iraf.net

HiRecently I have been trying to install iraf on my laptop which runs vista. After some problems with permissions I managed to get everything installed or so I thought but there appears to be a further problem. I can run cl fine but it appears some (most of) the noao tasks wont run, returning the cannot open connected subprocess error:ERROR: Cannot open connected subprocess (./x_onedspec.e)After some fiddling it seems as though the .e files for all the noao tasks are located in \iraf\irafbin\noao.bin.cygwin which iraf seems to be unable to see. If I move each .e file to the relevant place in the \iraf\iraf\noao directory the tasks work. I wonder what is the best solution, has the install failed to move things to the correct place or is there meant to be a symbolic link to noao.bin.cygwin like there is for bin.cygwin in \iraf\iraf ?CheersJames

Hi James,The install script doesn't actually "move" anything, it assumes the distribution files were unpacked in a certain way. Specifically, assuming you have a /iraf root directory for the system, this directory would contan an 'iraf' subdir for the AS source distribution, and an 'irafbin' subdir containing a 'bin.cygwin' (for the IB files) and an 'noao.bin.cygwin' (for the NB files). If you unpacked the AS files in the root /iraf directory then the NOAO package links won't resolve correctly, the install script should have warned you about this if there was a problem. You SHOULD NOT need to move the .e files to the package directories yourself.Your directory tree should look something like[code:1:0f5ae2d9ca]
/iraf
/ \
(AS) /iraf /irafbin
/ \
(IB) bin.cygwin noao.bin.cygwin (NB)
[/code:1:0f5ae2d9ca]I don't think this is a Vista issue, check that the above tree is how you have the files unpacked.Cheers,
-Mike

Thanks for the response.The tree is indeed correctly setup. I'm not sure how they are linked though in the sense that there is no symbolic link for the noao.bin.cygwin that I can see where as there is for bin.cygwin. As I mentioned previously, the only way I can get such packages as daophot to work is to move their .e file from \iraf\irafbin\noao.bin.cygwin to for instance iraf\iraf\noao\digiphot\daophot. Perhaps I'm missing something but how does it know where to look when I run a daophot task without a link to the binaries?CheersJames

The NOAO package binaries are resolved (or should be) with the 'bin.cygwin' link in the $iraf/noao directory which points to "../../irafbin/noao.bin.cygwin". Can you cd to the path "/iraf/iraf/noao/bin.cygwin" and end up in the noao.bin.cygwin directory? I assume the core iraf binaries in $iraf/bin.cygwin are all found with no problem (e.g. IMPLOT, IMHEAD, etc)?I dont' have access to a Vista machine so I can't test this directly. If you're sure your directory tree is correct then you might try re-making the symlink or else remove the link and make noao$bin.cygwin an actual directory of the binaries. Can you verify that pathnames like "../../whatever" aren't inherently a problem ?-Mike

As with the link to /iraf/irafbin/bin.cygwin, the link to noao.bin.cygwin was created but did not work for some reason (it was 0 bytes in size). I had to make a link for bin.cygwin in /iraf/iraf/ and now a link to noao.bin.cygwin in /iraf/iraf/noao/ called bin.cygwin. Having done this cd /iraf/iraf/noao/bin.cygwin takes me to ..../irafbin/noao.bin.cygwin/ as it should. I can run tasks in daophot for instance without the subprocess error but now they "run" but don't complete. As an example, using task "seepsf" prompts me for psf image name etc but then just sits there not completing. It should be noted that just moving the daophot .e file into the directory resulted in the task actually running and completing.Just to clarify, the link in /iraf/iraf/noao/ should be called bin.cygwin but link to noao.bin.cygwin?[quote:6a63f75a1f]...else remove the link and make noao$bin.cygwin an actual directory of the binaries[/quote:6a63f75a1f]By this do you mean literally move all the .e files from noao.bin.cygwin to /iraf/iraf/noao/bin.cygwin/ ?Cheers

Sounds like there is some strangeness with the use of links under Vista. To answer your question: Yes, the $iraf/noao/bin.cygwin link should point to a "noao.bin.cygwin" directory. The reason things work if you e.g. move the binary to the daophot directory is that is a working executable isn't found in the package directory the system automatically reverts to the binary given by the task definition, usually as a binary with the package logical directory. (You get the 'cannot open connected subprocess' message if that isn't found).So, to ignore the links what I'm suggesting is the you remove the 'bin.cygwin' symlinks in both $iraf and $iraf/noao and replace them with real directories. Then, move the appropriate .e files from the /iraf/irafbin/bin.cygwin to $iraf/bin.cygwin and /iraf/irafbin/noao.bin.cygwin to $iraf/noao/bin.cygwin directories. There's no particular reason the bin directories need to be outside the main source tree, it's just an old (and odd) convention.Cheers,
-Mike

Having moved the binaries everything seems to be working. That said I have hit a snag with a task in daophot but will post that in another thread.Thanks for your help Mike.