Starting CIAO

Running CIAO 3.4

If you have run earlier versions of CIAO, we suggest that you first remove some of the files that may have been placed in your home directory. These files include: .cxcds.csh, .cxcds.sh, .sm.cxcds, and .bak versions of these files. If you have not changed your .CXCdefaults file then you can also delete this file (and its backup). It is also safest if you remove all your parameter files, since there have been some changes since CIAO 3.3.0.1 (remember to reset the parameters that are important to your analysis, such as those in ardlib.par).

To use the CIAO software, you must first run a setup script. If you do not have an alias set up for this, we suggest the following (replace the string /soft/ciao by the location of the CIAO software on your system; see this FAQ if you do not know which shell you are using):

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then, when you wish to use CIAO, you can just type "ciao", which produces:

unix% ciao
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/ciao/bin

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

Restarting CIAO 3.4

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 3.4 Sunday, November 5, 2006
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 9 Sunday, November 5, 2006
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin
Please use the '-o' option to override the previous setup.

If you wish to restart CIAO - perhaps because you have changed the configuration - 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 3.4 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 9 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin
To:
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 3.4 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 9 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin

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/bin/ciao.ksh
CIAO configuration is complete... 
The CIAO setup for this window has changed from
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 3.4 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 9 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin
To:
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 3.4 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 9 Sunday, November 19, 2006
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin

Switching between CIAO 3.3.0.1 and CIAO 3.4

The only major concern if you wish to switch between different version of CIAO is the location of your parameter files, since there are some differences between most versions. We suggest that you have two directories and change the $PFILES variable to point to the correct one. For example, assuming CIAO 3.3.0.1 is installed in /soft/ciao3.3.0.1 and CIAO 3.4 in /soft/ciao:

unix% alias oldciao 'source /soft/ciao3.3.0.1/bin/ciao.csh'
unix% oldciao
CIAO configuration is complete... 
 CIAO version     :  CIAO 3.3 Wednesday, November 16, 2005
 Proposal Toolkit version :  Cycle 8 Wednesday, November 16, 2005
 bin dir          :  /soft/ciao/bin

unix% echo $PFILES
/home/username/cxcds_param;/soft/ciao3.3.0.1/param
unix% mkdir $HOME/cxcds_param3.3.0.1
unix% setenv PFILES "/home/username/cxcds_param3.3.0.1;/soft/ciao3.3.0.1/param"

unix% punlearn dmgti
unix% plist dmgti

Parameters for /home/username/cxcds_param3.3.0.1/param/dmgti.par
 
        infile =                  Input MTL file
       outfile =                  Output GTI file
     userlimit =                  User defined limit string
      (mtlfile = none)            Optional output smoothed/filtered MTL file
     (lkupfile = none)            Lookup table defining which MTL columns to check against (NONE|none|<filename>)
       (smooth = yes)             Smooth the input MTL data?
       (kernel = default)         Data Model creation/copy kernel
      (clobber = no)              Clobber output file if it exists?
      (verbose = 0)               Debug level
         (mode = ql)              

and in a different window, using the suggested alias to start CIAO 3.4:

unix% ciao
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/ciao/bin

unix% echo $PFILES
/home/username/cxcds_param;/soft/ciao/param

unix% punlearn dmgti
unix% plist dmgti

Parameters for /home/username/cxcds_param/asphist.par

        infile =                  Input MTL file
       outfile =                  Output GTI file
     userlimit =                  User defined limit string
      (mtlfile = none)            Optional output smoothed/filtered MTL file
     (lkupfile = none)            Lookup table defining which MTL columns to check against (NONE|none|<filename>)
       (smooth = yes)             Smooth the input MTL data?
      (clobber = no)              Clobber output file if it exists?
      (verbose = 0)               Debug level
         (mode = ql)              

In this case, the kernel parameter has been removed from the CIAO 3.4 version of the help file. You can also see that the information is being read from two separate locations. If you do follow this scheme, you may wish to set up a "CIAO 3.3.0.1"; alias to perform the renaming automatically (this is for csh/tcsh users):

alias oldciao 'source /soft/ciao3.3.0.1/bin/ciao.csh \!*; setenv PFILES "$HOME/cxcds_param3.3.0.1;$ASCDS_INSTALL/param"; if ( ! -d $HOME/cxcds_param3.3.0.1 ) mkdir $HOME/cxcds_param3.3.0.1'

This alias sources the startup script - passing along any command-line options you may supply - then changes the $PFILES environment variable to point to the correct parameter directory for CIAO 3.3.0.1 and ensures that said directory exists. The ciao alias can remain untouched since we use the default parameter directory for CIAO 3.4 in this example.

Configuring CIAO

The CIAO configuration process no longer requires that you have any CIAO configuration files in your home directory, nor will the setup script write anything to your home directory during execution. If, however, you would like a custom configuration (e.g., to change your PFILES environment variable if you want to store your parameter files in a different location) then you may copy the relevant setup script (e.g., ciao.csh, ciao.ksh, ciao.bash or ciao.sh as given above) to your home directory, make the changes you require, and use that copy instead.

Similarly, you no longer need the CIAO X resources file (.CXCdefaults) in your home directory, since the CIAO GUIs will use the copy in the installation directory if there is no local copy. If you wish to customize the settings - as this file is used to configure the appearance of the GUI applications - simply

unix% cp $ASCDS_INSTALL/config/system/CXCdefaults ~/.CXCdefaults

and edit your copy ($ASCDS_INSTALL is set up by the configuration script and contains the installation directory of CIAO).

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 3.4:

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

unix% ciao
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/ciao/bin

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_param:/home/username/pfiles;/soft/ciao/contrib/param:
/soft/ciao/param:/soft/lheasoft/headas/sparc-sun-solaris2.8/syspfiles

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.