MMTCAT
William F. Wyatt,   2001-06-29

Summary

        The mmtcat program is a script to format a catalog for the MMT mount computer, or to verify the correct  format of an existing catalog. It can take a variety of input formats, including comma-separated, fixed-field, tab-delimited and starbase tables. By default, the catalog formatter trys all known formats and exits with a non-zero status and no  output if an error has been found. If no error is found, the output is sent to standard out or an optional output file.

        In the event of an error, the program can be run with options corresponding to the expected input file type (e.g. comma-separated, starbase table, etc.) In this mode, if an error is detected, the error information is sent to the standard error (unless the -q option is given) and also appended to the output, which may be redirected to an output file. The exit status of the script is non-zero if a fatal error is discovered. The error information will give the row number and the object name as well as a short diagnostic to identify and help correct the error.

        If the input is a starbase table, the input columns can be chosen by name to correspond with the names used internally in generating the output catalog file.

        In all cases, the fields are checked for consistency (no alphabetical characters in coordinates, for instance, and not too long). Missing proper motion fields have `0.0' substituted, as the MMT format requires, unless the -v option (to verify an existing MMT format catalog) is given.
 

Usage

mmtcat  [<options> ]  [<input file ]  [>outputfile]

Options

-s

Input is a starbase table (tab-delimited with header line and dash line).

-c

Input is a comma-delimited file.

-t

Input is a tab-delimited file (no headers or dash line).

-d  "<char>"

 Input is a file with columns delimited by character <char>.

-f <format string>

Input is a fixed-format file. The format string gives the column names and extents as used by the starbase program fixtotable.Note that the entire format string should be surrounded by quotes so it is passed as a single value.

-v

Verify the input file is correctly formatted. The input file is treated as a fixed format file using the default columns widths for the MMT catalog format.

<key>=<name>

Starbase column name in file to use for key in script. The script key names are obj, ra, dec, pra, pdec, mag, type, and epoch. The default names are the uppercase of these: OBJ, RA, DEC, etc.

-i <file>

 Input file. If none given this is standard input.

-o <file>

Output file. If none given, this is standard output.

-q

Quiet mode. No output is generated. Exit status is 0 for no errors, 1 for fatal errors, and 2 for non-fatal warnings.

Examples

• Test an input file for MMT catalog convertability:

mmtcat <mmtfile.txt  ||  echo Not Valid
 
• Generate catalog output from a starbase table where some input column names need to be reassigned:

mmtcat  -s  obj=IRAFNAME  mag=VMAG  type=SPTYPE  epoch=EQUINOX  -i objlist.db

• Issue an error message if a catalog does not verify:

mmtcat  <myfile  -v  -q   ||  echo Errors found.

• Input fixed fields from an ASCII file. Note that PRA and PDEC are not given, so the mmtcat  program will substitute `0.0' for them:

mmtcat -f  "OBJ=1:12  RA=13:22  DEC=23:33  EPOCH=34:40  MAG=41:45  TYPE=46:50" <infile.txt

Note further that the TYPE length is 5 characters. If that is really the width of the alphanumeric characters in the data, i.e. there is no padding with spaces, the field is too wide and will generate an error.

Author: William F. Wyatt,  2001-06-29