fitscheck(1)

📦 version 8.0.1, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ fitscheck(1) ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because we're talking about fitscheck from astropy 1.0.2 and honestly? it's giving unsung hero 💅 this is the script that keeps your FITS files from being a whole mess.

🎀 NAME 🎀

fitscheck — a script that sniffs out FITS standards violations and, like, fixes them too 🛠️✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

fitscheck [OPTION]... [FILE]...

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so fitscheck is a command line script built on top of pyfits, and what it does is verify and update the CHECKSUM and DATASUM keywords in your FITS files. that's the main character job 👑 but it can also detect and often fix other FITS standards violations, because it's generous like that.

the whole point? it helps you re-write the non-standard checksums that pyfits originally generated into standard checksums, so they'll actually interoperate with cfitsio. periodt. 💖

⚠️ okay important, no cap: fitscheck will refuse to write new checksums if the checksum keywords are missing or if their values are bad. it's not being difficult, it's being responsible.

so if you want to override that:

  • use --force to write new checksums regardless of whether they currently exist or pass 🔥
  • use --ignore-missing to tolerate missing checksum keywords without comment 🙈

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -h, --help — shows you a terse usage message (help). short and sweet, just like it should be 🫶
  • -k [standard | nonstandard | either | none], --checksum=[standard | nonstandard | either | none] — picks the FITS checksum mode, or none for no checksum mode at all. defaults to standard ⭐
  • -w, --write — writes out file checksums and/or FITS compliance fixes. this is the one that actually touches your files ✍️
  • -f, --force — does the file update even if the original checksum was bad 😤
  • -c, --compliance — does FITS compliance checking, and fixes it if possible 🔍
  • -i, --ignore-missing — ignores missing checksums. pretend you didn't see them 🫣
  • -v, --verbose — generates extra output. more words! more info! 🌈

🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

verify and update checksums, tolerating non-standard checksums, updating to standard checksum:

% fitscheck --checksum either --write *.fits

write new checksums, even if existing checksums are bad or missing:

% fitscheck --write --force *.fits

verify standard checksums and FITS compliance without changing the files:

% fitscheck --compliance *.fits

verify original nonstandard checksums only:

% fitscheck --checksum nonstandard *.fits

only check and fix compliance problems, ignoring checksums:

% fitscheck --checksum none --compliance --write *.fits

verify standard interoperable checksums:

% fitscheck *.fits

delete checksum keywords:

% fitscheck --checksum none --write *.fits
🧚 reminder bestie: if you're not passing --write, you're just looking, not touching. the file stays exactly how it was. iykyk 💜

and that's the whole page!! this lil manual was written by the fitscheck crew back in April 2015 — the source is fitscheck itself, version vibes from the astropy 1.0.2 era, and the manual section is fitscheck(1) 📖✨ go forth and checksum responsibly, queen 👑💖

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