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g4install

Deploy images Linux tarballs macOS tarball Nightly release Registry cleanup

g4install builds and manages Geant4 with versioned Environment Modules. It supports side-by-side Geant4 installations, relocatable binary tarballs, and multi-architecture container images.

Highlights

  • Install and switch between Geant4 versions without changing global system paths.
  • Build matched CLHEP and Xerces-C dependencies automatically.
  • Use the same module layout on Linux and macOS.
  • Pull CI-built Linux images for amd64 and arm64.
  • Download relocatable Linux and Apple Silicon tarballs from the rolling development release.

Installation from source

Building locally requires a C++ compiler, CMake, Git, Z shell, Environment Modules, Qt 6, X11/OpenGL headers, expat, and zlib. Copy-and-paste commands for each tested platform are in the source-build prerequisites appendix.

1. Install the prerequisites

Run the command for your operating system from the appendix, then start a new login shell so that the module command is initialized.

2. Clone and register the modulefiles

The commands below install the repository in $HOME/g4install. Choose another absolute path if preferred.

git clone https://github.com/gemc/g4install.git "$HOME/g4install"
module use "$HOME/g4install/modules"
module avail geant4

Add the module use line to .bashrc or .zshrc to make the modulefiles available in future shells.

3. Build Geant4 11.4.2

module load sim_system
install_geant4 11.4.2

The installer builds CLHEP and Xerces-C when needed, downloads the Geant4 datasets, and installs everything under $HOME/g4install/<platform>/. The build can take a while and requires several gigabytes of disk space.

4. Load and verify the installation

module load geant4/11.4.2
geant4-config --version
command -v geant4-config

Compile a Geant4 example

With the Geant4 module loaded, compile the bundled B5 example in a separate build directory:

mkdir build_B5
cd build_B5
cmake $G4INSTALL/data/Geant4/examples/basic/B5
make -j4

Switching Geant4 versions

Installed versions coexist in separate directories. Use an explicit old and new module name when switching:

module load geant4/11.3.2
# Build or test against Geant4 11.3.2.

module switch geant4/11.3.2 geant4/11.4.2
# Build or test against Geant4 11.4.2.

Binary tarballs

CI publishes relocatable tarballs to the rolling development release. Choose the archive matching your OS and CPU architecture, extract it into an empty directory, install the Geant4 datasets, and source the generated environment file:

mkdir -p "$HOME/geant4-11.4.2"
tar -xzf geant4-11.4.2-ubuntu-24.04-amd64.tar.gz \
  -C "$HOME/geant4-11.4.2" --strip-components=1
cd "$HOME/geant4-11.4.2"
./install_geant4_data.sh
source ./geant4.env
geant4-config --version

Install the small set of shared-library dependencies from the binary-tarball prerequisites appendix before using a tarball. Dataset installation downloads several gigabytes; set GEANT4_DATA_BASE_URL only when using an approved mirror.

Container images

Images include Geant4 and ROOT and are published in the GitHub Container Registry. All listed tags support batch operation. AlmaLinux 10 is headless; the other images also provide VNC/noVNC visualization.

Run an interactive login shell:

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/gemc/g4install:11.4.2-ubuntu-24.04 bash -li

Start the default noVNC desktop, then open http://localhost:6080:

docker run --rm -it \
  -p 6080:6080 -p 5900:5900 \
  -e X11VNC_PASSWORD=change-me \
  -e VNC_BIND=0.0.0.0 \
  -e GEOMETRY=1920x1200 \
  ghcr.io/gemc/g4install:11.4.2-ubuntu-24.04

Note

Change the VNC password before exposing either port beyond your local machine.

Supported images

Geant4 11.4.2

Base image Registry tag Modes amd64 arm64
Ubuntu 24.04 ghcr.io/gemc/g4install:11.4.2-ubuntu-24.04 batch + noVNC yes yes
Ubuntu 26.04 ghcr.io/gemc/g4install:11.4.2-ubuntu-26.04 batch + noVNC yes yes
Fedora 44 ghcr.io/gemc/g4install:11.4.2-fedora-44 batch + noVNC yes yes
AlmaLinux 9.4 ghcr.io/gemc/g4install:11.4.2-almalinux-9.4 batch + noVNC yes yes
AlmaLinux 10 ghcr.io/gemc/g4install:11.4.2-almalinux-10 batch yes yes
Debian 13 ghcr.io/gemc/g4install:11.4.2-debian-13 batch + noVNC yes yes
Arch Linux latest ghcr.io/gemc/g4install:11.4.2-archlinux-latest batch + noVNC yes no

