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Please refer to the HEASOFT page for
information about the latest release.
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Subscribe to the "FTOOLS Notes" mailing list by sending an e-mail
with empty Subject and in the body "subscribe"
to ftoolsnotes-join@lists.nasa.gov
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Point your web browser at the download webpage:
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/lheasoft/download.html
from which you can download FTOOLS (either the source or binary
distributions) and will also find detailed information about installation,
usage, etc.
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We try our best to support current versions of the most popular
PC Linux, Mac, and PC Cygwin operating systems. For more information,
please see our installation guides:
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BEFORE typing "./configure" in your
BUILD_DIR set your CC environment variable, eg,
setenv CC cc
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Currently, using g77 to build FTOOLS is
ONLY supported on Linux, Mac OS X, and Cygwin systems and cannot be used
on other platforms.
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The unpackaged size of the downloaded software will vary depending on the packages you select and - if you choose a binary distribution - the architecture selected. The full source code distribution is roughly 590 Mb. Complete binary distribution sizes are approximately: Linux PC (660 Mb), Linux PC 64-bit (770 Mb), Linux Mac (580 Mb), Mac PPC Darwin (750 Mb), Mac Intel Darwin (800 Mb), Solaris (1 Gb), and Cygwin (300 Mb). Individual binary packages range in size from only a few Mb to around 200 Mb for the Xspec distributions, as the Xspec distributions include a number of large data files required to run Xspec. The APEC NEI data files (which are only needed by users running APEC NEI models) are packaged separately.
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The BUILD_DIR/configure script accepts the options
--with-copt, --with-cxxopt, and --with-fopt
with which you can set the optimization for each compiler (C/C++/Fortran).
For example, to reduce C and C++ optimization from -O2 to -O, and turn
off Fortran optimization, you would run
configure --with-copt=-O --with-cxxopt=-O --with-fopt=none.
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Note: This will only work if you already installed from the
source code....
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Perform a standard Ftools initialization.
For C-shell variants:
setenv HEADAS /path/to/my/headas-X.X/<arch>
source $HEADAS/headas-init.csh
or, for Bourne-shell variants:
HEADAS=/path/to/my/headas-X.X/<arch>
export HEADAS
. $HEADAS/headas-init.csh
where <arch> is the long architecture-specific directory containing
your Ftools installation.
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Go to the directory containing the source code for the tool you
wish to build, and use the hmake utility to build it, e.g.:
cd headas-X.X/heatools/dummyftool
hmake
(You can capture the output to a log file if you wish.)
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If step 3 finishes without error, use hmake to install the tool:
hmake install
This will safely install the new binary.
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Specify all parameters that you don't want the user prompted for on
the command line using the parameter="value" syntax. Specify *all*
hidden parameters (you're only going to type it once, so don't whine).
For example:
fparkey value="ROSAT" fitsfile="myfile.fits+1" keyword="MISSION"
comm="What made this thing" add=yes
In the past, this FAQ mentioned a way to run FTOOLS using
mode=h. While not particularly dangerous when used *interactively*
by an experienced user, we no longer recommend this method; it's
too easy for inexperienced users to shoot themselves in the foot.
DO NOT use mode=h, in scripts!
DO NOT use 'pset' to set up an FTOOL to run!
(This is the number one generator of "bugs which aren't really bugs"
on ftoolshelp.)
DO always specify *all* parameters on the command line in scripts.
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Most of the FTOOLS now have a clobber parameter. Just set
clobber=yes (on the command line or with pset) and your output files
will be cheerfully overwritten. In a less hazardous solution, most of
the FTOOLS also will clobber an output file if you precede the file
name with an exclamation mark. If your favorite FTOOL doesn't obey
this convention, let us know, and we'll fix it for the next release.
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From the command line "fhelp ftools" will list all of the FTOOLS and
Perl scripts with a short description of each. More and more specific
help can be requested; for example "fhelp xte" will list the FTOOLS in
the XTE subpackage, and "fhelp fdump" will yield the full help page
for the fdump FTOOL.
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So do I. Luckily, the FTOOLS parameter interface (XPI) uses the GNU
readline library, so a full set of command line editing features is
available (the same as you'd get in bash, for example). A few of the
more useful keys:
| Key | Action |
| TAB | Filename completion. (Two tabs will show
you a list of possible completions if there's
an ambiguity). |
| up arrow (or ^p) | Recall previously entered line. |
| down arrow (or ^n) | "Undoes" up arrow. |
| right arrow (or ^f) | Move cursor right on current line. |
| left arrow (or ^b) | Move cursor left on current line. |
| RETURN | Enters the parameter you've just typed. (Your
cursor does not need to be at the end of the
line.) |
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Due to a feature added to one of the core library routines with
FTOOLS v4.1, if a string containing a forward slash ('/') is
given as the keyword value (eg, in a unix path), only
the characters preceding the slash will be interpreted as the
keyword's value while those following it will be the comment.
When entered interactively in response to fparkey's prompt,
surrounding the string in single quotes prevents this parsing. When
entered on the command line, however, 2 sets of quotes are
required (one single and one double) because unix strips off one
set before passing the string to the program. It thus looks like
either this:
> fparkey
Keyword value[] '/home/bubba/in.fits'
Name of FITS file and [ext#][] out.fits
Keyword name[] RESPFILE
or this:
fparkey value="'/home/bubba/in.fits'" fitsfile=out.fits keyword=RESPFILE
The single quotes must be the innermost set of quotes on the
value string.
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Descriptions of known issues (and usually solutions) in the current
software release can be found on the HEAsoft Known Issues page.
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Contact us via the FTOOLS Help Desk
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FTOOLS HELP DESK
If FTOOLS has been useful in your research, please reference this
site (http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftools) and use the
ASCL reference for HEASoft
[ascl:1408.004] or the
ASCL reference for the original FTOOLs paper
[ascl:9912.002]:
Blackburn, J. K. 1995, in ASP Conf. Ser., Vol. 77, Astronomical
Data Analysis Software and Systems IV, ed. R. A. Shaw, H. E. Payne,
and J. J. E. Hayes (San Francisco: ASP), 367.
Web page maintained by:
Bryan K. Irby
