tcopy: Copy tables.

Package: nttools

Usage

tcopy intable outtable

Description

This task is used to copy tables. The input may be a general filename template, including wildcard characters or the name of a file (preceded by an @ sign) containing table names. The output may be either a directory specification or a list of table names. If the output is a list of tables then there must be the same number of names in the input and output lists, and the names are taken in pairs, one from input and one from output. The input and output tables must not be the same. This task will convert the format of the table if the output filename extension indicates it. For example, if the output filename extension is ".fits", the output table will be a fits file. If the output is redirected or piped, it will be written to a text table.

NOTE: Be careful when using a wildcard for the extension. If you have the files "table.tab" and "table.lis" in the current directory, for example, then the command "tcopy tab* test/" would copy both files to the subdirectory "test".

Parameters

intable [file name template]: A list of one or more tables to be copied.

outtable [file name template]: Either a directory name or a list of output table names. If 'outtable' is not a directory, the number of input tables and output tables must be the same. An exception to this rule is that if 'outtable' is a FITS file (i.e. an existing FITS file, or the name ends in ".fits") then multiple input tables can be copied to one output file.

(verbose = yes) [boolean]: Display names of input and output tables as they are copied?

Examples

1. To simply copy a table:

tt> tcopy table.tab tablecopy.tab

2. To copy one or more tables, possibly changing table type:

tt> tcopy table1.tab,table2.tab a.fits,b.tab
tt> tcopy a.fits,b.tab a.tab,b.fits
tt> tcopy a.fits > a.txt

The number of input and output tables must be the same. In the third case, "a.txt" will be a text file because the output table name was "STDOUT" (the name was implicitly set, in this case, because the output was redirected.)

3. To copy a set of tables to a new directory:

tt> tcopy table*.tab directory
            or
tt> tcopy table*.tab directory$
            or
tt> tcopy table*.tab osdirectory

where "directory" is an IRAF environment variable for a directory name, and "osdirectory" is an operating system directory name (e.g., "/user/me/" in UNIX).

4. To copy only specified extensions of a FITS file:

tt> tcopy xyz.fits[3],xyz.fits[5] b.fits

If "b.fits" did not already exist, it would be created and would then contain two table extensions. If it did already exist, the two extensions would be appended. Note that the number of input and output files are not the same; this is OK because the output is a FITS file and can therefore contain multiple table extensions.

5. The input and/or output may be redirected:

tt> dir l+ | tproject columns=c7,c3 | tcopy dir.tab > verbose.lis

"verbose.lis" contains just the one line "# STDIN -> dir.tab", and "dir.tab" has the output of 'tproject', the file names and sizes.

Bugs

References

This task was written by Phil Hodge.