Appendix E: List of program arguments

• abspath

  This notation points to an absolute XAS pathname of the form

  /dir1/dir2/dir3

  ---

• arffile

  is the name of an ancillary response file, o "none" if no ARF generation is requested. Usually no filetype is requested (if specified overrides the default setting of ".arf"). This argument has no effect in the case of XAS matrix format.

  ---

• band

  A seldom used numeric argument, which may be optionally required when reading a XAS time profile with multiple bands, to select the band to be plotted or manipulated (note that, although supported, multiple bands are not used by standard time profiles)

  ---

• binning

  The way the binning factor for a quantity can be specified depends on the quantity itself :

  n

  for any quantity other than TIME one just gives a binning factor (zoom factor), 1 to mantain original channels/pixels, n>1 to have bins which are n channels wide

  binsize

  if the quantity is TIME one gives a binsize in seconds, expressed as a REAL number. This value must be a multiple of the proposed default. If the user does not comply, the value is adjusted.

  ---

• cfile

  This notation indicates the name of a command file. Usually one provides only the filename and lets the filetype default to .command, and the path default to the current directory.

  ---

• colour

  A XAS colour may be one of the fundamental colours used for vector plotting (in practice a positive number from 0 to 7), or a conventionally negative number, which points into the current colour table (e.g. -12 means the 12th location of the current table).

  ---

• commentflag

  This flag controls whether FITS inline comments are translated into XAS comment keywords or are omitted. It may take either values

  Yes No

  ---

• context

  This argument specifies the current default context for accumulation and display programs. Its main purpose is to default the type of accumulation and the filetype.
  Its value can be one of the following (the first letter is sufficient) :

  Image Spectrum Time Photon

  ---

• DETNAM

  Used by sky programs to retrieve the current detector unit within the current instrument. Normally taken from header keyword of the same name (only if missing asked to the user).
  Legal MECS values are M1 M2 M3 (case insensitive).

  ---

• datatypes

  For the purpose of the fotfile program one this field shall be a plus-separated concatenation of file classes and types, with optional negation, e.g. of the form

  class+class+type+NOclass+NOtype

  where class refers to any of the following classes of file types

  A

  the tapedir file

  B

  the ephemeris, attitude and OBT-UTC conversion files

  C

  all spacecraft HK files common to all instruments

  D

  all instrument directories (instdir, obsdir, expconf)

  E

  all instrument HK files

  F

  all instrument science data files

  ALL = A+B+C+D+E+F

  all of the above

  DEF = A+B+D+E+F

  default configuration

  and type refers to any filetype as shown in the tapedir.
  The above shall allow selective constructs like :

  ALL+NOB 
  B+NOephemeris 
  D+E+F+obt_utc

  ---

• file

  A generic file name. In case of XAS data files this may be an image (or a response matrix), spectrum, time profile (of any sort), or photon list.

  ---

• ffile

  This notation indicates a Fourier spectrum (.fourier) or periodogram (.chisquare) or other file produced by timing analysis programs

  ---

• fitsfile

  A data file in the FITS format.

  ---

• fp1 fp2

  A couple of frequencies (Hz) or periods (s) (according to program) delimiting a range, used by timing analysis programs

  ---

• fpn

  Used by timing analysis programs to specify frequency (Hz) or period (s) steps (according to program). It can have two forms :
  • fp : a linear step size (Hz or s)
  • n : an integer number of (logarithmic) steps

  ---

• gainfile

  This notation indicates the name of gain history time profile. Usually one provides only the filename and lets the filetype default to .time, and the path default to the standard XAS data path.

  ---

• ifile

  This notation indicates the name of a XAS image file. Usually one provides only the filename and lets the filetype default to .image, and the path default to the standard XAS data path.

  ---

• include

  This notation is used for photon accumulation to specify if a given quantity has to be included in the output file or not. It may take either values

  Yes No

  ---

• instance

  This argument is a sequence number n, indicating the n-th instance (copy) of a given graphics server program.

