CERNLIB status

TL;DR

This paper details the revival and modernization of CERNLIB, a crucial software library for high-energy physics experiments, ensuring its compatibility with modern systems and facilitating long-term preservation.

Contribution

The paper introduces a revived CERNLIB version with modern build systems, updated documentation, and enhanced compatibility, supporting long-term data and software preservation in high-energy physics.

Findings

CERNLIB now supports modern compilers and operating systems.

The build system has been re-implemented in CMake for better maintainability.

Updated documentation enhances usability and preservation.

Abstract

We present a revived version of CERNLIB, the basis for software ecosystems of most of the pre-LHC HEP experiments. The efforts to consolidate CERNLIB are part of the activities of the Data Preservation for High Energy Physics collaboration to preserve data and software of the past HEP experiments. The presented version is based on CERNLIB version 2006 with numerous patches made for compatibility with modern compilers and operating systems. The code is available in the CERN GitLab repository with all the development history starting from the early 1990s. The updates also include a re-implementation of the build system in CMake to ensure CERNLIB compliance with the current best practices and to increase the chances of preserving the code in a compilable state for the decades to come. The revived CERNLIB project also includes updated documentation, which we believe is a cornerstone for any preserved software depending on it.