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Remove search_summvars and summ_value table support code from lalsuite

Kipp Cannon requested to merge (removed):remove_defunct_tables into master

Description

Two XML tables, the search_summvars table and summ_value table, were once used by inspiral pipelines but they are no longer used, and are no longer required. This merge request contains two patches that delete the support code for these tables from lalsuite in an effort to reduce the burden created by the maintenance of the XML I/O code. Several legacy inspiral programs write data into these tables, but only one program, lalapps_trigscan, reads the data from the tables. That program was part of a performance-improvement effort for the then ihope pipeline, wherein the costly chi^2 statistic would only be computed for templates known to produce triggers that survive a coincidence and clustering pass. lalapps_trigscan generated the clustered 2nd stage template banks from the output of the 1st stage's coincidence code. Modern GW searches involve template banks that are 3 orders of magnitude larger than what was used at the time and use significantly lower single-detector SNR trigger thresholds, and so have single-detector trigger rates now in the O(few) megahertz regime. That architecture of writing all single-detector triggers to disk in a 1st pass is impossible today. Modern pipelines must do all of these things on-the-fly, internally, while they process the data in a single pass, and can only afford to write the final candidate list to disk. lalapps_trigscan is not used today, and will not be required again, therefore this merge request proposes the solution of removing it.

API Changes and Justification

Backwards Compatible Changes

  • This change does not modify any class/function/struct/type definitions in a public C header file or any Python class/function definitions
  • This change adds new classes/functions/structs/types to a public C header file or Python module

Backwards Incompatible Changes

  • This change modifies an existing class/function/struct/type definition in a public C header file or Python module
  • This change removes an existing class/function/struct/type from a public C header file or Python module

If any of the Backwards Incompatible check boxes are ticked please provide a justification why this change is necessary and why it needs to be done in a backwards incompatible way.

Review Status

Not reviewed, but the patch is simply the removal of code. There are no other changes to the code that remains. The opinion of someone who might be invested in lalapps_trigscan should probably be solicited.

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