VMS/IRAF Installation and Site Manager's Guide

2.2. Read in the distribution files

If you are installing from tape skip forward to §2.2.2. If your are installing from a network distribution (i.e., from disk) continue with the next section.

2.2.1. Installing from a network distribution

VMS/IRAF is available over the network via anonymous ftp from the node iraf.noao.edu, in the subdirectory iraf/vnnn/VMS5, where "vnnn" is the IRAF version number, e.g., subdirectory iraf/v210/VMS5 for V2.10 VMS/IRAF. Complete instructions for retrieving IRAF from the network archive are given in the README file in this directory. The retrieval can be accomplished with UNIX FTP, VMS FTP or VMS DECNET.

The subdirectory ia.vms5.vax contains the network version of the distribution file IA.VMS5.VAX. This single file contains the entire VMS/IRAF distribution, including both sources and binaries. The file IA.VMS5.VAX is stored in this directory as a compressed VMS backup save file, split into 512 Kb segments. To reconstruct the original backup save file, the segments must be transferred, uncompressed and concatenated. This can be done in several ways, as described in the README file. Once the disk save set has been reconstructed on your local disk, you can proceed with the installation.

Login as IRAF (ignore any LOGIN.COM not found error message) and run the VMS backup utility to read the backup save set, named v210.bck in this example:

$ set default disk:[iraf]
$ backup v210.bck/select=[iraf...] [...]/own=iraf/prot=w:r

In this and all the following examples, names like disk:, etc., denote site dependent device names for which you must supply values.

2.2.2. Installing from tape

Login as IRAF (ignore any LOGIN.COM not found error message) and run the VMS backup utility to read the backup tape or tapes provided.

$ mount/foreign tape-device:
$ set default disk:[iraf]
$ backup/rew tape:v210.bck/select=[iraf...] [...]/own=iraf/prot=w:r

The tape may be restored while logged in as SYSTEM if desired, but the switch /OWNER=IRAF should be appended to give the IRAF system manager (anyone who logs in as IRAF) write permission on the files.

It typically takes twenty minutes to half an hour to read the tape on a lightly loaded system.

2.2.3. Merge local revisions back into the new system

If this is a new IRAF installation this step can be skipped. Otherwise, once the new system has been restored to disk any local revisions made to the previous IRAF installation should be merged back into the new system. See §2.1.1 for a list of the files most likely to be affected. When propagating revisions made to these files, be sure to not replace the entire file with your saved version, as the version of the file in the new release of IRAF will often contain important additions or changes which must be preserved. It is best to merge your revisions into the version of the file which comes with the new IRAF.

This task will be easier if the revisions have been localized as far as possible, e.g., keep all termcap additions together at the head of the file, so that they may merely be transferred to the new file with the editor. The task of propagating revisions will also be much easier if detailed notes have been kept of all revisions made since the the last release was installed.

Beginning with IRAF version 2.8, one should no longer install locally added software in the core system LOCAL package. This significantly complicates updates and is no longer necessary as, due to the layered software enhancements introduced in V2.8 IRAF, it is now straightforward for each site to maintain their own custom LOCAL package external to the core IRAF system. The core system LOCAL is now only a template-local to be copied and used as the starting point for a custom LOCAL layered package. The layered software enhancements, and the procedure for building a custom LOCAL, are discussed in §9 of this manual.