MCPLGen's skip_events int parameter imposes a 2^31 event limit for processing MCPL files

[MilanKlausz]

MCPL files containing more that 2^31 events are difficult to processes due to the skip_events parameter of the MCPL generator being an integer.

The issue occurs when I run a McStas simulation to produce an MCPL file - containing neutrons scattered on a sample - that I want to use a source of particles for the subsequent Geant4 simulation of the detection process. I use the _ess_dmscutilssubmit tool to submit a lot of simulation jobs with 1e5 events in each, using the skip_events parameter in accordance with the job id, but that stops working when it reaches the 2^31 integer limit.

My current solution is splitting the large MCPL files, and processing them separately, but it would be nice to avoid that extra manual step (which is also a potential source of errors).

[tkittel]

Right. The underlying mcpl interface uses 64 bit integers though, so the fix should not be so hard. But of course, might require changes in all projects, which is annoying. Perhaps the sinplest is to add a new integer64 parameter type in dgcode?

[tkittel]

Or perhaps simply as a short term workaround use a string parameter?