The following table lists all the error status codes used by CFITSIO. Programmers are encouraged to use the symbolic mnemonics (defined in the file fitsio.h) rather than the actual integer status values to improve the readability of their code.
Symbolic Const Value Meaning -------------- ----- ----------------------------------------- 0 OK, no error SAME_FILE 101 input and output files are the same TOO_MANY_FILES 103 tried to open too many FITS files at once FILE_NOT_OPENED 104 could not open the named file FILE_NOT_CREATED 105 could not create the named file WRITE_ERROR 106 error writing to FITS file END_OF_FILE 107 tried to move past end of file READ_ERROR 108 error reading from FITS file FILE_NOT_CLOSED 110 could not close the file ARRAY_TOO_BIG 111 array dimensions exceed internal limit READONLY_FILE 112 Cannot write to readonly file MEMORY_ALLOCATION 113 Could not allocate memory BAD_FILEPTR 114 invalid fitsfile pointer NULL_INPUT_PTR 115 NULL input pointer to routine SEEK_ERROR 116 error seeking position in file BAD_URL_PREFIX 121 invalid URL prefix on file name TOO_MANY_DRIVERS 122 tried to register too many IO drivers DRIVER_INIT_FAILED 123 driver initialization failed NO_MATCHING_DRIVER 124 matching driver is not registered URL_PARSE_ERROR 125 failed to parse input file URL SHARED_BADARG 151 bad argument in shared memory driver SHARED_NULPTR 152 null pointer passed as an argument SHARED_TABFULL 153 no more free shared memory handles SHARED_NOTINIT 154 shared memory driver is not initialized SHARED_IPCERR 155 IPC error returned by a system call SHARED_NOMEM 156 no memory in shared memory driver SHARED_AGAIN 157 resource deadlock would occur SHARED_NOFILE 158 attempt to open/create lock file failed SHARED_NORESIZE 159 shared memory block cannot be resized at the moment HEADER_NOT_EMPTY 201 header already contains keywords KEY_NO_EXIST 202 keyword not found in header KEY_OUT_BOUNDS 203 keyword record number is out of bounds VALUE_UNDEFINED 204 keyword value field is blank NO_QUOTE 205 string is missing the closing quote BAD_KEYCHAR 207 illegal character in keyword name or card BAD_ORDER 208 required keywords out of order NOT_POS_INT 209 keyword value is not a positive integer NO_END 210 couldn't find END keyword BAD_BITPIX 211 illegal BITPIX keyword value BAD_NAXIS 212 illegal NAXIS keyword value BAD_NAXES 213 illegal NAXISn keyword value BAD_PCOUNT 214 illegal PCOUNT keyword value BAD_GCOUNT 215 illegal GCOUNT keyword value BAD_TFIELDS 216 illegal TFIELDS keyword value NEG_WIDTH 217 negative table row size NEG_ROWS 218 negative number of rows in table COL_NOT_FOUND 219 column with this name not found in table BAD_SIMPLE 220 illegal value of SIMPLE keyword NO_SIMPLE 221 Primary array doesn't start with SIMPLE NO_BITPIX 222 Second keyword not BITPIX NO_NAXIS 223 Third keyword not NAXIS NO_NAXES 224 Couldn't find all the NAXISn keywords NO_XTENSION 225 HDU doesn't start with XTENSION keyword NOT_ATABLE 226 the CHDU is not an ASCII table extension NOT_BTABLE 227 the CHDU is not a binary table extension NO_PCOUNT 228 couldn't find PCOUNT keyword NO_GCOUNT 229 couldn't find GCOUNT keyword NO_TFIELDS 230 couldn't find TFIELDS keyword NO_TBCOL 231 couldn't find TBCOLn keyword NO_TFORM 232 couldn't find TFORMn keyword NOT_IMAGE 233 the CHDU is not an IMAGE extension BAD_TBCOL 234 TBCOLn keyword value < 0 or > rowlength NOT_TABLE 235 the CHDU is not a table COL_TOO_WIDE 236 column is too wide to fit in table COL_NOT_UNIQUE 237 more than 1 column name matches template BAD_ROW_WIDTH 241 sum of column widths not = NAXIS1 UNKNOWN_EXT 251 unrecognizable FITS extension type UNKNOWN_REC 252 unknown record; 1st keyword