starpkg(1)

💫 starpkg — a manual page, but make it cute 💫

okay bestie, so this is starpkg, from the General Commands Manual section, and she's here to convert a StarPlot data set into StarPlot file format. literally that's her whole job. let's go 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

starpkg — convert a StarPlot data set to StarPlot file format

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

starpkg [ --dataset ] data-set [ --dest destination ]
starpkg --recurse input-dir [ --dest destination ]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so on the StarPlot web site there are these little packages of data, right? and each one has both an original data file from NASA and a specification file. we call these lil bundles "data sets", and starconvert(1) can turn them into a data file in StarPlot format. but for ease of use, bestie, you should really do it through the starpkg shell script. it's giving convenience. it's giving wrapper. 💅

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🧚 USAGE 🧚

okay so assuming that data-set is a valid StarPlot data set — and that means either a tar.gz format file or a directory that came from uncompressing that tar.gz — then the command

starpkg --dataset

converts it into a StarPlot-formatted data file. 🫶

not me pointing out that the --dataset flag is optional — you can literally just pass the name of the input data set without it. iconic behaviour.

now, for something to count as a valid StarPlot data set, a directory or tar.gz file must contain at least:

• a valid specification file whose name ends with .spec, and
• a flat text data file named catalog.dat.

that's it. that's the bar. 💖

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if the --dest option is omitted, the default location of the output file is the first of these directories in which the user has write permissions:

1. /usr/share/starplot
2. $PWD
3. $HOME

and if --dest is omitted or destination is a directory, the name of the output file will by default be ${specfilename%.spec}.stars.

for instance, a data set containing gliese.3.spec will produce a file named gliese.3.stars. slay. ✨

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the starpkg --recurse form of the command runs all of the above for every StarPlot data set contained in input-dir, and drops the resulting StarPlot data files into the directory destination. (and if the --dest option is omitted, the default destination directory is chosen exactly like we said above, bestie.)

this form of the starpkg command is most useful when a new version of StarPlot has been installed and you wish to regenerate all StarPlot data files from data sets using the new starconvert program. spring cleaning but for astronomy data. 🌈

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --dataset, -s — specify a directory or tar.gz file to use as a StarPlot data set.
• --dest, -d — specify the file or directory in which to output StarPlot-format data files.
• --quiet, -q — print only fatal errors to the terminal. she's silent, she's mysterious, she's not telling you anything unless it's dire. 💀
• --recurse, -r — specify a directory in which to search for StarPlot data sets.
• --starconvert-option option — pass option through to starconvert. if you wish to pass more than one option (or an option that takes a following argument), you should give this flag multiple times, once for each starconvert option or argument. yes really, one flag per option. no grouping. it's giving tedious but it's giving correct. 🙈
• --verbose, -v — print all starconvert output to the terminal. main character energy, nothing hidden. 👑

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

starplot(1), starconvert(1)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Copyright © 2000-2002 under the GNU GPL by Kevin B. McCarty <starplot@starplot.org>. The StarPlot web page is at www.starplot.org. 🍓

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okay and that's the whole page, bestie — written back in Nov 2002, filed under starpkg(1), and honestly? still iconic. go convert something. bye 💖✨🦋