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 Associated programs

Introduction

A number of programs and subroutine libraries are available for manipulating the files used by XSPEC. Most of these are part of the FTOOLS package of tasks to read, write, and modify FITS-format files. There are a few tasks in the XANADU distribution for manipulating the older pre-FITS file formats. However, we recommend that you use the FTOOLS conversion tasks to turn older files into the FITS format and then use the FTOOLS tasks to manipulate them.

The FTOOLS package is available through http at

http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/lheasoft/

If the FTOOLS package is installed, then help is available on any task by typing 

fhelp taskname

To get a complete list of FTOOLS, type

fhelp ftools

FTOOLS reading tasks

FDUMP

Prints the contents of a FITS file to the screen or to a file.

DMPRMF

Prints the contents of a FITS RMF file to the screen or to a file.This tool prints the RMF file in a more legible fashion than FDUMP.

FTOOLS manipulation tasks

GRPPHA

Defines (or redefines) and/or displays the grouping and quality flags, the important keywords, and the fractional systematic errors.

RBNPHA

Compresses a FITS PHA file to a user-defined number of channels. The output is a new file containing the revised PHA extension plus a direct copy of any other extensions in the original file.

RBNRMF

Compresses a FITS RMF file (the detector response matrix) in channel space to give a user-defined number of resulting channels.

FPARKEY

Changes the value of a keyword in a FITS extension header.

MATHPHA

Performs arithmetical operations on PHA files.

ADDARF

Adds together ARFs.

ADDRMF

Adds together RMFs.

MARFRMF

Multiplies an RMF file by an ARF file.

FTOOLS conversion tasks

SF2PHA

Converts an old pre-FITS-format spectral file into a FITS PHA file.

RSP2RMF

Converts an old pre-FITS-format response file into a FITS RMF file.

STW2PHA

Converts the output of STWFITS (IRAF.stsdas.fitsio) into a FITS PHA file.

FTOOLS subroutines

The directory callib/src/gen in the FTOOLS distribution contains a number of subroutines for reading and writing the extensions in FITS format spectral and response files. More information on their use can be obtained from the xspec website at:

 http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xanadu/xspec/fits/fitsfiles.html

RDPHA2

 Read a spectrum extension 

WTPHA2

 Write a spectrum extension 

RDRMF4

 Read the matrix extension 

WTRMF4

 Write the matrix extension 

RDEBD3

 Read the channel boundaries extension 

WTEBD3

 Write the channel boundaries extension 

RDARF1

 Read the effective area extension 

WTARF1

 Write the effective area extension 

 

next up previous contents
Next: Appendix F Using The XSPEC Models Library In Other Programs Up: Appendices Previous: Appendix D Overview of PLT