not SIMPLE or XTENSION END_JUNK 253 END keyword is not blank BAD_HEADER_FILL 254 Header fill area contains non-blank chars BAD_DATA_FILL 255 Illegal data fill bytes (not zero or blank) BAD_TFORM 261 illegal TFORM format code BAD_TFORM_DTYPE 262 unrecognizable TFORM datatype code BAD_TDIM 263 illegal TDIMn keyword value BAD_HEAP_PTR 264 invalid BINTABLE heap pointer is out of range BAD_HDU_NUM 301 HDU number < 1 or > MAXHDU BAD_COL_NUM 302 column number < 1 or > tfields NEG_FILE_POS 304 tried to move to negative byte location in file NEG_BYTES 306 tried to read or write negative number of bytes BAD_ROW_NUM 307 illegal starting row number in table BAD_ELEM_NUM 308 illegal starting element number in vector NOT_ASCII_COL 309 this is not an ASCII string column NOT_LOGICAL_COL 310 this is not a logical datatype column BAD_ATABLE_FORMAT 311 ASCII table column has wrong format BAD_BTABLE_FORMAT 312 Binary table column has wrong format NO_NULL 314 null value has not been defined NOT_VARI_LEN 317 this is not a variable length column BAD_DIMEN 320 illegal number of dimensions in array BAD_PIX_NUM 321 first pixel number greater than last pixel ZERO_SCALE 322 illegal BSCALE or TSCALn keyword = 0 NEG_AXIS 323 illegal axis length < 1 NOT_GROUP_TABLE 340 Grouping function error HDU_ALREADY_MEMBER 341 MEMBER_NOT_FOUND 342 GROUP_NOT_FOUND 343 BAD_GROUP_ID 344 TOO_MANY_HDUS_TRACKED 345 HDU_ALREADY_TRACKED 346 BAD_OPTION 347 IDENTICAL_POINTERS 348 BAD_GROUP_ATTACH 349 BAD_GROUP_DETACH 350 NGP_NO_MEMORY 360 malloc failed NGP_READ_ERR 361 read error from file NGP_NUL_PTR 362 null pointer passed as an argument. Passing null pointer as a name of template file raises this error NGP_EMPTY_CURLINE 363 line read seems to be empty (used internally) NGP_UNREAD_QUEUE_FULL 364 cannot unread more then 1 line (or single line twice) NGP_INC_NESTING 365 too deep include file nesting (infinite loop, template includes itself ?) NGP_ERR_FOPEN 366 fopen() failed, cannot open template file NGP_EOF 367 end of file encountered and not expected NGP_BAD_ARG 368 bad arguments passed. Usually means internal parser error. Should not happen NGP_TOKEN_NOT_EXPECT 369 token not expected here BAD_I2C 401 bad int to formatted string conversion BAD_F2C 402 bad float to formatted string conversion BAD_INTKEY 403 can't interpret keyword value as integer BAD_LOGICALKEY 404 can't interpret keyword value as logical BAD_FLOATKEY 405 can't interpret keyword value as float BAD_DOUBLEKEY 406 can't interpret keyword value as double BAD_C2I 407 bad formatted string to int conversion BAD_C2F 408 bad formatted string to float conversion BAD_C2D 409 bad formatted string to double conversion BAD_DATATYPE 410 illegal datatype code value BAD_DECIM 411 bad number of decimal places specified NUM_OVERFLOW 412 overflow during datatype conversion DATA_COMPRESSION_ERR 413 error compressing image DATA_DECOMPRESSION_ERR 414 error uncompressing image BAD_DATE 420 error in date or time conversion PARSE_SYNTAX_ERR 431 syntax error in parser expression PARSE_BAD_TYPE 432 expression did not evaluate to desired type PARSE_LRG_VECTOR 433 vector result too large to return in array PARSE_NO_OUTPUT 434 data parser failed not sent an out column PARSE_BAD_COL 435 bad data encounter while parsing column PARSE_BAD_OUTPUT 436 Output file not of proper type ANGLE_TOO_BIG 501 celestial angle too large for projection BAD_WCS_VAL 502 bad celestial coordinate or pixel value WCS_ERROR 503 error in celestial coordinate calculation BAD_WCS_PROJ 504 unsupported type of celestial projection NO_WCS_KEY 505 celestial coordinate keywords not found APPROX_WCS_KEY 506 approximate wcs keyword values were returned