measuresdata(1)

📦 version 3.8.1, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 measuresdata — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, welcome to measuresdata(1) 💅 it lives in the General Commands Manual section and it's literally the glow-up pipeline for boring data tables. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

measuresdata — read IERS and other data for Measure conversion 🌍✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

measuresdata [key=value  ... ]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically? the measuresdata program can analyse ascii tables (or sinex files or xml files) and convert them into casa Tables, which can then be used by e.g. the Measures class. it's giving data-transformation main character energy, no cap 💅

important bestie: the files have to be obtained by other means — like a python script, manually, or another script (e.g. the provided measuresdata.csh tcsh script). measuresdata is not out here doing the fetching itself 🙈

🎀 Normal operation 🎀

  1. Call the program measuresdata. The program can have arguments (see later, but the defaults suffice). The program will produce a cout log. lowkey it just yaps its progress at you ✨
  2. The program will return with either a failure status or with success status. In latter case a resource file (measuresdata.rc) will be present. This file will have format:
 status: [end|cont]
 ftp: <node-address>
 dir: <ftp-directory>
 file: <ftp-file>
 data: ascii
 arg: <arguments to call back to measuresdata>

If the status is given as end the program is finished; if it is given as cont the script should obtain the file given by ftp, dir and file and call measuresdata back with all the info in arg. it's a lil relay race and honestly? iconic 🏃‍♀️💨

  1. Loop with calls to measuresdata 🔁

💅 OPTIONS 💅

The arguments to measuresdata are given in casa Inputs format. I.e. as key=value. In the following the key is followed by default. (yes bestie, the default comes right after the key — that's the layout, don't fight it 🍓)

  • type=ALL|IERS|JPL|TAI_UTC|.... — Type(s) of tables to produce. Default: all 👑
  • in=<filename>|- — Input ascii file. Normally determined by measuresdata program. Default: -
  • refresh=y|n — Force a table refresh within the minimum refresh period. Default: n
  • renew=y|n — Force a table renew, rather than an update, if table has to be refreshed. Default: n
  • derange=yyyy,yyyy — The wanted range for the JPL planetary tables. Default: 1960,now+20 🪐
  • dir=<filename> — Base directory for tables. Default: .

and that's the whole page, bestie!! every option, every default, every lil detail — all accounted for 💜

this one's from casacore, dated 2014-10-24, and yeah it's the measuresdata(1) page — slay, go convert some tables 🌈⭐ periodt 💖

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