FAQs on IRAF upgrade to v2.14.1

A-01 V2.13-Beta2 was an IRAF release targeted primarily to Mac OS X and Cygwin users. It never left the Beta stage. Last december IRAF v2.14 was released (with some minor changes and bug fixes published early this year), while patch 2.14.1 was released about one month ago. We believe that the time is mature to switch to this latest IRAF version.

A-02 Some of the highlights of this latest release are:

• Full support for Mac (Intel) and Cygwin (for Windows XP).
• ZPN Projection now supported by all tasks using the MWCS interface. ZPN is a zenithal/azimuthal polynomial projection.
• Improvements to the IMEDIT task: a new option to do vector/constant replacement was added, as well as to keys to do operations especially suited to editing object masks.
• New NHEDIT task, which is a modified version of the HEDIT task but allows comments to be added to keywords.
• Various PLOT package tasks (PROW(S)/PCOL(S)/PVECTOR) can now draw box histograms as an option
  
• Plus many other improvements and bug fixes.

A comprehensive list of the changes introduced in this version can be found in http://iraf.net/ftp/iraf/v214/PCIX/README

Also, TABLES and STSDAS have been upgraded to v3.8. See the STSDAS Release Notes for a detailed list of changes.

A-03 We do recommend that you switch as soon as possible to IRAF v2.14.1, especially if you do not run any particular program or script which you think may fail in the new release because of modifications to tasks or changes in the task parameters. Please follow these steps to migrate easily to the new IRAF version:
cd ~/iraf
mkiraf - when asked to initialize uparm, answer yes (what happens if I answer yes?) or no (what happens if I answer no?). As terminal type, answer xgterm (it's the only one that should be used for IRAF).

Then revise and modify your login.cl file. You should inspect your loginuser.cl file (if you have it), and check if it contains instructions and commands not compatible with the new version. See the questions about loginuser.cl.
Please use ecl to start IRAF.

A-04 I've noticed that some people run mkiraf in a scratch directory (for instance where they keep their data). We strongly recommend against it, as doing so might produce several problems (typically errors in modifying task parameters, permission denied errors, etc.) ... Please set you iraf directory to a subdirectory in your home, and stick with it (you can cd to the scratch directory after starting IRAF).

A-05 IRAF will preserve the parameter files in the uparm directory. This means that you may experience problems when using tasks in IRAF 2.14.1 that have changed from the previous 2.12.2 version. You should read the question about task parameters changes.

A-06 The content of the uparm directory will be removed, so you'll lose all your task parameter settings. On the other hand, you won't experience any problem with tasks that have changed from the previous versions. This is what I would recommend.

A-07 Yes, all the existing external packages should also work in IRAF 2.14.1. Should you notice any problem with an external package, or if you need one that is not installed (or wish to upgrade an existing package), just let us know.
See here a list of the packages available in IRAF v2.14.1 @ IAC.

A-08 Most probably the errors are generated by tasks with new or modified parameters, which conflict with the ones from the older IRAF version, stored in your uparm directory. In such case, you might try the relearn task in the rvsao package:
cl> relearn task
This command saves the current parameters values for the task, unlearns it, and reassigns the old parameter values to the new file.

However, sometimes relearn fails. In this case you may do something like this:
cl> dpar task > filename       # store the parameter values in a file.
cl> unlearn task    # reset all task parameters to the default values
cl> epar task     # manually set the parameter values to those just saved in the file.   

A-09 Indeed sometimes a user needs to be able to work with both the old and the new IRAF version. For instance, she has some old scripts and programs (or a home-made package) that do not work in the new IRAF, and has no time to do all the modifications required to fix or adapt them. In this case it is possible to use either version, following carefully the instructions below (you might change the directory names if you wish so):

** IRAF 2.12.2 **
cd ~/      # go to home directory
mkdir iraf212 ; cd iraf212        # create directory for IRAF v2.12.2
mkiraf212          # Initialize IRAF 2.12.2
... revise and modify login.cl ... (you may check against your existing login.cl file)
ecl212       # Start the old IRAF

Alternatively, you can keep your existing iraf directory, or copy over your own files or scripts to the iraf212 directory. You can also move over there the uparm directory.

** IRAF 2.14.1 **
cd ~/         # go to home directory
mkdir iraf214 ; cd iraf214        # create directory for IRAF v2.14.1
mkiraf       # Initialize IRAF (new version)
... revise and modify login.cl ...
ecl     # Start new IRAF

It´s extremely important that each IRAF version be started from its own directory:
cd ~/iraf214 ; ecl     or   cd ~/iraf212 ; ecl212.

If you are still confused about how to proceed, or you have scripts and procedures that you would like to use in IRAF 2.12.2 and do not know exactly what to do, please get in touch with us.

A-10 No, it won't. Also, your existing loginuser.cl file may need some modifications, as it may contain commands and instructions incompatible with this new IRAF version.
If you wish, you can copy this loginuser.cl template over to your new iraf directory, and edit and modify it.

A-11 As in any major upgrade of big packages such as IRAF, it is possible that you will experience problems, because of some glitch in the installation process, because the migration to the new version was not done properly, or even because of a bug in the IRAF release itself. In any case, please contact with the CAU ( ) or the SIE ().
Remember that by submitting any problems you find to the helpdesk, and collaborating to their solution, you not only help yourself but also all other IAC IRAF users.

A-12 You can use mskregions in the proto package. If you use DS9 to create regions, please note the output DS9 format may be different from the format expected by this task (it seems that mskregions is a little buggy). It might be possible to provide a "standalone" version of the plcreate task in the xray package; get in touch with us if interested.

A-13 This is because now the command cl by default starts the ecl.e executable. To fix the problem, simply add the -old switch to the cl command line. For further details see the IRAF thread http://iraf.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=87118. An exhaustive explanation of how to execute IRAF scripts as host commands can be found in Host CL Scripting Capability.

A-14 Well, send your question to , and we will reply and also include the answer in these FAQs, if appropriate.