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An FTOOLS Tutorial
James Kent Blackburn & Bill Pence
HEASARC
1 Introduction
This guide provides a brief tutorial on the use of the FTOOLS software package
for analyzing FITS format data files. FTOOLS are the basis for ASCA and XTE
data analysis. The purpose of this guide is to highlight some of the more
generally useful tasks in the FTOOLS package and to give a step by step
introduction on how to use FTOOLS. It is assumed here that the FTOOLS package
as already been built on the machine you will be using; if it hasn't, refer to
the appendix for help in installing FTOOLS.
FTOOLS is a collection of utility programs to create, examine or modify data
files in the FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format. These tools are
not generally designed to perform detailed analysis or do model fitting of
data, but instead are useful for examining the contents of the FITS file and
for making various modifications to the files to prepare them as input to more
involved analysis tasks.
Version 2.8 of FTOOLS was released in February 1994 and new versions are
released about every 3 months. The FTOOLS tasks can be run in 2 different
environments: as an IRAF package, or as a set of stand alone executable tasks.
The IRAF version has been tested on suns and DECstations, while the standalone
version also runs on VAX/VMS and on Alpha OSF/1 operating systems. The IRAF
package requires a system to be configured with a large swap space of roughly
150 megabytes in order to load the larger CALTOOLS and HEASARC subpackages. The
Host installation requires less than the typical 24 megabytes found on systems
today. As with all applications, the more memory the better. Best performance
is seen on systems with 32 megabytes or more of RAM. This tutorial describes
the use of the standalone version of FTOOLS on a Unix machine, but the commands
are virtually identical for the other versions. Experienced IRAF users should
have little trouble learning to use FTOOLS because they use the same parameter
interface and have the same help files that all other IRAF tasks have.
2 General Characteristics of FTOOLS Tasks
All the FTOOLS tasks share certain common properties. The most obvious
characteristic is that they all operate on FITS files. With few exceptions,
all the tasks take FITS format files as input and produce FITS format files on
output. The main exceptions are the tasks that convert information between
FITS and ASCII format files (e.g. fdump and fcreate).
All the FTOOLS also share a common user interface based on the concept of a
parameter file (identical to the .par file used in IRAF). The parameter file
contains the default or current value of all the parameters needed to run the
particular task. Basically when the task is run it first reads the parameter
file to get all the parameter values that it needs to perform its task.
Depending on how the task is run and on the type of parameter, the user may be
queried to confirm that the default values are correct or enter an alternate
value. There are basically 2 types of parameters for each task: the required
parameters that must be supplied every time the task is run, and the so-called
`hidden parameters' that silently take their value from the parameter file,
unless the user explicitly overrides them.
A third characteristic of the FTOOLS tasks is that a help file is provide for
each one which describes the general purpose of the task and gives detailed
information about each of the task parameters. The help files can be viewed
on-line by typing `fhelp <task_name>' in the stand-alone environment, or
`help <task_name>' in the IRAF environment.
3 A Brief FTOOLS Tutorial (Stand Alone Version)
The following section describes a session of using the stand alone version of
FTOOLS on a Unix machine. It is recommended that first time users of FTOOLS
repeat this sequence of operations on their own machine, to acquaint themselves
with the package.
3.1 Getting Help
General help information about FTOOLS as well as detailed help on each
individual task can be obtained by the fhelp task. Type
> fhelp ftools
to get a brief description of all the tasks available in the FTOOLS package. To
get detailed help on any particular FTOOLS task type fhelp followed by name of
the task you are interested in. For instance, type
> fhelp fhelp
to get a description of how to use the fhelp task. Each help file gives a
description of what that task does and of all the required and optional
(hidden) parameters. It is important to realize that when running an FTOOLS
task you will only be required to enter values for the most important
parameters, such as the name of the input FITS file. But most of the tasks
also have other 'hidden' parameters which have a predefined value unless you
explicitly reset them to a new value. These hidden parameters can
significantly alter the operation of the task, so you need to be aware of what
hidden parameters are available for a given task and what their default values
are. One way to determine this is to read the help file for the task with the
fhelp command, but a more concise way to simply see all the task parameters and
their current values is with the plist command (or use the `lpar' command when
using the IRAF version of FTOOLS). For example:
> plist fhelp
task = fhelp
| Name of FTOOLS task
|
more = yes
| More?
