Introduction to CFITSIO / FPIPE

Introduction: CFITSIO / FPIPE

CFITSIO is a C library which offers a large set of tools and functions for manipulating FITS (flexible image transport system) files. The library, its documentation and further information on the FITS data format can be obtained from the official website.

The FPIPE, which is based on the CFITSIO library, is a framework which can be used for creating a more or less automated, complex chain of FTOOLS (tools which are based on the CFITSIO library), with each tool having the chance to continue working on the output data of its predecessor. This allows the user to construct a pipeline which - after having been given all necessary input parameters - may operate on a continuous stream of input data according to a preset yet dynamic pattern.

Unfortunately there is no official documentation to the FPIPE thus rendering first steps relatively hard. However, several template files which demonstrate the overall usage of the pipeline have been created and will be introduced in the following sections, starting with installation and configuration.