Troubleshooting

module: command not found

Start a new login shell after installing Environment Modules. If the command is still unavailable, initialize the package explicitly using the path supplied by your distribution or Homebrew.

module avail geant4 shows nothing

Register the repository's modules directory, not the repository root:

module use "$HOME/g4install/modules"
module avail geant4

The wrong Geant4 version is active

Reset the module environment and load the desired version:

module purge
module use "$HOME/g4install/modules"
module load geant4/<version>
module list
geant4-config --version

Appendix: prerequisites

The source-build lists match the libraries enabled by install_geant4. The binary lists are generated from ci/binary_packages.py, the runtime-package source of truth used by CI. Run package-manager commands with an account that has administrative privileges.

Source-build prerequisites

Fedora 44 
sudo dnf install -y git make cmake gcc-c++ zsh environment-modules \
  expat-devel zlib-devel qt6-qtbase-devel \
  mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libGLU-devel libX11-devel libXpm-devel libXft-devel \
  libXt-devel libXmu-devel libXrender-devel
AlmaLinux 9.4 
sudo dnf install -y 'dnf-command(config-manager)'
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
sudo dnf install -y almalinux-release-synergy
sudo dnf install -y git make cmake gcc-c++ zsh environment-modules \
  expat-devel zlib-devel qt6-qtbase-devel \
  mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libGLU-devel libX11-devel libXpm-devel libXft-devel \
  libXt-devel libXmu-devel libXrender-devel
AlmaLinux 10 
sudo dnf install -y 'dnf-command(config-manager)'
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
sudo dnf install -y git make cmake gcc-c++ zsh environment-modules \
  expat-devel zlib-devel qt6-qtbase-devel \
  mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libGLU-devel libX11-devel libXpm-devel libXft-devel \
  libXt-devel libXmu-devel libXrender-devel
Ubuntu 24.04/26.04 
sudo apt-get update
sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
  git make cmake g++ zsh environment-modules libexpat1-dev zlib1g-dev \
  qt6-base-dev libqt6opengl6 libqt6openglwidgets6 qt6-base-dev-tools \
  libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libx11-dev libxpm-dev libxft-dev \
  libxt-dev libxmu-dev libxrender-dev
Debian 13 
sudo apt-get update
sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
  git make cmake g++ zsh environment-modules libexpat1-dev zlib1g-dev \
  qt6-base-dev libqt6opengl6-dev libqt6openglwidgets6 qt6-base-dev-tools \
  libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libx11-dev libxpm-dev libxft-dev \
  libxt-dev libxmu-dev libxrender-dev
macOS 26 (Apple Silicon)

Install the Xcode Command Line Tools first, then install the remaining dependencies with Homebrew:

xcode-select --install
brew install qt cmake modules
brew install --cask xquartz
export MODULESHOME="$(brew --prefix modules)"
source "$MODULESHOME/init/zsh"

Binary-tarball prerequisites

Fedora 44 and AlmaLinux 9.4/10 
sudo dnf install -y --allowerasing \
  ca-certificates curl gzip tar expat \
  sqlite-libs zlib libX11 libXext libXmu \
  libXt mesa-libEGL mesa-libGL qt6-qtbase qt6-qtsvg \
  tbb
Ubuntu 24.04/26.04 
sudo apt-get update
sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends tzdata \
  ca-certificates curl gzip tar libexpat1 \
  libsqlite3-0 zlib1g libegl1 libgl1 libx11-6 \
  libxext6 libxmu6 libxt6 libqt6core6t64 libqt6gui6 \
  libqt6widgets6 libqt6opengl6 libqt6openglwidgets6 libqt6svg6 libtbb12
Debian 13 
sudo apt-get update
sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends tzdata \
  ca-certificates curl gzip tar libexpat1 \
  libsqlite3-0 zlib1g libegl1 libgl1 libx11-6 \
  libxext6 libxmu6 libxt6 libqt6core6t64 libqt6gui6 \
  libqt6widgets6 libqt6opengl6 libqt6openglwidgets6 libqt6svg6 libtbb12
Arch Linux 
sudo pacman-key --init && sudo pacman-key --populate
sudo pacman -Sy --noconfirm archlinux-keyring
sudo pacman -Syu --noconfirm --needed \
  ca-certificates curl gzip tar expat \
  sqlite zlib libx11 libxext libxmu \
  libxt mesa qt6-base qt6-svg tbb
macOS (Apple Silicon) 
brew install qt
brew install --cask xquartz

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