Subject: The HEASARC FTOOLS software

From: [email-masked] (William Pence)
Date: Fri, 28 May 93 13:08:26 -0400

This is a reminder that a large suite of FITS related software, called
FTOOLS, is available via anonymous ftp to interested users from the
HEASARC (High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center,
NASA/GSFC).  The FTOOLS package currently contains more than 50
programs that allow users to examine or manipulate the contents of FITS
format files in many different ways.  These programs currently run on
VAXes, SUNs and DECstations and the package can be built either as an
IRAF package or as a set of completely stand-alone executables which
have no IRAF dependencies.  In the latter case, we use a suite of
user-interface routines provided by the SAO which mimic some of the
look and feel of the IRAF user interface.

A brief description of the current FTOOLS tasks is given below:

General Purpose Utilities:

        flcol - List column information in a FITS table extension
      fstruct - List a description of the structure of a FITS file
        fdump - Dump contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file
      fimgdmp - Dump contents of a FITS image to an ASCII file
     ffilecat - Copies keyword values from a list of FITS file to FITS Table
     fcatdiff - Compares columns of a fits file and reports row differences
      fcreate - Create a FITS table from  ASCII input files
      fappend - Append a FITS extension onto another FITS file
     fextract - Copy a FITS extension from a file into a new file
       fmerge - Merge rows from several FITS tables into one FITS table
     fproject - Copy specified columns of a FITS table to a new table
      fselect - Create a new table from selected rows of a table
        fsaoi - Translate an SAOImage region file to an input file for fselect
        fsort - Sort a FITS table in place
     fmemsort - Fast memory sort of a FITS table
        fcalc - Calculates values for a column using an arithmetic expression

   fstatistic - Calculate mean, standard deviation, min, and max for a column
       farith - Perform arithmetic on 2 FITS images
      fcarith - Preform arithmetic on FITS image with a constant
       fhisto - Make a histogram of a column in a table
       fcurve - Make a light curve histogram from a column in a table
     f2dhisto - Make a 2-D histogram from 2 columns in a table
      fim2lst - Convert a 2D image to a pixel list (inverse of f2dhisto)
      fmrgmsk - Merge 2 or more spatial masks
    fmaskfilt - Filter an event list based on an input mask image
       findex - Create an index file for a FITS table column

      fparkey - Copy a parameter value to a FITS header keyword
      fkeypar - Copy a FITS header keyword to a parameter
      fpartab - Copy a parameter value to a FITS table element
      ftabpar - Copy a FITS table element to a parameter value
      ftabkey - Copy a FITS table element to a FITS header keyword
      fkeytab - Copy a FITS header keyword to a FITS table element
     fmodhead - Modify the header keywords in a FITS file
    fkeyprint - Display keyword(s) in FITS header(s)
       fburst - Remove bursts of events from time ordered event list
        fplot - Plot columns in a FITS file using QDP/PLT package ***

High Energy Astrophysics specific tasks:

     maketime - Calculate time intervals (GTIs) from housekeeping (HK) data
       mgtime - Merge 2 or more time interval (GTI) files
       fltime - Filter an event list within given time intervals (GTIs)
     hkexpand - Expand a compressed format housekeeping (HK) data file
   hkunexpand - Compress an expanded format houskeeping (HK) data file
        faint - Convert AstroD faint mode data to a bright mode format
     sec2time - Convert time offset to absolute time
     time2sec - Convert absolute time to a time offset
        coord - Convert (X,Y) pixel coordinates to (RA,Dec)
      hkscale - Scales a FITS houskeeping data file into physical values
       sisrmg - Generate SIS instrument response matrix
       gislin - Transform from ADC electronic units to physical coordinates
      ghkdump - Display GIS housekeeping parameters of the GIS HK file
       bldarf - Routine to create an xspect "arf" file
       grppha - Manipulates OGIP standard PHA FITS file
      gqaplot - GIS quick analysis ftool ***

Calibration specific tasks:

      st2rpsf - reads stw FITS file and writes to CALRPSF format file
       quzcif - interogates Caldb for location of a dataset
       dmprmf - Displays OGIP standard Response FITS file

     *** May not be supported at all sites

The FTOOLS software continues to be under active development by a small
group of programmers and scientists (some part time) at the HEASARC,
and new releases of the software will be made at approximately monthly
intervals.  The latest public release  (version 2.3) of FTOOLS is
available via anonymous FTP from legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov in the
/software/ftools/release/ directory. Here you will find compressed tar
files for DECstations, Suns and VAXs:

		ftools.dec.v2.3.tar.Z (DECstation)
		ftools.sun.v2.3.tar.Z (Sparcstations)
		ftools.vms.v2.3.tar.Z (VAX/VMS computers)

In addition there are several compressed postscript documents and a release  
notice to be found in this directory:
		
		develop.ps.Z   (developer's guide)
		install.ps.Z   (installation guide)
		tinyusers.ps.Z (user's guide:without task description)
		users.ps.Z     (user's guide:with task description)
		ReleaseNotes2.3.txt (ascii notes about this release)

Any questions or problems regarding this software should be
directed to either of the following:

Kent Blackburn: [email-masked]
William Pence:  [email-masked]