This is the Frequently Asked Questions list for the IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility) project. Within this file, you will find an index of questions organized by topic followed by the answers. This list has been compiled by members of the NOAO IRAF group and is believed to be accurate as of 05/02/00. For further information about anything listed here or additional IRAF questions not mentioned in this FAQ, please see http://iraf.net.

05/02/00

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Table of Contents:

General

General information about IRAF, what it is, where to get help, etc.

Support Services

What user/site support services are available for IRAF? etc.

Documentation

What documentation is available for the system? etc.

Layered Packages

What layered packages are available? How do I get them? etc.

Data Formats

What data formats are supported? Can I convert them? etc.

Window Systems

FAQ about IRAF in a window system, X support, image display etc.

Image Display

How do I display an image? What sized images can be displayed? etc.

Graphics

FAQ about interfacing hardcopy output devices, SGI translators, and

terminal emulators.

System Installations

FAQ about installing and maintaining the system, common errors, etc.

Network Installations

FAQ about installing IRAF on a network with other machines.

Hardware

FAQ about hardware requirements, 24-bit displays, magtape, etc.

Programming

FAQ about programming language support, compilers, etc.

Applications

Common questions about specific tasks and packages.

X11IRAF Issues

Questions/problems specific to XGterm/XImtool.

IRAF V2.11 Issues

Questions/problems specific to V2.11 and XGterm/XImtool.

PC-IRAF Issues

Questions/problems specific to V2.11 and XGterm/XImtool.

Section 1: GENERAL

• What is IRAF?
• Should I get it - is it appropriate for my needs?
• What general image processing tools are included with the core system?
• What software does IRAF have for spectral data?
• What software does IRAF have for direct imaging data?
• Are the IRAF reduction packages limited to use with NOAO instruments?
• How do I get IRAF; how much does it cost?
• Is IRAF public domain software?
• What are the system requirements if I want to install IRAF?
• What is the current version of IRAF?
• When is the next version of IRAF going to be released?
• What is the status of XGterm and XImtool?
• On which platforms does IRAF run?
• Does IRAF run on a PC under DOS? under Unix?
• If I upgrade my OS will IRAF continue to run?
• How difficult is it to port IRAF to my own system?
• What window systems does IRAF run under?
• Is IRAF easy to install?
• How widely used is IRAF?
• How do I acknowledge IRAF in a publication?

Section 2: SUPPORT SERVICES

• What types of services can I expect as an IRAF user?
• What sort of on-line help is available in IRAF?
• Where can I send general questions about IRAF?
• Can I talk to a real person with installation or user questions?
• Is there an IRAF network archive; how do I access it; what's in it?
• Is there an IRAF network mail facility yet? How do I access it?
• Can I get IRAF newsgroup information through a listserver?
• What is the IRAFINFO facility?

Section 3: DOCUMENTATION

• How can I learn to use IRAF?
• Is there a beginner's guide for IRAF?
• Is there IRAF help online?
• What general documentation is available? Where can I find it?
• What documentation do you recommend that I have for the latest release?
• What manuals are available for helping me do photometry?
• What manuals are available for helping me do spectroscopy?
• What documents are available for general image processing?
• What programming documentation is available?
• How can I learn more about the WCS in IRAF?
• What installation manuals are available and where are they?
• Are there revisions notices for the last release?
• Is there a buglog for IRAF? How can I get a copy?
• Is there a manual for SAOimage?
• How can I subscribe to the IRAF Newsletter?
• What is the last issue of the IRAF Newsletter?
• Can I get back issues of the IRAF Newsletter?
• Is there an index for the Newsletter?

Section 4: LAYERED PACKAGES

• What are layered or external packages?
• What layered packages are available? How do I get them?
• How can I get the CTIO package?
• What is the STSDAS package? How can I get it?
• I need the TABLES package. How can I get it?
• What is PROS/XRAY package? How can I get it?
• What is the EUV package? How can I get it?
• Where do I send problem reports for the layered packages?
• How can I contribute my own software to IRAF so others can use it?

Section 5: DATA FORMATS

• What data formats are supported?
• How can I convert my data to the IRAF image format?
• How do I convert my ascii text file of wavelength and flux into an IRAF image?
• Does IRAF support world coordinate systems in images?
• What is the IRAF disk image format?
• How do I convert my GIF/JPEG images to IRAF?
• What are the "..image.imh" files associated with each of my images? Can I delete them to free up disk space?

Section 6: WINDOW SYSTEMS

• When I try to make an IRAF plot on my screen all I get is garbage in my window. How can I get an IRAF plot?
• How is stty "xtermjh" different from a standard "xterm" window?
• Why can't I get vector graphics from AIX/IRAF in an AIXterm window?
• Are we limited to having a single SAOimage process running per CPU?
• Can I run multiple SAOimage processes simultaneously from my account?
• What do I do about "Warning libxxx.s.o older than expected"?

Section 7: IMAGE DISPLAY

• How can I generate or display an RGB image?
• What is the proper value of "stdimage" for use with SAOimage or XImtool?
• How can I change the size of the frame buffer from the CL?
• What do I change to add a custom frame buffer size?
• How do I get a hardcopy of an image displayed with XImtool or SAOimage?
• What can I use for image display on a monochrome monitor?