|
(path = /ftools/SUN/develop/help/)
| Path to Help Files
|
(nrows = 22)
| Number of rows in a page
|
(outfile = STDOUT)
| Name of optional output file
|
(mode = ql)
|
shows that the fhelp task has 2 required parameters (`task' and `more') and 4
hidden parameters (`path', `nrows', `outfile', and `mode'; by convention, the
names of hidden parameters are enclosed in parentheses). Refer to the help
file to determine the meaning and use of each parameter. Note that all tasks
have a hidden `mode' parameter but it's value should not be changed by the
user.
3.2 Running a task
The simplest way to run a task is to enter its name on the input command
line followed by a <CR>, as in,
> fhelp
The task will then prompt you for the value of all the required parameters, in
this case the name of the task you want help on. When prompting for a
parameter, the task will first display the current value of each parameter as
taken from the parameter file. If that value is OK then you can simple hit
<CR> to accept it, otherwise enter the new value and hit <CR>.
Note that you will not be prompted for any hidden parameters and the task will
simply assume the default values contained in the parameter file.
If you know the value of any or all of the required task parameters, another
way to run a task it to enter all or some of the parameters directly on the
command line in the same order as listed by the plist command. The task will
then only prompt you for the values of any remaining non-hidden parameters
which were not entered on the command line.
You may override the default value of a hidden parameter in one of 2 ways: by
specifying the new value on the command line or by using the pset command. In
the above example we saw that the fhelp task has a hidden parameter called
`nrows' which controls the amount of text shown on the screen. If you type
>fhelp fdump nrows=10
then the help file for the fdump task will be displayed 10 rows at a time,
rather than the default 22 rows at a time. This command syntax only sets the
hidden parameter value for this single run of the task, and the default value
in the parameter (22 in this case) is not changed. If you want to permanently
change the value of a hidden parameter, then use the `pset' command, as in
> pset fhelp nrows=10
Now, every time you run fdump it will just display 10 rows at a time by
default. You can also view and reset the value of every parameter for a tasks
simply by typing pset followed by the tasks name, as in
> pset fhelp
To reset the all the parameters for a task back to the original system default
values, use the `punlearn' task (analogous to the unlearn command in IRAF):
> punlearn fhelp
3.3 Creating and listing the contents of a FITS file
In this section we will describe how to create a FITS table and how to view the
structure and content of a FITS file with the following FTOOLS tasks:
fcreate
| -
| make a new FITS table
|
fstruct
| -
| display the internal structure of a FITS file
|
flcol
| -
| list information about the columns in a FITS table
|
fdump
| -
|
list the values in a FITS file using column order |
flist
| -
| list the values in a FITS file using row order
|
f2dhisto
| -
| make a 2D histogram (image) from 2 columns in a table |
fimgdmp
| -
| list the values in a FITS image
|
First, move to a suitable disk directory where you have space to work. We will
assume that there are currently no FITS files available to play with, so the
first thing we will do is create one using the fcreate task. To see what input
parameters we need, type:
> plist fcreate
cdfile
| Name of input column descriptor file
|
datafile =
| Name of input data template file
|
outfile =
| Name of output FITS file
|
(headfile = )
| Name of optional header keyword template file
|
(tbltype = binary)
| Type of table: binary or ASCII
|
(nskip = 0)
| No. of rows in data template file to skip
|
(nrows = 0)
| No. of rows in data template file read
|
(history = yes)
| Write HISTORY keyword?
|
(morehdr = 0)
| Reserve header space for this many keywords
|
(extname = )
| Name for new FITS extension
|
(anull = )
| Value for null values in an ASCII table
|
(inull = 0)
| Value for null integer values in binarytable
|
(mode = ql)
|
(If your parameter listing does not look like this, then type `punlearn
fcreate' to reset all the parameters back to their system default values).