  ---

• instrument

  One of the SAX instrument codes :

  lecs
  mecs
  hpgs
  pds
  wfc
  

  ---

• instrument

  For the purpose of the fotfile program the SAX instrument code is one of the following two-letter codes :

  XX

  "any" instrument, i.e. the files for "all" instruments (indicated as ** in the tape directory), plus the files for the first instrument appearing on tape whatever it is

  LE

  LECS

  ME M1 M2 M3

  MECS, respectively all units, or only unit 1, 2 or 3

  HP

  HP-GSPC

  PD P1 P2 P3 P4

  PDS, respectively all units, or only unit 1, 2 , 3 or 4

  W1 W2

  WFC1 or WFC2 respectively

  ---

• inslewobs

  An extended observation range of observations in the initial (ingoing) slew manoeuvre

  ---

• hkname

  This corresponds to the mnemonic code of an housekeeping (HK) parameter. Mnemonic codes are listed in the instrument PCF (Parameter Characteristics File).

  ---

• keyword

  The name of a file header keyword is a string of no more than 8 characters.

  ---

• keytype

  The type of a file header keyword is coded as follows:
  • C for a character string
  • I for a 16-bit integer (INTEGER*2, use discouraged)
  • J 32-bit integer (INTEGER*4)
  • R 32-bit floating point (REAL*4)
  • D double precision floating point (REAL*8)

  ---

• logflag

  This flag controls whether an additional log file is produced with some information on the data conversion. It may take either values

  Yes No

  ---

• meunit

  The number (1,2 or 3) of the MECS unit.

  ---

• alpha beta gamma misalignments

  Used by sky programs to retrieve the misalignments necessary to convert the satellite pointing direction into the detector pointing direction.
  If the detector pointing is already present in header keywords RA_PNT DEC_PNT ROLL_PNT these parameters are unnecessary.
  Otherwise the misalignments (angles in decimal degrees) and the focal length (in mm) are usually retrieved from the calibration file of the appropriate detnam (only if this is not possible they will be asked to the user).

  ---

• n

  A generic number of items (integer).

  ---

• ncol

  The number of colours for colour table manipulation. It is a number with absolute value from 0 to 256 (or less, according to LUT size). A positive value conventionally refers to the particular graphics server's LUT, while a negative value conventionally refers to the full X colourmap.

  ---

• ncounts

  The number of counts to be accumulated in each spectrum.

  ---

• nphbin

  Used by timing analysis programs to indicate a number of phase bins into which to fold a light curve.

  ---

• nstep

  Used by timing analysis programs to indicate a number of steps into which to divide a range.

  ---

• obsrange

  is an "extended" range of observation numbers i.e. the concatenation of
  • single observation numbers (e.g. 1, 3)
  • observation intervals in dash-separated form (e.g. 5-7 for 5 to 7)
  using a "plus" as concatenation operator, e.g. to concatenate the above

  1+3+5-7

  An observation chain of "0" means "none", and "1-99" means "all".

  ---

• outslewobs

  An extended observation range of observations in the final (outgoing) slew manoeuvre

  ---

• outtype

  This argument specifies the output file type for the check_expconf command and can be one of the four values (all can be abbreviated to the first letter)

  Ascii
  Ps
  Colour
  Graphics
  

  corresponding respectively to a named ASCII file, a named black&white Postscript file, a named colour Postscript file or a graphic X-window server instance

  ---

• path

  This notation points to XAS pathname which can be either absolute or relative, i.e. of the form

  dir1/dir2/dir3

  ---

• packet

  This corresponds to the code of a SAX FOT telemetry packet. This argument needs to be supplied ONLY if more than one packets are eligible for the particular accumulation requested, otherwise it is resolved internally by the program.

  ---

• period

  Used by timing analysis programs to indicate a single period in s.

  ---

• pfile

  This notation indicates the name of a XAS photon list file. Usually one provides only the filename and lets the filetype default to .photon, and the path default to the standard XAS data path.

  ---

• PIXSIZE

  Used by sky programs to retrieve the pixel size in mm. Normally taken from header keyword of the same name (only if missing asked to the user).

  ---

• pkfreq pkpowr

  Used by timing analysis programs to specify (also graphically) an x,y position, where pkfreq is a frequency or period (according to case), and pkpowr is the height of a peak in a periodogram or power spectrum.

  ---

• quantity, xquantity, yquantity

  This indicates the names of quantities present for an event, and which can be used for accumulations (e.g. on the x and y axes). The names are mnemonic codes, contained in the packetcap files, like :

  X Y PHA TIME BURSTLENGTH ...

  ---

• range

  These arguments specify the range for the non-interesting quantities of an accumulation, that is, the ones used for selection.
  In the case of photon lists, this applies to all quantities, interesting and uninteresting.
  The notation for ranges is described below.

