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New issues from Xspec 12.8.0
Frequently Asked Questions
List of currently outstanding issues.
Patches:
latest update
12.8.0g Feb 15, 2013
Requires patch installer
v4.3
To apply patches, you'll need to have downloaded and already built the source code distribution
of XSPEC. For details about the patch installer including options available with the latest v4.3, click
here.
Otherwise, just follow the instructions below.
(Note: This assumes you have already set your HEADAS environment variables with the
headas-init script, as you would if you were running XSPEC.)
To make sure your XSPEC installation is up to date with ALL listed patches:
1.    If you don't already have the patch installer
tcl script (v4.3), download and place it in the XSPEC src directory. This directory
should be at heasoft-[ver]/Xspec/src from the source code distribution.
2.    Download the latest patchfile into
the same directory. There is no need to unzip/untar the patchfile
since the installer will do that.
3.    At the command line, launch the script by typing
'tclsh patch_install_[ver].tcl',
and that's all.
The script should detect which patches you've installed previously, copy
the new code files to the necessary directories, determine whether complete or only partial
rebuilds are necessary, and finally perform the rebuilds. Numbers listed in red indicate that the patch modifies the interface
to one or more of XSPEC's libraries. These patches will generally cause longer rebuilds. If you
have a local model library, it is recommended (though not always necessary) that you rebuild it
with initpackage after applying red patches.
12.8.0a |
A crash can occur when fitting a model that contains additive components with
a combination of both zero and non-zero norm parameters, AND one or more of the components is a table model.
Our thanks to Tolga Guver for pointing this out.
Report added on Jan 14, 2013.
This patch modifies heasoft-6.13/Xspec/src/XSModel/Model/Component/
AddTableComponent.cxx
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12.8.0b |
A fix for the calculation of the starting point of the Levenberg-Marquardt
fitting algorithm in cases where non-norm variable parameters
exist in data groups > 1, or in named models. For the first iteration, only the
norm parameters should be modified.
Report added on Jan 18, 2013.
This patch modifies heasoft-6.13/Xspec/src/XSModel/Model/Component/
ComponentGroup.cxx
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12.8.0c |
This restores the behavior of XSPEC 12.7.1 (and earlier) for the first iteration of
Levenberg-Marquardt fits. It no longer will treat the first iteration as a special
case in which only the norm components are adjusted. In certain cases, this was
causing the fit to become unstable. This fix also removes an infinite loop
case which could occur when the fit becomes insensitive to all variable fit parameters.
Report added on Jan 22, 2013.
This patch modifies heasoft-6.13/Xspec/src/XSFit/FitMethod/LevMarq/
LevMarq.cxx
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12.8.0d |
The simftest Tcl script command is passing the two versions of the model
in reverse order to the lower-level lrt Tcl script. This patch also
improves the simftest and lrt command-line documentation, and adds an
optional 3rd argument to simftest: If a filename is supplied as a 3rd argument,
it will now be passed to lrt to store that command's output.
Our thanks to Dacheng Lin for bringing this to our attention.
Report added on Jan 24, 2013.
This patch modifies heasoft-6.13/Xspec/src/scripts/
lrt.tcl and
simftest.tcl
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12.8.0e |
This adds a couple of new features for PyXspec: interfaces
for the parallel and statistic test commands which were
introduced in standard XSPEC 12.8.0. The parallel get/set options
are accessed through PyXspec's Xset.parallel object, ie:
Xset.parallel.leven = 4 # Set parallel processes for Lev-Marq fitting.
Xset.parallel.error = 2 # Set parallel processes for error command.
Xset.parallel.reset() # Restore single-process mode for all contexts
The statistic test command option is accessed in PyXspec through the
new Fit.statTest attribute:
Fit.statTest = "ad"
Fit.statTest = "chi"
Report added on Jan 31, 2013.
This patch modifies heasoft-6.13/Xspec/src/main/
xspec.cxx, XSUser/Handler/
xsParallel.cxx, XSUser/Python/xspec/
pyXspecmodule.cxx,
PyXset.cxx,
.h,
PyFit.cxx,
.h,
fit.py,
xset.py, XSUtil/Utils/
ProcessManager.cxx and
.h
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12.8.0f |
An array access error in the plot goodness command can cause a crash in some cases.
Our thanks to Stefano Bianchi for pointing this out.
Report added on Feb 06, 2013.
This patch modifies heasoft-6.13/Xspec/src/XSPlot/Plot/
PlotGroupCreatorClasses.cxx
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12.8.0g |
Improvements made for running the Goodman-Weare algorithm in the
chain command. It now writes keywords CHAINTYP and NWALKERS to the
output chain file to distinguish it from those run with the Metropolis-Hastings
algorithm. It also fixes bugs that prevented both appending to and re-loading
pre-existing Goodman-Weare chain files. Our thanks to Giacomo Vianello
for bringing this to our attention.
Report added on Feb 15, 2013.
This patch modifies heasoft-6.13/Xspec/src/XSFit/MCMC/
Chain.cxx,
FITSChain.cxx,
.h and src/XSUser/Handler/
xsChain.cxx
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Older Versions:
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