This shows that there are 3 required parameters for this task which are (1) the
name of an ASCII column descriptor file, (2) the name of an ASCII data template
file, and (3) the name of the output FITS file that is to be created. There
are also many hidden parameter that we can safely ignore for the present. You
can read the fcreate help file at this point if you want to know more about how
it works, but we will simply use it here to create a FITS file without too much
further explanation. Using any convenient text editor, you now need to create
2 small text files. First create a column descriptor file, called `cd.file'
with the following 3 lines of text (the exact spacing of the items in each row
is not important):
NAME 16A
CLASS I
MAG E
This file defines the names and datatypes of the 3 columns in the table. Then
create another text file called `data.file' containing 4 rows of values for the
table:
Vega 1 0.0
Polaris 1 4.0
`NGC 253' 2 6.5
`Ring Nebula' 3 7.8
Note that the single quotes are required around the names on the last 2 lines
because they contain an embedded space character. Now we can create a FITS
file called `test.fits' with the following command:
> fcreate cd.file data.file test.fits
We can determine the basic structure of this FITS file using the fstruct
command:
> fstruct test.fits
No. Type EXTNAME BITPIX Dimensions (columns) PCOUNT GCOUNT
0 PRIMARY 16 0 0 1
1 BINTABLE 8 22(3) 4 0 1
This shows that the FITS file test.fits consists of an empty primary array
(indicated by Dimensions = 0) followed by a single binary table extension whose
rows are 22 characters wide, with 3 columns and 4 rows of data.
Next we can get information about the columns contained in this FITS table
extension by using the flcol command:
> flcol test.fits
COLUMN_NAMES
| FORMATS
| UNITS
|
NAME
| 16A
|
|
CLASS
| I
|
|
MAG
| E
|
|
This displays the name, data format, and data units (none in this case) of each
column of the table.
Finally, we can display the actual header and data values in this FITS file
using the fdump task. There are may parameters for this task that can be used
to control how much of the file to display and how to format the output (read
the help file for the details), but by default fdump will display the entire
contents of the FITS file, including both the header and table data, by
typing
> fdump test.fits
and then hitting <cr> to accept the default value for the remaining
parameters:
Name of optional output file (STDOUT):
Names of columns ():
Lists of rows (-):
SIMPLE = T / file does conform to FITS standard <
BITPIX = 16 / number of bits per data pixel
NAXIS = 0 / number of data axes
EXTEND = T / FITS dataset may contain extensions
COMMENT FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format defined in Astronomy
COMMENT and Astrophysics Supplement Series v44/p363, v44/p371, v73/p359,
COMMENT v73/p365. Contact the NASA Science Office of Standards and
COMMENT Technology for the FITS Definition document #100 and other FITS
COMMENT information. END
XTENSION= `BINTABLE' / binary table extension
BITPIX = 8 / 8-bit bytes
NAXIS = 2 / 2-dimensional binary table
NAXIS1 = 22 / width of table in bytes
NAXIS2 = 4 / number of rows in table
PCOUNT = 0 / size of special data area
GCOUNT = 1 / one data group (required keyword)
TFIELDS = 3 / number of fields in each row
TTYPE1 = `NAME ` / label for field 1
TFORM1 = `16A ` / data format of the field: ASCII Character
TTYPE2 = `CLASS ` / label for field 2
TFORM2 = `I ` / data format of the field: 2-byte INTEGER
TTYPE3 = `MAG ` / label for field 3
TFORM3 = `E ` / data format of the field: 4-byte REAL
HISTORY This FITS file was created by the FCREATE task. END
NAME
| CLASS
| MAG
|
1 Vega
| 1
| 0.0000000E+00
|
2 Polaris
| 1
| 4.0000000E+00
|
3 NGC 253
| 2
| 6.5000000E+00
|
4 Ring Nebula
| 3
| 7.8000002E+00
|
This then shows the value of all the keywords in the primary array header,
followed by a listing of the table extension header, followed by a listing of
the data values in the table.
The flist task also displays FITS header and table data. However, it uses a row
oriented format instead of the column oriented format seen above with fdump.
