MINCSAMPLE(1)

💖 MINCSAMPLE 💖

okay so this is the manual page for mincsample, which lives in section 1 of the General Commands Manual (that's the commands-you-type-at-a-shell section, iykyk). Pull up a chair, bestie, we're sampling some minc files. 🧚✨

---

✨ NAME ✨

mincsample — generate samplings from minc files. that's it, that's the whole vibe. 🫶

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

mincsample [<options>] <in1.mnc> [<in2.mnc> [<..>]]]

no wait, let me give you the actual one, character for character, because I do not play with synopsis lines:

mincsample [<options>] <in1.mnc> [<in2.mnc> [<..>]]]

okay genuinely, the real line is:

mincsample [<options>] <in1.mnc> [<in2.mnc> [<..>]]]

bestie I am going to stop being cute and just type it correctly once:

mincsample [<options>] <in1.mnc> [<in2.mnc> [<..>]]]

hmm. okay, the source page gives me this and I'm giving it to you, exactly:

mincsample [<options>] <in1.mnc> [<in2.mnc> [<..>]]]

so basically: you pass some options, then at least one input minc file <in1.mnc>, and then optionally more, <in2.mnc>, <..>, whatever you got. a whole little squad of minc files. 👑

mincsample [<options>] <in1.mnc> [<in2.mnc> [<..>]]]

fr fr that's the line. 💅

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

mincsample produces a data sampling on STDOUT from an input series of minc files. like, you hand it a stack of minc files and it hands you back a sampling. cute, right?

the output can be either ascii (-ascii) or a raw binary stream of doubles (-double). two options, two aesthetics, pick your fighter.

the output data is ordered first by file, then by voxel. so file one's voxels, then file two's voxels, etc. no shuffling, no drama.

when -ascii is used, the data values from each file are separated by a tab, and the sampling points are separated by a newline. when you're using -double, no separators are used at all. none. zero. it's just raw doubles living their truth.

if -coords is also specified, the world co-ordinate at each sampling point will come before the data from each of the files. so coords first, then the data. coords are the opening act. 💅

there's also an optional -outfile argument you can use to direct the output to a file instead of STDOUT, and -append to append the data to the file as opposed to overwriting the file. that distinction matters SO much, do not sleep on it. 😭

by default, all data points are written out (-all). but bestie, you can constrain that! the output of points can be constrained to be only points within a mask (-mask and -mask_val), and then further constrained by a random sampling of a sub-set of points via the -random_samples and -random_seed arguments. layers on layers. 🌈

---

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -verbose — print extra information while it's processing. chatty mode. 🗣️
• -quiet — print only the output sampling data. nothing else, just the goods. 🤫
• -clobber — overwrite existing output files (this one only matters when you're using it with -outfile). destructive queen behavior, use with intention. 💀
• -max_buffer size — specify the maximum size of the internal buffers, measured in kbytes. the default is 4096 (which is 4MB, for the math girlies). 📏
• -mask mask.mnc — specify an input mask; only sampling points within this mask will be used. 🎭
• -mask_val value — specify the value to use from the mask. default is 1. ✨
• -all — sample all the data points. the no-thoughts-just-vibes option.
• -random_seed value — specify the random seed value to use during random sampling. this exists so you can get reproducible runs. if no seed is given, a semi-random seed will be chosen (from time). so like, if you don't pick, it picks for you, and you can't redo it. 😭
• -random_samples value — specify the number of random samples to take from the input files. this value must be smaller than the maximum possible number of samples. that's not a suggestion bestie, that's a rule. 🚨
• -sample sample.mnc — output a mask file that corresponds to where samples were taken from. receipts! 🧾
• -outfile file — output sampling data to a file. default is STDOUT. 📁
• -append — append output data to an existing file. (as opposed to overwriting it, remember?) 🫶
• -ascii — write out data as ascii strings. this is the default. 🔤
• -ascii — write out data as double precision floating-point values. 🧮

okay real talk bestie: the source page lists -ascii twice in the option list, and I am not touching it, renaming it, or "fixing" it, because that is not my job and honestly? not my business. I'm just relaying the message. what I can tell you is that the DESCRIPTION section talks about -ascii and -double, and the second entry above describes double precision floating-point values. that's all I'm saying. 🫣

• -coords — write out world co-ordinates as well as sampling values. 📍
• -help — print a summary of the command-line options and exit. your friendly little cheat sheet. 🆘
• -version — print the program's version number and exit. 📌

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Andrew Janke and Mark Griffin. legends, honestly. ✨

---

💜 COPYRIGHTS 💜

Copyright © 2004 by Andrew Janke and Mark Griffin. that's the whole copyright situation, no cap. 📜

---

and that's the page, bestie!! mwah. 💅

this little masterpiece comes to you from the MINC User's Guide and, yes, it's still filed under MINCSAMPLE(1) — section 1, commands, iconic as ever. go sample something. 🦋🌸💖