Transferring OSSE SDB Files via WWW
The Nature of SDB FilesIn the VMS world, files are slightly more complex than in the Unix world. IGORE SDB files contain information on their file structure that is not always preserved through FTP transfers. This can generate a number of odd errors when trying to use these SDB files in IGORE.
How to fix the problem
The primary assumption for this fix method is that you have transferred an SDB file via a WWW browser or FTP. The transfer MUST be performed in binary mode. The basic steps for this process are listed below.
If you are downloading FITSified SDB files (in the Low-Level Archive)
- Download the file through FTP or your browser in BINARY mode. Your browser must be set to save to your local disk.
- If you have downloaded to a Unix machine, you need to transfer the file to VMS. In the process, change the .Z extension on the Unix file to _Z in VMS.
- Uncompress the FITS file with the VMS Uncompress utility.
UNCOMPRESS fitsfilename
This should leave a .FITS file in your directory. - Now restore the VMS file attributes with SETFILE.
SETFILE fitsfilename 1 0 2880 0 - Convert from FITS format to SDB format via FITS2SDB utility.
FITS2SDB fitsfilename sdbfilename
This is a computationally intensive task and will generally take a long time. - Now you can unleash IGORE on your SDB files! (sound of maniacal laughter)
- Download the file through FTP or your browser in BINARY mode. Your
browser must be set to save to your local disk.
- Reset the file attributes.
SETFILE sdbfilename 2 0 8212 2
- Now you can unleash IGORE on your SDB files! (sound of maniacal
laughter)
You can download the SETFILE and SDB2FITS (which includes FITS2SDB) packages to your VMS system where you are running IGORE. Uncompress and Untar the files, then run the MAKE program in the distribution. SETFILE requires a C compiler be available on your VMS system; SDB2FITS requires both a C and FORTRAN compiler.
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