and cluster containers are available
     flags.Tracking.ITkMainPass.doAthenaToActsSpacePoint=True
@@ -95,7 +85,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     flags.PhysVal.IDPVM.validateExtraTrackCollections = [f"{FinalProtoTrackChainxAODTracksKey}TrackParticles"]
     flags.PhysVal.IDPVM.doTechnicalEfficiency = True
     flags.PhysVal.OutputFileName = "IDPVM.root"
-
+    flags.fillFromArgs()
     flags.lock()
 
     # Main services
@@ -114,7 +104,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     top_acc.merge(ITkTrackRecoCfg(flags))
 
     # ProtoTrackChain Track algo
-    top_acc.merge(SetupHistSvc(flags,streamName="HmmRefits",dataFile=args.outputFile))
+    top_acc.merge(SetupHistSvc(flags,streamName="HmmRefits",dataFile=flags.outputNTupleFile))
     top_acc.merge(ActsProtoTackCreationAndFitCfg(flags,"ActsProtoTackCreationAndFitAlg",ACTSTracksLocation=ACTSProtoTrackChainTrackKey   ))
 
     ## Convert ACTs container to Trk converter

[Johannes Junggeburth]

why's the argument parser gone?

[Haider Abidi]

Just to second that, we have been using this script for small tests. Argpaser has been helpful for testing different things.

[Tomasz Bold]

This particular option should be handled already here. https://gitlab.cern.ch/atlas/athena/-/blob/main/Control/AthenaConfiguration/python/AthConfigFlags.py#L581 I.e. flags can be directly controlled from command line. Btw I hopped that you would haveea chance to comment before it was merged. But it went real fast. Send from phone, sorry for brevity.

[Tomasz Bold]

Got to it now. This is bit philosophical ... i.e. we have flags system integrated with command line parsing already, so simple tests do not need to reimplement command line handling at all. I.e. all flags can be setup and if some property is not already a flag it can be added with one-line addFlag("", ).

This changeset contains also this file: Tracking/Acts/ActsConfig/test/ActsEFTrackFit.sh with some examples.

[Maximilian Emanuel Goblirsch-Kolb]

Is there documentation on the flags / command line interface available somewhere? This honestly sounds extremely useful also for other standalone snippets, I didn't know this exists. And are there shorthands available, since some of the syntax such as Input.Files="['location']" is far too cumbersome for command line operation and would result in another layer of wrapper scripts?

[Tomasz Bold]

Here: https://atlassoftwaredocs.web.cern.ch/guides/ca_configuration/flags/#using-flags (a very concise) As always, the best documentation is the code: https://gitlab.cern.ch/atlas/athena/-/blob/main/Control/AthenaConfiguration/python/AthConfigFlags.py#L571

[Tomasz Bold]

Ah, and filesInput is there fortunatelly.

[Maximilian Emanuel Goblirsch-Kolb]

Neat! Thanks so much, this looks very useful. Happy to move to this scheme - @sabidi fine for you as well?