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            FTOOLS - A Package of FITS Utility Programs

The HEASARC (High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center)
at NASA/GSFC has developed a set of software tools to create, examine,
or modify FITS format data files which are now publicly available via
anonymous ftp.  These programs have been written during the past year
by a small team of programmers as part of the analysis system for the
Astro-D X-ray satellite.  Most of these programs are very general in
nature, however, and may be useful for dealing with a wide variety of
FITS files.

The FTOOLS package is available from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov in the
pub/ftools/ subdirectory.  User's should be warned that this is a beta
release, so some bugs and unusual features can be expected.  We will
respond to any problem reports or suggested enhancements as soon as
possible.  New interium releases of the FTOOLS package will be made
approximately every 2 - 4 weeks, so users wishing to have the latest
version should periodicly check the ftp area for updates.

Users may build the FTOOLS package to run in 2 different environments:
as an IRAF package, or as a set of standalone executable programs.
Either or both versions may be built, but we recommend using the IRAF
version because it offers better on-line help facilities and provides
more flexibility in running the tasks and linking them together in
scripts to perform more complicated tasks.  Currently, FTOOLS has only
been run and tested on SUN and DECstation workstations, but  we plan to
release a VAX/VMS version within the next couple months.  (In
principle, the IRAF version of FTOOLS should work on any IRAF platform,
but this has not been tested).

The following is a brief summary of the FTOOLS tasks that are currently
available:
   --------------------------------------------------------------------
        flcol - List column information in a FITS table extension
      fstruct - List a description of the structure of a FITS file
        fdump - Dump contents of a FITS table to an ASCII file 
      fimgdmp - Dump contents of a FITS image to an ASCII file

      fcreate - Create a FITS table from  ASCII input files
      fappend - Append a FITS extension onto another FITS file
     fextract - Copy a FITS extension from a file into a new file
       fmerge - Merge rows from several FITS tables into one FITS table
     fproject - Copy specified columns of a FITS table to a new table
      fselect - Create a new table from selected rows of a table
        fsort - Sort a FITS table in place

        fstat - Calculate mean, standard deviation, min, and max for a column 
       farith - Perform arithmetic on 2 FITS images
      fcarith - Preform arithmetic on FITS image with a constant
       fhisto - Make a histogram of a column in a table
       fcurve - Make a light curve histogram from a column in a table
     f2dhisto - Make a 2-D histogram (an image) from 2 columns in a table
      fim2lst - Convert a 2D image to a pixel list (inverse of f2dhisto)
      fmrgmsk - Merge 2 or more spatial masks
       findex - Create an index file for a FITS table column

      fparkey - Copy a parameter value to a FITS header keyword
      fkeypar - Copy a FITS header keyword to a parameter value
      fpartab - Copy a parameter value to a FITS table element
      ftabpar - Copy a FITS table element to a parameter value
      ftabkey - Copy a FITS table element to a FITS header keyword
      fkeytab - Copy a FITS header keyword to a FITS table element
     fmodhead - Modify the header keywords in a FITS file
    fkeyprint - Display keyword(s) in FITS header(s)

   Astro-D specific tasks:

      fmktime - Calculate time intervals (GTIs) from housekeeping (HK) data
      fmgtime - Merge 2 or more time interval (GTI) files 
      ffltime - Filter an event list within given time intervals (GTIs)
      fhkexpd - Expand a compressed format housekeeping (HK) data file
     fhkuexpd - Compress an expanded format houskeeping (HK) data file
       ffaint - Convert AstroD faint mode data to a bright mode format
     sec2time - Convert time offset to absolute time
     time2sec - Convert absolute time to a time offset 
   --------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. William Pence                 Telephone:  (301) 286-4599
HEASARC                           (SPAN) LHEAVX::PENCE or 15407::PENCE
Code 668                          (Internet) pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov  
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center        
Greenbelt, MD 20771