Before running IRAF or
PyRAF for the first time you need to:
Users generally name their IRAF home directory “
iraf” (also referred to as your
IRAF root directory) and put it in their user home directory (i.e., the default directory that you are in when you log in to the system). The
IRAF home directory does not need to be in your home directory, nor does it need to be called “
iraf”, but you should
not put it on a scratch disk that is periodically erased.
The “mkiraf” command initializes
IRAF by creating a
login.cl file and a subdirectory called
uparm. After typing the “
mkiraf” command, you will see something like the following:
% mkiraf-- creating a new uparm directory Terminal types: gterm=ttysw+graphics,vt640... Enter terminal type:
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IRAF for other systems, like Mac OSX, can be obtained from the
IRAF Web page at:
A new LOGIN.CL file has been created in the current ... You may wish to review and edit this file to change ...
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The login.cl file is the
startup file used by the
IRAF command language (CL). It is similar to the
.login file used by Unix. Whenever
IRAF starts, it looks for the
login.cl file. You can edit this file to customize your
IRAF environment. In fact, you should look at it to make sure that everything in it is correct. In particular, there is a line starting with “
set home =” that tells
IRAF where to find your
IRAF home directory. You should verify that this statement does, in fact, point to your
IRAF directory. If you will be working with standard
IRAF format images you should also insert a line saying
set imdir = “HDR$”. The
imdir setting is ignored when working with GEIS and FITS format images.
The uparm directory will contain your own copies of
IRAF task parameters. This directory allows you to customize your
IRAF environment by setting certain parameter values as defaults. Once you set up
IRAF, you should only have to do it again when you install an updated version of
IRAF. It is also a good idea at this time to make sure your standard image size is set to the largest size of the images you may want to display. This is controlled by the
stdimage keyword.
IRAF will only display images in a visual tool up to this size. To enable image sizes up to 8192
в 8192, set
stdimage equal to
imt7.
IRAF starts by displaying several lines of introductory text and then puts a prompt at the bottom of the screen.
Figure 4.1 is a sample
IRAF startup screen.