HFWG Recommendation R7:

    On the use of the CREATOR keyword

    (Approved: 1993 Nov 17)

    It is often useful to identify which software program created a particular FITS file. The reserved AUTHOR keyword has sometimes been used for this purpose, but this is not consistent with the original intent of the AUTHOR keyword to cite a publication. Instead, it is recommended that a new keyword,

    • CREATOR

    be used for this purpose. When appropriate, the value of the CREATOR keyword should also reference the specific version of the program that created the FITS file, e.g.:

    CREATOR = 'progname v1.2.3 ' / Program that created this FITS file

    where progname is the name of the software task, and 1.2.3 is the version number.

    It is intended that this keyword should refer to the program that originally defined the FITS file structure and wrote the contents. If a FITS file is subsequently copied largely intact into a new FITS by another program, then the value of the CREATOR keyword should still refer to the original program. HISTORY keywords should be used instead to document any further processing that is performed on the file after it is created.