Section 8: GRAPHICS

• What hardcopy output devices are supported with the distributed system?
• What additional SGI translators are available; how do I get them?
• What VMS/IRAF files do I edit to get my output device interfaced?
• What UNIX/IRAF files do I edit to get my output device interfaced?
• Can I generate color PostScript of an IRAF plot or displayed image?
• Does IRAF support Encapsulated PostScript?

Section 9: SYSTEM INSTALLATIONS

• I don't have enough diskspace for the entire system - what can I do?
• What does the IRAF install script really do - what files are modified?
• I'm not able to write in /usr - can I still install IRAF?
• Can I have more than one version of IRAF installed at a time?
• Can we make our local software look like an IRAF package?
• What does "ERROR: Cannot open device (node!imtool,,512,512)" mean?
• Where's my image? I display an image to SAOimage but get no image dis- played and no error, only the cl prompt.
• Why am I told "task `cl' has no param file" when I try to start the CL?
• What does "ERROR: Cannot open connected subprocess (pkg$x_pkg.e) mean?
• What do I do about "Warning libxxx.so older than expected" or "ld.so: libXXX.so: can't open file" messages?
• Why does VMS/IRAF report "cannot open tmp$uidxxx" when accessing a tape?
• Why does my script tell me "dictionary full"?
• What does "Warning: Out of space in image header" mean?
• Why does PHOT warn "Graphics overlay not available for display device."?
• Why does my task report "ERROR: parameter `foo' not found"?
• What does "ERROR: MWCS: dimension mismatch (mw_translate)" mean?
• My pixel files were moved to another disk and now the i_pixfile pathname in the image headers is wrong. How can IRAF find the pixels?
• How do I turn off the system id banner in output hardcopy plots?
• Why does IRAF kick me out when I type ^Z to exit EPARAM?

Section 10: NETWORK INSTALLATIONS

• What's different about installing Unix IRAF on a network instead of a standalone machine?
• If IRAF is NFS mounted to all the client nodes, why do I need to run the install script on each node?
• How do I access a remote tape drive from IRAF?
• Where can I find information on the structure and fields for the tapecap file?
• Can I use a VMS tape drive from a UNIX IRAF installation?
• How do I suppress the password prompt when accessing pixels?
• How do I disable IRAF networking for disk image access, but keep it to access the tape drives?

Section 11: HARDWARE

• On which platforms does IRAF run?
• What's the best machine to buy if I plan to run IRAF?
• What are the recommended hardware requirements of a workstation?
• What type of mag tape devices are supported and not supported?
• Should I buy a 24-bit frame buffer for my Sun?
• Can I use my Windows 9x PC to display IRAF images?
• Do you have benchmarks for IRAF on various machines?

Section 12: PROGRAMMING

• What programming languages can I use for IRAF software development?
• Can I install IRAF or layered software without having IRAF permissions?
• Can I call IMFORT procedures from C?
• Where are the IRAF libraries used by FC or XC for IMFORT tasks?
• Can I build IRAF software without using FC or XC?
• What Fortran compilers are supported?
• Can I call IRAF tasks from Unix C-shell scripts?
• I was wondering if you could provide a bit more info on how to use the new ability of the IRAF cl (#!cl) to act as a shell for Unix scripts.
• Will IRAF work with the Korn shell or tcsh?

Section 13: APPLICATIONS

• What is the meaning of the coefficients returned with the CURFIT task?
• What does "ERROR: MWCS: dimension mismatch (mw_translate)" mean?
• My pixel files were moved to another disk and now the i_pixfile pathname in the image headers is wrong. How can IRAF find the pixels?
• How do I turn off the system id banner in output hardcopy plots?
• How can I find out what tasks are in IRAF?
• Is the surface photometry package available yet?
• I have a spectrum in a one dimensional image for which I had no trouble running IDENTIFY, REIDENTIFY, and REFSPECTRA but when I run DISPCOR I get the error "ERROR: MWCS: attribute not found (spec1)"
• Is there an ASTROMETRY package I can use?
• Whom should I contact if I have problems with the xray package?

Section 14: XGterm/XImtool ISSUES

• How do I change colors (cursor, background, text, etc) in my XGterm window?
• How do I change the crosshair cursor color so it appears on my mono- chrome monitor?
• How do I start XImtool with private fifo pipes?
• How should I set up my users to run Ximtool on an X-terminal?
• Can I control more than one XImtool at the same time?
• How can I change the background color in my ximtool window - the default color is black - I want white?
• Can I set the size and placement of the xgterm graphics window at startup time?
• Can I set the size and placement of the ximtool window at startup time?
• How can I tell what the default resources are for xgterm and ximtool? Is there a file somewhere with these values in them?
• Can FOCAS make use of the socket connections in XImtool for image display?
• When I try to start up XImtool I get an error about a BadMatch.
• About how much disk space is needed to install 2.11 for Sun machines.
• After upgrading to V2.11 external package tasks no longer recognize my images.

Section 15: PC-IRAF

• Is there a version of IRAF that will run on my PC?
• What Operating Systems are supported?
• What is the minimal hardware configuration?
• What is the recommended hardware configuration?
• How much disk space does IRAF require?
• Where can I get PC/IRAF?
• Where can I get precompiled binaries for external packages.
• Is there a CD-ROM distribution or runtime system? How much does it cost?
• Will IRAF run on my laptop?
• How hard is it to install Linux?
• Where can I get Linux?
• How can I be sure my version of Linux is compatible?
• Where can I get help installing Linux?
• What if my hardware isn't currently supported?