IMFORT Changes in V2.11

There were several changes to the IMFORT interface with the release of IRAF Version 2.11.

• IMFORT was modified to read and write the new Version 2 (V2) ".imh" image format (see the accompanying article in this Newsletter). The old format (V1) is still readable with V2.11, however. The V2 format images are machine independent, avoid long pathname restrictions, and are slightly more space efficient.
• Image headers created by IMFORT can now be any size; IMFORT image headers were fixed in size in earlier versions of IRAF.
• The "min_lenuserarea" IRAF environment variable is now supported by IMFORT. Since IMFORT is used to make host programs, IMFORT programs cannot read the IRAF version of "min_lenuserarea", so it must be defined in the host environment to be recognized by IMFORT (e.g., "setenv min_lenuserarea 64000"). The default value is 64000 chars or 800 card images.

The initial V2.11 export version of IMFORT can not write V1 images (images readable by earlier versions of IRAF), but in the V2.11.1 patch release an "oifversion" environment variable is supported by IMFORT, which allows the output version for new images to be specified. Like "min_lenuserarea" this will need to be defined at the host level to be recognized by IMFORT programs. Set "oifversion" to either 1 (for V1 images) or 2 (the new V2 images, and the default) .

Doug Tody