  ---

• range

  The way a range for a quantity can be specified depends on the quantity itself :

  lowvalue highvalue

  for any quantity other than TIME one just gives the low and high values in channels or pixels

  starttime endtime

  if the quantity is TIME one gives start and end times in UT, using the full date (year, month number, day) and time (hours, minutes, seconds), with notation

  yyyy mm dd hh mm ss

  ---

• ra dec roll

  Used by sky programs to retrieve the satellite pointing direction and to compute the detector pointing direction.
  If the detector pointing is already present in header keywords RA_PNT DEC_PNT ROLL_PNT no user dialogue is necessary about satellite pointing and misalignments.
  Otherwise the satellite pointing is normally retrieved from header keywords RA_SCZ DEC_SCZ ROLL_SCZ and only if they are missing is asked to the user.
  Angular values are expressed in decimal degrees.

  ---

• records

  A range of records (start and end) in a file.

  ---

• rfile

  This notation indicates the name of SAOimage-style region file. Usually one provides only the filename and lets the filetype default to .region, and the path default to the standard XAS data path.

  ---

• rgb

  An RGB colour specification is a triplet of real numbers (each one in the range 0.0 to 1.0) indicating the level of Red, Green and Blue.

  ---

• rmffile

  is the name of a response matrix file, o "none" if no RMF generation is requested. Usually no filetype is requested (if specified overrides the default setting), and the appropriate one (".rmf" or ".matrix") is constructed according to the file format selected.

  ---

• servinst

  This argument fully identifies a particular graphic server instance, and is formed by a two-letter code (corresponding to the server type) and a number n (corresponding to the n-th instance or copy of a server) without intervening blanks.
  E.g. xw2 is the 2nd instance of an X-window server, bw1 is the 1st of a black&white Postscript server, etc.

  ---

• server

  This argument is a two-letter code indicating the type of graphics server. The currently defined values are

  xw
  bw
  cp
  c2
  

  corresponding to the X-Window server, the Black&White Postscript server, the Colour Postscript server, and the Colour Level 2 Postscript server.

  ---

• sfile

  This notation indicates the name of a XAS spectral file. Usually one provides only the filename and lets the filetype default to .spectrum, and the path default to the standard XAS data path.

  ---

• startc

  The start colour for colour table manipulation. It is a number from 0 to 256 (or less, according to LUT size).

  ---

  tape

  This is a system-dependent tape device name (currently corresponding to a local tape drive attached to the system where the fotfile program is run) e.g.

  /dev/nrmt0l  /dev/nrst0  MUA0:

  ---

• targetobs

  An extended observation range of observations in the normal pointing on the celestial target being observed

  ---

• tbin

  This indicates a binsize in seconds, expressed as a REAL number. This value must be a multiple of the proposed default. If the user does not comply, the value is adjusted.

  ---

• tfile

  This notation indicates the name of a XAS time profile. Usually one provides only the filename and lets the filetype default to .time, and the path default to the standard XAS data path.

  ---

• trange

  A time range is always indicated as

  starttime endtime

  giving start and end times in UT, using the full date (year, month number, day) and time (hours, minutes, seconds), with notation

  yyyy mm dd hh mm ss

  ---

• value

  The value of a XAS environment variables can be any string, provided it does not contain imbedded blanks. An array of value can be represented as a comma-separated list (but this is not accessible in the normal way). A numeric value is also passed as a string. A blank value is equivalent to a null value (i.e. to unset the variable)

  ---

• value

  The value of a XAS file header keyword can be
  • a string of no more than 68 characters not containing imbedded blanks
  • one or more integer numeric values
  • one or more (single precision) floating point numeric values
  • one or more double precision numeric values

  ---

• variable

  The name of a XAS environment variables can be any string (excepted the word FROM)

  ---

• xastype

  For the purpose of most programs valid XAS data types are of the the form
  • image
  • spectrum
  • photon
  • time

  ---

• xbin, ybin

  These arguments specify the binning factor for the interesting quantities (along x and eventually y) of an accumulation.
  The notation for binning is described elsewhere

  ---

• xfile

  A XAS environment file which can be fed into xasset, consisting of a number of lines, each one of the form

  variable value

  ---

• xrange, yrange

  These arguments specify the range for the interesting quantities (along x and eventually y) of an accumulation.
  The notation for ranges is described elsewhere

  ---

• xquantity, yquantity

  See quantity.

  ---

• wfile

  This notation indicates the name of a time window file. Usually one provides only the filename and lets the filetype default to .window, and the path default to the standard XAS data path.

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