Theoretical predictions in high energy physics are routinely provided in the form of Monte Carlo generators. Comparisons of predictions from different programs and/or different initialization set-ups are often necessary. MC-TESTER can be used for such tests of decays of intermediate states (particles or resonances) in a semi-automated way.Since 2002 new functionalities were introduced into the package. In particular, it now works with the HepMC event record, the standard for C++ programs. The complete setup for benchmarking the interfaces, such as interface between τ-lepton production and decay, including QED bremsstrahlung effects is shown. The example is chosen to illustrate the new options introduced into the program. From the technical perspective, our paper documents software updates and supplements previous documentation.As in the past, our test consists of two steps. Distinct Monte Carlo programs are run separately; events with decays of a chosen particle are searched, and information is stored by MC-TESTER. Then, at the analysis step, information from a pair of runs may be compared and represented in the form of tables and plots.Updates introduced in the progam up to version 1.24.3 are also documented. In particular, new configuration scripts or script to combine results from multitude of runs into single information file to be used in analysis step are explained.
PROGRAM UPDATE SUMMARYTitle of the program: MC-TESTER, version 1.23 and version 1.24.3 Tested on various platforms and operating systems: Linux SLC 4.6 and SLC 5, Fedora 8, Ubuntu 8.2 etc. Programming languages used: C++, FORTRAN77 Tested and compiled with: gcc 3.4.6, 4.2.4 and 4.3.2 with g77/gfortran Size of the package: 23.4 MB directory including example programs (6.5 MB compressed distribution archive), without ROOT libraries. Additional disk space required: Depends on the analyzed particle: 14.4 MB in the case of τ lepton decays (30 decay channels, 594 histograms, 73-pages booklet).