Flist has many parameters for controlling the presentation and formatting of
the displayed data. See the help page for all the details. Using the defaults
results in all the data being displayed
> flist test.fits
Name of optional output file (STDOUT):
Names of columns ():
Lists of rows (-):
SIMPLE = T / file does conform to FITS standard
BITPIX = 16 / number of bits per data pixel
NAXIS = 0 / number of data axes
EXTEND = T / FITS dataset may contain extensions
COMMENT FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format defined in
COMMENT Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series v44/p363, v44/p371,
COMMENT v73/p359, v73/p365. Contact the NASA Science Office of Standards
COMMENT and Technology for the FITS Definition document #100 and other
COMMENT FITS information.
COMMENT END
XTENSION= 'BINTABLE' / binary table extension
BITPIX = 8 / 8-bit bytes
NAXIS = 2 / 2-dimensional binary table
NAXIS1 = 22 / width of table in bytes
NAXIS2 = 4 / number of rows in table
PCOUNT = 0 / size of special data area
GCOUNT = 1 / one data group (required keyword)
TFIELDS = 3 / number of fields in each row
TTYPE1 = 'NAME ' / label for field 1
TFORM1 = '16A ' / data format of the field: ASCII Character
TTYPE2 = 'CLASS ' / label for field 2
TFORM2 = 'I ' / data format of the field: 2-byte INTEGER
TTYPE3 = 'MAG ' / label for field 3
TFORM3 = 'E ' / data format of the field: 4-byte REAL
HISTORY This FITS file was created by the FCREATE task.
END
Row 1
NAME = Vega
CLASS = 1
MAG = 0.0000000E+00
Row 2
NAME = Polaris
CLASS = 1
MAG = 4.0000000E+00
Row 3
NAME = NGC 253
CLASS = 2
MAG = 6.5000000E+00
Row 4
NAME = Ring Nebula
CLASS = 3
MAG = 7.8000002E+00
The same information is given as before with the data in each column labeled
and appearing on a single line. This can be a more comprehensible presentation
with some data sets.
In this next series of FTOOLS tasks, a set of (X,Y) events will be binned up
into an image using fcreate and f2dhisto. This image will then be displayed
with fimgdmp. Here is how it all works.
First create a new column descriptor file named cd2d.file to format two
floating point data columns for the X and Y position of the events by placing
the following lines in cd.file
X E
Y E
Then create a data template file named data2d.file with the following list of
(X,Y) events
0.5 0.5
0.5 1.5
0.5 2.5
1.5 1.5
2.5 0.5
2.5 1.5
2.5 2.5
As before the FITS file can be created with fcreate and then viewed with either
fdump or flist.
> fcreate cd2d.file data2d.file test2d.fits
Now lets bin this data up into a histogram(image) using f2dhisto. F2dhisto has
many parameters for determining the exact binning. Lets bin the data up into a
3 by 3 grid with (0 -> 1) x (0 x 1) being the first bin, (0 -> 1) x (0
-> 2) being the second bin, etc., up to the last bin (2 -> 3) x (2 ->
3). This will require resetting two of the hidden parameters in f2dhisto.
Resetting hidden parameters can be accomplished in many ways. The simplest is
to set them from the command line
> f2dhisto test2d.fits image.fits 1.0 1.0 xrange='0,3' yrange='0,3'
Here the first parameter is the input file, image.fits is the output file which
will contain the histogram in the primary array, the following pair of 1.0
values give the X and Y bin sizes respectively and finally the two hidden
parameters xrange and yrange specifying the minimum and maximum are given. This
is the format used to assigning all hidden parameters; parameter=value. The
quotes are used to guarantee the whole string is passed to the parameter.
The f2dhisto command above should have binned up the events into a 3 x 3
histogram. This is easily checked using fstruct again
> fstruct image.fits
No. Type EXTNAME BITPIX Dimensions (columns) PCOUNT GCOUNT
0 PRIMARY 32 3 3 0 1
The values in the histogram (image) can be displayed using the fimgdmp task. It
is a very simple task, but still, it is worth reading the help page with fhelp.
