This is the primary distribution mechanism for IRAF software, documentation, and other file-oriented information. Users should FTP to the given address and login as anonymous, using your email address as the password. The FTP archive is located at:
iraf.noao.edu (140.252.1.1)Directories of special interest in the archive include:
/iraf/v210 - IRAF V2.10 distribution (all platforms)
/iraf/docs - documentation
/iraf/extern - external packages
/iraf/misc - miscellaneous software
/contrib - contributed software
Any WWW browser (see below) can also be used to browse the FTP archives and
view or download files.
To contact us directly with questions or comments you can use email, phone, or FAX, at any of the addresses listed below. (The area code for the Tucson area will change to 520 in mid-March 1995.
Email iraf@noao.edu or 5355::iraf
Hotline (602) 323 - 4160
NOAO (602) 327 - 5511
FAX (602) 325 - 9360
General IRAF questions or comments can also be sent to one of the ADASS
newsgroups (see below). This has the benefit (compared to private email)
that others can benefit from the exchange and may pick up a few pointers
in the process.
Access to the FTP archive, documentation, FAQ, ADASS newsgroups, and more is available through the WWW Home Page for IRAF at the URL:
/
Many questions we are asked are about things that affect most sites, which someone else has already run into. The most common of these have been collected into a Frequently-Asked-Questions list that may solve your problem before you need to contact us, or else offer tips and tricks to using IRAF more effectively. This list is available either as a plain-text document or on the Web as:
/iraf/ftp/iraf/docs/FAQ /faq/FAQ.htmlThe FAQ and various other documents can also be retrieved via email using the irafinfo service described in the next section.
General information about the IRAF software is available via email using the irafinfo facility. To get started send the following message to the irafinfo server:
% mail irafinfo@iraf.noao.edu get iraf info <EOF>This will cause introductory information, including a list of the files available via the irafinfo service, to be returned via email. For more information on the irafinfo list server itself send the command "help" to the irafinfo list server. Multiple commands may be submitted on successive lines of your message.
The ADASS newsgroups are an alternate news hierarchy for the discussion of astronomical software by the astronomical and space sciences communities. Sites wishing to carry these newsgroups locally may request a direct feed of these groups by writing to news@iraf.noao.edu. Individuals who do not have local access to the newsgroups may read or post to the ADASS newsgroups by using any NNTP-based news reader (which includes most news readers) to connect directly to the main IRAF network server. For example using xrn one could enter the following command:
% xrn -nntpServer iraf.noao.edu -newsrcFile .newsrc-adassReading and posting messages may also be done via email by subscribing to a newsgroup using the list server (to receive news articles in the mail) or by sending email (to post new articles). The email address for each ADASS newsgroup is formed by replacing the "." characters in the newsgroup name with "-" and appending "@iraf.noao.edu". For example, the email address of the adass.iraf.programming newsgroup is
adass-iraf-programming@iraf.noao.eduInformation on reading, posting, or subscribing to the ADASS newsgroups may be obtained by sending email to irafinfo@iraf.noao.edu with "get iraf newsgroups" as the body of the message, e.g.,
% mail irafinfo@iraf.noao.edu get iraf newsgroups <EOF>Developers, site-managers, and users will find these newsgroups a valuable source of information. All users are encouraged to post their questions and comments to these newsgroups on issues ranging from applications usage to programming and software development, so that the entire IRAF community may benefit from the discussion.
A list of the current ADASS newsgroups follows.
adass.test Test postings. adass.admin Administration of the adass news hierarchy. adass.general Items of general interest. adass.misc General discussion of astronomical software. adass.conference Software conference announcements. adass.iraf.readme General information about the IRAF news facility. adass.iraf.announce Announcements of IRAF software, documentation, etc. adass.iraf.buglog Project bug notices (this is not a discussion group) adass.iraf.applications Discussion of IRAF applications software. adass.iraf.programming Discussion of IRAF programming. adass.iraf.sources Archive newsgroup for small programs, scripts, etc. adass.iraf.system IRAF system issues and system administration. adass.iraf.misc Miscellaneous discussion of IRAF software.The newsgroups adass.iraf.readme, adass.iraf.announce, and adass.iraf.buglog are not discussion newsgroups; please post queries and followup discussions to the discussion newsgroups (applications, programming, system, etc.) rather than to these newsgroups. In particular, don't post reports of possible bugs to the buglog newsgroup. This newsgroup is intended only to log bugs which have already been checked out and verified by the programmer responsible for the software in question.
The list server address is listproc@iraf.noao.edu. To get information about the list server send an email request as shown below:
% mail listproc@iraf.noao.edu help <EOF>(You can omit the Subject: line). This will cause a list of all the commands recognized by the list server to be returned via email.
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 each newsgroup (list name) is used for the listserver, rather than the "dotted" form, since this is a mail-based facility. Multiple requests can be included on successive lines, for example to subscribe to multiple newsgroups. To unsubscribe from a newsgroup send the "unsubscribe
Doug Tody, Mike Fitzpatrick
This document was translated by ms2html v1.8 on 21Jan95.