NAME

fitscopy -- Copy FITS files from disk or tape to a tape.

USAGE

fitscopy infiles outfiles file_list newtape

DESCRIPTION

This task will transfer FITS files from disk to tape with optional blocking, tape to disk, or tape to tape with optional blocking. To transfer FITS files from disk to disk, use the copy command.

PARAMETERS

infiles [file name template]

Source file(s) to be transferred.

This can be a single disk filename or the name of a tape drive (e.g., "mta"). It can also be a list of files, e.g., file1.fit, myfile*.fit, or @filelist.

outfile [file name template]

Destination for output files.

This can be a single disk filename or the name of a tape drive (e.g., "mta"). It can also be a list of files, e.g., file1.fit, file2.fit, or @filelist. If a file name is passed to this parameter, files will be written to disk. If more than one file is to be written to disk, the file number will be appended to the root of the filename specification plus an extension if one was given. Files can be written to magnetic tape by using a tape drive specification rather than a file name. The tape drive specification takes the form "mt*" where "mt" indicates a tape device, "*" represents one or more characters. The newtape parameter can be set to "yes" and tape output will be written at the beginning of the tape. If newtape is not set to "yes", then the output will be appended to the tape after the last file. To use the tape you need to allocate it with the allocate command, for example, "allocate mta".

file_list [string]

The files to be read from a tape. This string can consist of any sequence of file numbers separated by at least one comma or dash. A comma separates individual file numbers, whereas a dash specifies a range of files. For example the string "1,2,3-5,8-6" will convert tape files 1 through 8.

(newtape) [boolean]

Is the tape blank?

Setting newtape=yes will cause files to be written at the beginning of the tape.

(blocking_factor = 1) [integer]

The tape blocking factor for FITS files.

2,880-byte records are normally assumed. If the blocking factor is greater than 1 and less than or equal to 10, then 2,880-byte records will be written to a single tape record. The FITS standard specifies that blocking_factor must be less than or equal to 10.

offset = [integer]

Number from which to start counting when generating the number that is appended to the file name specified by outfiles to create the output file name. For example if file_list = "1-3", outfiles = "out" and offset = 100, the the three files out101, out102, out103 would be produced rather than out001, out002 and out003.

verbose = yes [boolean]

Print messages to the screen as files are copied?

EXAMPLES

1. Transfer all the files that match foo with extension .fit to the beginning of the tape mta. Use blocking factor 10.

  fi> fitscopy  foo*.fit  mta  newtape=yes  blocking=10

2. Copy the first 3 files from tape mte to the working directory with filename root myfile and extension fit. This will create files myfiles001.fit, myfile002.fit and myfile003.fit.

 fi> fitscopy  mta  myfile.fit 1-3

TIME REQUIREMENTS

Transfer to and from Exabyte tapes are considerably slow.

BUGS

SEE ALSO

dataio.reblock, dataio.t2d, strfits, stwfits