iofits(1)

📦 version 6.2.0, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💫 iofits — the manual, but make it cute 💫

okay bestie, so this is the iofits(1) page from the General Commands Manual — it's the tool that does FITS data format conversion (pixel depth) ✨ pull up a chair, we're doing this together 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

iofits — FITS data format conversion (pixel depth) 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

iofits [options] <in_fits> <out_fits> <depth>

like. that's it. that's the whole summoning ritual 🔮

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

iofits converts FITS files of any pixel depth to another pixel depth (bits per pixel). no cap 💯

Depth is given as in the FITS norm, and the options are:

  • 8 bits per pixel, unsigned.
  • 16 bits per pixel, signed
  • 32 bits per pixel, signed
  • -32 IEEE floating point
  • -64 IEEE double precision floating point

that's the whole menu, queen 👑

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -v — Verbose mode. she talks more. that's it, that's the flag 👑
  • -M megs — Memory handling. To avoid saturate memory for huge cubes, this parameter specifies the maximum amount of memory to use before swapping data to disk. The amount is given in Megabytes. (1Meg = 1,048,576 Bytes) The process time is then considerably slowed down. Default value is 50 megs.
not the 1Meg = 1,048,576 Bytes being a very specific number 😭 it's giving "yes we mean mebibytes, we just refuse to say it". and yeah, when -M kicks in and data starts swapping to disk, the process time is then considerably slowed down — so maybe don't set it to something unhinged unless you're built different 💀

🧚 FILES 🧚

Input/output files shall all comply with FITS format. 🩷

The original FITS header of the input FITS file is conserved along, except for the following keywords: NAXIS, NAXISn, BITPIX, BSCALE, BZERO, which are related to the newly created file. those five get rewritten because they're literally about the new file's shape and scaling, iykyk 🌈

HISTORY keywords are appended to the FITS header to indicate the eclipse process modifications, together with the command line which was used to generate the file. so the file keeps receipts of exactly what you did to it 📝 periodt.

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

average, filt, deadpix — your little FITS friend group 💖 go say hi.

💀 BUGS 💀

In general, decreasing the resolution in number of bits per pixel almost always means loss of precision. No rescaling is done on the data, use this command with care!

bestie. hear me. no rescaling is done on the data. so if you're squishing 32-bit down to 8-bit, all that detail is just gone and nobody's gonna smooth it over for you. this is not a drill, it's a warning label 🚨 handle with care or cry later 😭

this page was born on 25 Feb 1997 (yes, a whole legend, older than most of the apps on your phone 👑) and it lives in section iofits(1). mwah, go convert responsibly 💅✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from