Displaying the image with fimgdmp gives
> fimgdmp image.fits
Name of OUTPUT file (STDOUT):
Lower limit of X_Axis (): 1
Upper limit of X_Axis (): 3
Lower limit of Y_Axis (): 1
Upper limit of Y_Axis (): 3
1 2 3
1 1 0 1
2 1 1 1
3 1 0 1
The X index for the bin is given at the top of the histogram and the Y index to
the left. As anticipated from the set of events chosen in the data template
file, the histogram is the outline for the letter 'H'. Different lower and
upper limits would have displayed a subset of the image.
3.4 FITS File Naming Conventions
It is worth making a small digression at this point to review the structure of
a FITS file and describe the FITS file naming convention used by all the FTOOLS
tasks. A FITS file consists of an arbitrary number of independent Header-Data
Units (HDUs). The FTOOLS tasks generally treat each HDU as a separate entity,
therefore in many cases you must explicitly specify which HDU within the FITS
file you want to operate on. This is done by specifying the HDU number as part
of the FITS file name, either enclosing it in square brackets, or following a
plus sign. Here are some examples:
test.fits[0] the first HDU (the primary array) in the test.fits file
test.fits[1] the first extension (the second HDU) in the file
test.fits+1 alternate form of the above
Note that some computer operating systems treat the square brackets as special
escape characters so the alternate `plus sign' notation is safer to use. Some
FTOOLS tasks, like fdump, will try to operate on every HDU in the FITS file if
a specific extension is not specified. This is what happen in the previous
example where we did not specify an extension number in the input FITS file.
But if you type
> fdump test.fits+0
you will only get a listing of the primary array, and not the following
extension.
3.5 Modifying the contents of a FITS file
We will now conclude this tutorial by describing 3 more FTOOLS tasks which can
be used to modify a FITS file in various ways:
fmodhead - modify the FITS header keywords
fselect - select rows from a FITS table
fappend - append a new extension on to a FITS file
The first task, fmodhead, is used to modify the header of any FITS file. This
task works by reading a template text file which defines what changes are to be
made of an existing FITS header, for example to add, delete, or modify the
value of any keyword. As a simple example, we will add an EXTNAME keyword to
the first extension in our test.fits file by creating a template file called
`template.head' with the following single line of text:
EXTNAME astro_list / this table contains a list of objects
Now type:
> fmodhead test.fits+1 template.head
to insert the EXTNAME keyword into the header of the first extension. To
verify that this worked correctly, make a listing of the new header with the
command:
> fdump test.fits+1 prdata=no
XTENSION= `BINTABLE' / binary table extension
BITPIX = 8 / 8-bit bytes
NAXIS = 2 / 2-dimensional binary table
NAXIS1 = 22 / width of table in bytes
NAXIS2 = 4 / number of rows in table
PCOUNT = 0 / size of special data area
GCOUNT = 1 / one data group (required keyword)
TFIELDS = 3 / number of fields in each row
TTYPE1 = `NAME ` / label for field 1
TFORM1 = `16A ` / data format of the field: ASCII Character
TTYPE2 = `CLASS ` / label for field 2
TFORM2 = `I ` / data format of the field: 2-byte INTEGER
TTYPE3 = `MAG ` / label for field 3
TFORM3 = `E ` / data format of the field: 4-byte REAL
HISTORY This FITS file was created by the FCREATE task.
EXTNAME = `astro_list' / this table contains a list of objects END
To illustrate the use of a couple more FTOOLS tasks, we can modify the contents
of this sample FITS file, to produce a new file. Suppose we want to create a
new FITS table that only contains the rows which have CLASS = 1 (i.e., are
stars in our test table). This is easily done with the fselect task by
typing
> fselect test.fits+1 new.fits `CLASS .eq. 1'
to create a new FITS file called new.fits. If we now use fdump to just display
the data in the first extension of this file,
> fdump new.fits+1 prhead=no
then we see that the table just contains the desired 2 rows:
NAME
| CLASS
| MAG
|
1 Vega
| 1
| 0.0000000E+00
|
2 Polaris
| 1
| 4.0000000E+00
|
Finally, we can append this new selected table back onto the end of the
original FITS file with the fappend task:
> fappend new.fits+1 test.fits
Repeating the previous fstruct command, we see that the file now contains 2
extensions following the primary header:
> fstruct test.fits
No. Type EXTNAME BITPIX Dimensions(columns) PCOUNT GCOUNT
0 PRIMARY 16 0 0 1
1 BINTABLE astro_list 8 22(3) 4 0 1
2 BINTABLE astro_list 8 22(3) 2 0 1
This concludes this tutorial, but we invite you to further explore the FTOOLS
package on your own, using your own FITS data files.
