STILTS(1)

📦
version 3.5.4 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ NAME ✨

okay so bestie, meet stilts — the Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library Tool Set 💖 this is the manual page for STILTS(1) and yes we are going to get through the WHOLE thing together, no skipping, i got you 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

so here's the vibe, the shape of it, the silhouette:

stilts [-help] [-version] [-verbose] [-allowunused] [-prompt] [-bench]
       [-debug] [-batch] [-memory] [-disk] [-memgui] [-checkversion
       <vers>] [-stdout <file>] [-stderr <file>]
       <task> <task-args>

stilts <task> help[=<param-name>|*]

that's it, that's the whole entrance exam 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

STILTS hands you a whole lil squad of command-line applications for manipulating tabular data ✨ and conceptually? it sits right between two other packages, and it literally uses a lot of the same classes as them:

  • STIL — a set of Java APIs that provide table-related functionality 🎀
  • TOPCAT — a graphical application that gives you an interactive platform for exploring one or more tables 🌈

and the detailed help for each task? you get it with the help option of the task itself. it's giving "ask the task, the task knows" 😌

💅 OPTIONS 💅

some flags are common to ALL the tasks in the STILTS package, and you drop those in after the stilts invocation itself and before the task name. they generally do the same thing no matter which task is running. iconic behavior honestly 👑

  • -help — prints a usage message for the stilts command itself and exits. that message contains a listing of all the known tasks so it's lowkey a table of contents 💖
  • -version — prints the STILTS version number and exits. short, sweet, periodt ✨
  • -verbose — makes more verbose information get written during operation. specifically (and this is the actual mechanic, no cap): it boosts the logging level by one notch. you can specify it multiple times to crank the verbosity up even further 🔥 and the flag +verbose does the opposite — it reduces the logging level by one notch. balance 💅
  • -allowunused — makes unused parameter settings on the command line be tolerated. normally? any unused parameters on the command line cause a usage message to be output AND the command to fail, on the assumption that if you supplied a parameter setting that's not doing anything, it's probably a mistake and you deserve a chance to correct it 🙈 but if this flag is set, you just get a warning through the logging system about any unused parameters, and the command is executed as if they weren't there.
  • -prompt — most of the STILTS commands have a bunch of parameters that will assume sensible defaults if you don't give them explicit values on the command line. use -prompt and you'll be prompted for every parameter you have not explicitly specified, so you get an opportunity to enter a value other than the default. it's giving "we're doing this together, one question at a time" 😭
  • -bench — outputs the elapsed time taken by the task to standard error on successful completion. clocked it ⏱️
  • -debug — sets up output suitable for debugging. the most visible consequence is that if an error occurs, a full stacktrace is output, rather than just a user-friendly report 💀
  • -batch — some parameters will prompt you for their values, even if they offer legal defaults. use -batch and you won't be prompted at all. silence, blessed silence 🤫
  • -memory — encourages the command to use java heap memory for caching large amounts of data rather than using temporary disk files. the default is to use memory for small tables, and disk for large ones. this flag is in most cases equivalent to specifying the system property -Dstartable.storage=memory.
  • -disk — encourages the command to use temporary files on disk for caching table data. the default is to use memory for small tables, and disk for large ones. using this flag may help if you're running out of memory 😭 this flag is in most cases equivalent to specifying the system property -Dstartable.storage=disk.
  • -memgui — displays a graphical window while the command is running which summarises used and available heap memory. may be useful for profiling or understanding resource constraints 🧚
  • -checkversion <vers> — requires that the version is exactly as given by the string <vers>. if it is not, STILTS will exit with an error. this can be useful when executing in certain controlled environments to ensure that the correct version of the application is being picked up 🔒
  • -stdout <file> — sends all normal output from the run to the given file. by default this goes to the standard output stream. supplying an empty string or "-" for <file> will restore this default behaviour 💫
  • -stderr <file> — sends all error output from the run to the given file. by default this goes to the standard error stream. supplying an empty string or "-" for <file> will restore this default behaviour 💫

👑 STILT TASKS 👑

here's the roster — the following tasks are currently available, and yes, every single one of them:

like. look at that list. that's a whole ensemble cast 🌈

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

  • stilts-<task>(1) for all tasks, topcat(1) 🫶

if the package stilts-doc is installed, the full documentation SUN/256 is available in HTML format at:

file:///usr/share/doc/stilts/sun256/index.html

go read it, it's giving lore 📚

⭐ VERSION ⭐

  • STILTS version 3.5.4-debian 💖
  • this is the Debian version of Stilts, which lack the support of some file formats and network protocols. for differences see:
file:///usr/share/doc/stilts/README.Debian
not me flagging that "lack" is the original wording — bestie, i am not fixing the grammar of a manpage, that's not my job, and also i would never 🙈

💜 AUTHOR 💜

  • Mark Taylor (Bristol University) 👑

aaaand that's the whole page!! this one is from Mar 2017, out of the Stilts commands source, and honestly? she's a classic for a reason. thanks for reading the whole thing with me bestie, ur a real one, ily 💖✨🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from