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4.1.1.1 Arguments ¶

In Gnuastro, arguments are almost exclusively used as the input data file names. Please consult the first few paragraph of the “Invoking ProgramName” section for each program for a description of what it expects as input, how many arguments, or input data, it accepts, or in what order. Everything particular about how a program treats arguments, is explained under the “Invoking ProgramName” section for that program.

Generally, if there is a standard file name suffix for a particular format, that filename extension is checked to identify their format. In astronomy (and thus Gnuastro), FITS is the preferred format for inputs and outputs, so the focus here and throughout this book is on FITS. However, other formats are also accepted in special cases, for example, ConvertType also accepts JPEG or TIFF inputs, and writes JPEG, EPS or PDF files. The recognized suffixes for these formats are listed there.

The list below shows the recognized suffixes for FITS data files in Gnuastro’s programs. However, in some scenarios FITS writers may not append a suffix to the file, or use a non-recognized suffix (not in the list below). Therefore if a FITS file is expected, but it does not have any of these suffixes, Gnuastro programs will look into the contents of the file and if it does conform with the FITS standard, the file will be used. Just note that checking about 5 characters at the end of a name string is much more efficient than opening and checking the contents of a file, so it is generally recommended to have a recognized FITS suffix.

• .fits: The standard file name ending of a FITS image.
• .fit: Alternative (3 character) FITS suffix.
• .fits.Z: A FITS image compressed with compress.
• .fits.gz: A FITS image compressed with GNU zip (gzip).
• .fits.fz: A FITS image compressed with fpack.
• .imh: IRAF format image file.

Throughout this book and in the command-line outputs, whenever we want to generalize all such astronomical data formats in a text place-holder, we will use ASTRdata and assume that the extension is also part of this name. Any file ending with these names is directly passed on to CFITSIO to read. Therefore you do not necessarily have to have these files on your computer, they can also be located on an FTP or HTTP server too, see the CFITSIO manual for more information.

CFITSIO has its own error reporting techniques, if your input file(s) cannot be opened, or read, those errors will be printed prior to the final error by Gnuastro.