Appendix
A. FTOOLS Task Summary
The current release of FTOOLS has the following tasks implemented within the
four categories; general, parameters, astrophysics and calibration.
General Purpose Utilities:
fhelp - Display help pages for an FTOOL task
flcol - List column information in a FITS table extension
fstruct - List a description of the structure of a FITS file
fdump - Dump contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file
flist - List contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file
fimgdmp - Dump contents of a FITS image to an ASCII file
ffilecat - Copies keyword values from a list of FITS file to FITS Table
fcatdiff - Compares columns of a fits file and reports row differences
fcreate - Create a FITS table from ASCII input files
fappend - Append a FITS extension onto another FITS file
fextract - Copy a FITS extension from a file into a new file
fmerge - Merge rows from several FITS tables into one FITS table
ftabcopy - Copy specified columns of a FITS table to a new table
fselect - Create a new table from selected rows of a table
fsaoi - Translate an SAOImage region file to an input file for fselect
fsort - Sort a FITS table in place
fmemsort - Fast memory sort of a FITS table
fcalc - Calculates values for a column using an arithmetic expression
flookup - Filter a FITS file from selection based on a lookup table
fstatistic - Calculate mean, standard deviation, min, and max for a column
farith - Perform arithmetic on 2 FITS images
fcarith - Perform arithmetic on FITS image with a constant
fhisto - Make a histogram of a column in a table
fcurve - Make a light curve histogram from a column in a table
f2dhisto - Make a 2-D histogram from 2 columns in a table
fim2lst - Convert a 2D image to a pixel list (inverse of f2dhisto)
fmrgmsk - Merge 2 or more spatial masks
fmaskfilt - Filter an event list based on an input mask image
findex - Create an index file for a FITS table column
fparkey - Copy a parameter value to a FITS header keyword
fkeypar - Copy a FITS header keyword to a parameter
fpartab - Copy a parameter value to a FITS table element
ftabpar - Copy a FITS table element to a parameter value
ftabkey - Copy a FITS table element to a FITS header keyword
fkeytab - Copy a FITS header keyword to a FITS table element
fmodhead - Modify the header keywords in a FITS file
fkeyprint - Display keyword(s) in FITS header(s)
fburst - Remove bursts of events from time ordered event list
fplot - Plot columns in a FITS file using QDP/PLT package ***
Parameter file manipulation tasks:
pget - Get the value of one or more parameters in a parameter file
plist - List parameters from one or more IRAF-style parameter files
pquery - Get the value of a parameter in an IRAF-style parameter file
pset - Set one or more parameters in an IRAF-style parameter file
punlearn - Get a copy of the system parameter file
High Energy Astrophysics specific tasks:
ascaarf - Generates an ASCA ARF file for an input PHA file
ascalin - Process ASCA Science File to produce linearized detector
coordinates, gain corrected PI values, and aspected sky image.
