NOAO no longer operates a HelpDesk, see
http://iraf.net for user support.
Information about IRAF can be found in our anonymous ftp network
archive iraf.noao.edu (140.252.1.1) or our home page http://iraf.noao.edu.
We've also set up an alternate newsgroup hierarchy called 'adass' (after
the ADASS conference series) to handle not only the IRAF related groups but
any astronomical data analysis software system. More information on these
services is found below.
Help for all tasks is available simply by typing "help <taskname>".
Typing the 'help' command by itself in a package will list a one-line
description of all tasks within the package. Users can search for help on
a particular topic using the REFERENCES task. Additional help topics are
available with certain packages, these are listed with the package help
file. Lastly, the IRAF system contains some documentation in the iraf$doc
directory, these are unformatted TROFF files or IRAF help pages mostly
these found here include system manager's guides, installation manuals, etc).
Additional documentation in the form of cookbooks and user's guides
are available from the IRAF network archive iraf.noao.edu in the iraf/docs
subdirectory. The 'README' file there serves as a table of contents for
what is available, all files are compressed PostScript and can be transferred
via anonymous ftp.
NOAO no longer operates a HelpDesk, see
http://iraf.net for user support.
reply.
The iraf network archive address is iraf.noao.edu (140.252.1.1), log
in via anonymous ftp (i.e. as user 'anonymous', give your email address as
the password). The archive contains the IRAF distribution for every supported
architecture (in the iraf subdirectory), as well as external layered packages
(in the iraf/extern subdir), user-contributed software (in contrib), IRAF doc-
umentation (iraf/docs), ADASS conference information (iraf/conf), and much
more.
The new network service that just went into operation is a USENET and
email based network news facility. This consists of a collection of newsgroups
organized as a USENET alternate news hierarchy called 'adass', after the
software conference of the same name (astronomical data analysis software
and systems). Although our main interest in developing this was to have a
place to put some IRAF newsgroups, we named the new news hierarchy 'adass'
in case there is any interest in expanding this in the future to include
other non-IRAF astronomy software newsgroups.
The advantage of an alternate news hierarchy is that it is easier to
target the desired community, in our case the astronomical community. The
disadvantage of starting a new news hierarchy is that initially there is no
distribution system in place. To carry the newsgroups locally a site must
get a feed from some other site. To read or post news, an individual need
only have some NNTP-based newsreader software and access to an NNTP (network
news) server somewhere on the net which carries the desired newsgroups and
which permits the user to read and post news. As part of the mail network
project we will be providing an NNTP server on the main IRAF server
iraf.noao.edu which will allow anyone to read and post to the adass newsgroups
(but only to those newsgroups).
The current list of newsgroups are the following (this may change):
adass.general important announcements
adass.misc miscellaneous discussion
adass.admin adass newsgroup administration
adass.test test postings
adass.conference adass software conference
adass.iraf.readme the mail network README file
adass.iraf.announce new iraf software or facilities
adass.iraf.applications applications discussion group
adass.iraf.programming programming discussion group
adass.iraf.system system issues, system administration
adass.iraf.misc miscellaneous discussion
adass.iraf.buglog project buglogs (computer generated)
adass.iraf.sources small programs or documents
The adass.iraf newsgroups are intended to be shared by the IRAF user
community and all the groups and individuals developing software for IRAF
(i.e., not just the NOAO IRAF group). To subscribe to newsgroups and get
a feed directly interested users should contact the iraf group.
Since the adass groups are available to an NNTP-based newsreader they
can be accessed by anyone using a command such as
% xrn -nntpServer iraf.noao.edu
We now have mail drops for all the ADASS newsgroups. The mail address for
each group is the newsgroup name with the dots replaced with dashes, e.g.
"adass.iraf.applications" becomes "adass-iraf-applications@iraf.noao.edu".
That is a lot to type so there are also aliases for the more important
newsgroups:
Alias Newsgroup
adass adass-conference
announce adass-iraf-announce
sources adass-iraf-sources
apps adass-iraf-applications
misc adass-iraf-misc
prog adass-iraf-programming
sys adass-iraf-system
In this way users can 'post' and read to the various groups until a feed is
set up directly to their site.
Yes, you can get newsgroup information via a listserver. The list server
address is "listproc@iraf.noao.edu". To get information about the list
server send it the following request:
% mail listproc@iraf.noao.edu
help
(You can omit the 'Subject:' line). This will cause a list of all the commands
recognized by the list server to be returned via e-mail.
To subscribe to a newsgroup send the following request to the listserver:
subscribe <newsgroup> <your name and affiliation> e.g.
% mail listproc@iraf.noao.edu
subscribe adass-iraf-announce "Joe Smith, Boston University"
subscribe adass-iraf-buglog "Joe Smith, Boston University"
Note that the "dashed" form of the newsgroup/list name is used for the
listserver, rather than the "dotted" form. Multiple requests can be
included on successive lines, for example to subscribe to multiple
newsgroups. To unsubscribe from a newsgroup send the "unsubscribe
<newsgroup>" request.
General information about the IRAF software is available via e-mail through
the IRAFINFO facility. To get started send the following message to the
IRAFINFO server:
% mail irafinfo@iraf.noao.edu
get iraf info
For a list of all the files available via the IRAFINFO facility send the
request "index iraf" to irafinfo.