ASDFTOOL(1)

📦 version 5.3.1, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

👑 NAME 👑

okay so bestie, say hi to asdftool — the lil command that lets you Manipulate Advanced Scientific Data Format (ASDF) files ✨ like it's nothing.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

asdftool [-h] [--verbose] {help,explode,implode,defragment,to_yaml} ...

That's the whole vibe check: some optional flags, then one of five subcommands, then whatever that subcommand wants from you. 💅

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so listen. ASDF (that's Advanced Scientific Data Format) is a proposed next generation interchange format for scientific data. 🦋 The whole idea is that it lives in the exact same middle ground that made FITS so successful — it's a hybrid text and binary format:

  • it's got human editable metadata for interchange 🎀
  • and it's got raw binary data that is fast to load and use ⚡

But here's the glow-up, bestie: unlike FITS, the metadata is highly structured and is designed up-front for extensibility. Not me being obsessed with forward-compatible design, but like… it ate. 🔥

So asdftool is your main character entry point for poking at these files. Let's go through everything it gives you:

  • -h, --help — show this help message and exit 🫶 (your classic "wait what do I do" button, and she always comes through)
  • --verbose, -v — Increase verbosity 👀 (want the tool to tell you more? she will. turn it up)
  • help — Display usage information 📖 (the subcommand version of asking nicely)
  • explode — Explode a ASDF file 💥 (yes, that's really what it's called, and yes, it's iconic)
  • implode — Implode a ASDF file 🌀 (the other direction, bestie — she contains multitudes)
  • defragment — Defragment an ASDF file.. 🧩 (note the double period, that's just how she wrote it, we respect it)
  • to_yaml — Convert as ASDF file to pure YAML 🌈 (straight-up text mode, no binary nonsense)
ngl, explode and implode sound violent but it's just the ASDF world's way of saying what happens to the file structure. no files were harmed in the making of this metaphor. 🙈

✨ AUTHOR ✨

this absolute masterpiece was brought to you by Erik Bray and Michael Droettboom — legends, honestly, no cap. 👑

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🎀 this one came from the asdftool manual, February 2016, so she's been serving since way back. iykyk 💖 🌸 🦋 💅

📦 where this page comes from