attitude - computes summary information from ASCA attitude file
bincurve - Bins vectors and outputs as a light curve
binspec - Bin spectra in vector columns
cleansis - Creates hot pixel and filtered events file from SIS file
cktime - Checks that a time column is time ordered
deadtime - Update the exposure of PHA file by deadtime based on GTIs
faint - Convert ASCA faint mode data to a bright mode format
faintdfe - Calculate the dark frame error for SIS FAINT data
fasttime - corrects SIS FAST mode data times
fltime - Filter an event list within given time intervals (GTIs)
ghkdump - Display GIS housekeeping parameters of the GIS HK file
gqaplot - GIS quick analysis ftool ***
grppha - Manipulates OGIP standard PHA FITS file
hkexpand - Expand a compressed format housekeeping (HK) data file
hkscale - Scales a FITS housekeeping data file into physical values
hkunexpand - Compress an expanded format housekeeping (HK) data file
maketime - Calculate time intervals (GTIs) from housekeeping (HK) data
mathpha - Performs mathematical operations on PHA files
mgtime - Merge 2 or more time interval (GTI) files
mkdtime - Create a file of GIS deadtimes
rbnpha - Compresses a PHA dataset
sec2time - Convert time offset to absolute time
sisclean - Removes 'hot' and flickering pixels from SIS image
sishist - Creates histograms of SIS events/pixel for graphing
sisrmg - Generate SIS instrument response matrix
sf2pha - Converts old-style(SF) format PHA file to OGIP FITS format
sqaplot - SIS quick analysis ftool ***
time2sec - Convert absolute time to a time offset
timeconv - Convert from satellite to barycentic (use with caution on SUN)
Calibration specific tasks:
calcrpsf - Multi-task wrapper for Radial PSF tools
crcif - Create an empty Calibration Index File
dmprmf - Displays OGIP standard Response FITS file
marfrmf - multiplies a detector redistribution matrix by an ancillary
response dataset
pspcexpm - creates an exposure map for a given ROSAT PSPC
observational dataset
pspcrpsf - Rebins rpsf data, and produces ROSAT PSPC psf
quzcif - Interrogates Caldb for location of a dataset
rbnrmf - Compresses a RMF file
rbnrpsf - Rebins a radial PSF dataset
rpsfqdp - Converts OGIP format radial profile file to ASCII QDP
rsp2rmf - Converts SF format response matrices to OGIP FITS format
stw2pha - Converts a PHA dataset produced by IRAF stsdas/fitsio task
stwfits to OGIP FITS format
st2rpsf - Reads stw FITS file and writes to CALRPSF format file
udcif - Creates a new entry in a Calibration Index File
xrtarf - Generates an ASCA ARF file
XTE specific tasks:
securve - Bin science events data and output a light curve
sacurve - Bin science array vectors and outputs as a light curve
sespec - Bin science events data and outputs an energy spectrum
saspec - Bin science array data and outputs an energy spectrum
*** May not be supported at all sites
Appendix B. How to get FTOOLS
The FTOOLS software is being distributed as compressed tar files and is
available through anonymous ftp over the internet from
legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.8.233). There you will find
documentation and the source for Suns, DECstations, Alpha workstations and VAX
computers. Here's what a typical ftp session might look like:
myhost> ftp legacy
Name (legacy:kent): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password: userid@hostname
ftp> cd software/ftools
ftp> cd release
ftp> ls *.ps.Z
Install.v2.6.ps.Z
Develop.v2.6.ps.Z
Miniusers.v2.6.ps.Z
Users.v2.6.ps.Z
ftp> ls ftools.*
ftools.dec.v2.6.1.tar.Z
ftools.osf.v2.6.1.tar.Z
ftools.sun.v2.6.1.tar.Z
ftools.vms.v2.6.1.tar.Z
ftp> bin
ftp> get ftools.dec.v2.6.1.tar.Z
ftp> get Install.v2.6.ps.Z
ftp> get Miniusers.v2.6.ps.Z
ftp> quit
myhost>
You should now have a copy of the compressed tar file for the DECstation's
FTOOLS source code and enough documentation to get you started using the FTOOLS
in your current directory.
If you are using a VMS system, you will need both an uncompress and an untar
program. Both are available in public domain in many different versions via
anonymous FTP. Several different compress/uncompress programs can be found at
ftp.spc.edu in the [.MACR032] directory, and an untar program is available from
vmsa.oac.uci.edu. This installation assumes that the untar program translates
illegal filenames to legal ones. For example, the UNIX /ftools/bin.host
directory is assumed to be renamed to Some untar programs may not correctly
untar files with "unusual" structures.
The two files which have previously caused problems, grfont.dat and crabk.fits,
are available for direct retrieval in the same directory as the main FTOOLS tar
file. Grfont.dat belongs in ftools:[host] and crabk.fits in ftools:[testdata].
Neither are essential to the installation or running of FTOOLS.
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