Starting CIAO

Running CIAO 4.1

To use the CIAO software, you must first run a setup script. There are a few things to note about setting up the alias:

• These examples have CIAO installed in the directory /soft/ciao-4.1/. The location of the CIAO software on your system may be different.

• If you have more than one version of CIAO installed, you may wish to version the alias (e.g. "ciao40") to distinguish between them.

The alias syntax depends on the shell (tcsh, csh, bash); see this FAQ for help in determining which shell you are using.

• csh/tcsh users should add the following to their $HOME/.cshrc file.

  alias ciao "source /soft/ciao-4.1/bin/ciao.csh"
  

• bash users should add the following to their $HOME/.bashrc file.

  alias ciao=". /soft/ciao-4.1/bin/ciao.bash"
  

• ksh users should add the following to their $HOME/.login file.

  alias ciao=". /soft/ciao-4.1/bin/ciao.ksh"
  

Then you can just type "ciao" to start the software:

unix% ciao
CIAO configuration is complete...
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 4.1 Friday, December 5, 2008
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 11 Friday, December 5, 2008
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin
 Python path      :  CIAO

It is only necessary to do this once per terminal/window.

Restarting CIAO 4.1

The startup script will not allow you to restart CIAO in a session, instead reporting the following:

unix% ciao
ERROR: The current environment is configured for:
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 4.1 Friday, December 5, 2008
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 11 Friday, December 5, 2008
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao-4.1/bin
Please use the '-o' option to override the previous setup.

If you wish to restart CIAO, then you should either start CIAO in a different window or use the override option. If you do not use the bourne shell then you can use the "-o" option:

unix% ciao -o
CIAO configuration is complete...
The CIAO setup for this window has changed from
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 4.1 Friday, December 5, 2008
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 11 Friday, December 5, 2008
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao-4.1/bin
To:
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 4.1 Friday, December 5, 2008
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 11 Friday, December 5, 2008
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao-4.1/bin
 Python path      :  CIAO

In the bourne shell you have to set the ASCDS_OVERRIDE variable to 1 before "dotting" the script:

unix% ASCDS_OVERRIDE=1 
unix% . /soft/ciao-4.1/bin/ciao.ksh
CIAO configuration is complete...
The CIAO setup for this window has changed from
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 4.1 Friday, December 5, 2008
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 11 Friday, December 5, 2008
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao-4.1/bin
To:
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 4.1 Friday, December 5, 2008
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 11 Friday, December 5, 2008
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao-4.1/bin
 Python path      :  CIAO

Switching between CIAO 3.4 and CIAO 4.1

With prior versions of the software, users had to be careful about switching between different version of CIAO because of differences in parameter files. As of CIAO 4.1, however, the local parameter file directory name will be versioned, rather than always being set to /home/username/cxcds_param by default. For CIAO 4.1, the directory is named cxcds_param4.

This makes it easy to run both CIAO 3.4 and CIAO 4.1 in separate terminal windows on the same machine. For example, assuming CIAO 3.4 is installed in /soft/ciao3.4 and CIAO 4.1 in /soft/ciao:

unix% alias oldciao 'source /soft/ciao3.4/bin/ciao.csh'
unix% oldciao
CIAO configuration is complete...
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 3.4 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 9 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao3.4/bin

unix% echo $PFILES
/home/username/cxcds_param;/soft/ciao3.4/contrib/param:/soft/ciao3.4/param

unix% paccess dmgti
/home/username/cxcds_param/param/dmgti.par

and in a different window, using the suggested alias to start CIAO 4.1:

unix% ciao
CIAO configuration is complete...
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 4.1 Friday, December 5, 2008
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 11 Friday, December 5, 2008
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin
 Python path      :  CIAO

unix% echo $PFILES
/home/username/cxcds_param4;/soft/ciao-4.1/contrib/param:/soft/ciao-4.1/param

unix% paccess dmgti
/home/egalle/cxcds_param4/dmgti.par

You can see that the information is being read from two separate parameter file locations.

CIAO and FTOOLS

Both CIAO and FTOOLS use parameter files to store parameter values for tools, and provide tools for manipulating these files (e.g. plist, pset, punlearn; they have the same name in both systems). The location of the parameter files is taken from the $PFILES environment variables for CIAO and FTOOLS.

We recommend that you start FTOOLS before CIAO. Here is an example of starting version 6.x of FTOOLS and CIAO 4.1:

unix% setenv HEADAS /soft/lheasoft/headas/sparc-sun-solaris2.8; \
      source $HEADAS/headas-init.csh

unix% ciao
CIAO configuration is complete...
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 4.1 Friday, December 5, 2008
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 11 Friday, December 5, 2008
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin
 Python path      :  CIAO

Change the HEADAS path to match your local installation. Note this syntax applies only to C Shell variants (csh, tcsh); for further details on starting FTOOLS, including other shells, refer to the Installing HEAsoft instructions.

The $PFILES variable has been set up to use both the CIAO and FTOOLS directories:

unix% echo $PFILES
/home/username/cxcds_param4:/home/username/pfiles;/soft/ciao-4.1/contrib/param:
/soft/ciao-4.1/param:/soft/lheasoft/headas/x86_64-pc-linux/syspfiles 

CIAO and XSpec

The $HEADAS environment variable is redefined when the CIAO software is started. This is necessary as CIAO packages XSpec models and some libraries for use with Sherpa; those models look in the $HEADAS/spectral/modelData directory for needed files.

In order to run both CIAO and XSpec in the same window, it is necessary to reset the $HEADAS variable before running XSpec. The following shell script is one method of doing so:

unix% cat xspec.sh
#!/bin/csh

setenv HEADAS <Your Local HEADAS Path>
source ${HEADAS}/headas-init.csh

${HEADAS}/bin/xspec $*

Place this script in your $PATH. Then CIAO and XSpec may be run in the same window in this way:

unix% setenv HEADAS /soft/lheasoft/headas/sparc-sun-solaris2.8; \
      source $HEADAS/headas-init.csh

unix% echo $HEADAS
/soft/lheasoft/headas/sparc-sun-solaris2.8

unix% ciao
CIAO configuration is complete...
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 4.1 Friday, December 5, 2008
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 11 Friday, December 5, 2008
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin
 Python path      :  CIAO

unix% echo $HEADAS
/soft/ciao/ots/spectral

unix% xspec.sh

                XSPEC version: 12.4.0ag
        Build Date/Time: Tue Jul 15 22:37:42 2008

XSPEC12>

The shell script has its own environment, within which you can reassign the $HEADAS variable. After running XSpec, the shell script exits and you are back to the parent shell, where HEADAS remains set to point to the CIAO location.

In the future, the definition of HEADAS will occur when Sherpa is used, instead of when CIAO is started. This workaround will then no longer be necessary.

Caveat: Conflicts with Other Software Packages

There are some known conflicts between CIAO and other software or system libraries and tools. Be sure to read the "Other Software Packages" bug page for a list of these issues.