Appendix E: Associated Programs

Introduction

The HEAsoft package provides a number of programs and subroutine libraries to manipulate the FITS files used by XSPEC. A description of most tasks can be obtained by typing help taskname or to get a complete list fhelp ftools.

HEAsoft reading tasks

FTLIST	Prints the contents of a FITS file to the screen or to a file.
DMPRMF	Prints the contents of a FITS RMF file to the screen or to a file.This tool prints the RMF file in a more legible fashion than FTLIST.

HEAsoft manipulation tasks

FPARKEY	Changes the value of a keyword in a FITS extension header.
GRPPHA	Defines (or redefines) and/or displays the grouping and quality flags, the important keywords, and the fractional systematic errors.
RBNPHA	Compresses a FITS PHA file to a user-defined number of channels. The output is a new file containing the revised PHA extension plus a direct copy of any other extensions in the original file.
MATHPHA	Performs arithmetical operations on PHA files.
CMPPHA	Convert a type II pha file to a type I pha file.
RBNMF	Bins a FITS RMF file (the detector response matrix) in channel or energy space.
CMPRMF	Compress an RMF by removing all response below a threshold value.
ADDARF	Adds together ARFs.
ADDRMF	Adds together RMFs.
MARFRMF	Multiplies an RMF file by an ARF file.
GENRSP	A generic spectral response generator.

HEAsoft subroutines

The directory ftools/callib/src/gen in the HEAsoft distribution contains a number of subroutines for reading and writing the extensions in FITS format spectral and response files. More information on their use can be obtained from the xspec website at:

http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xanadu/xspec/fits/fitsfiles.html

RDPHA2	Read a spectrum extension
WTPHA3	Write a spectrum extension
RDRMF5	Read the matrix extension
WTRMF5	Write the matrix extension
RDEBD4	Read the channel boundaries extension
WTEBD4	Write the channel boundaries extension
RDARF1	Read the effective area extension
WTARF1	Write the effective area extension