National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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                         RELEASE NOTES FOR HEASOFT 6.26
                                   May 17, 2019
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The HEASoft 6.26 release is driven by several updates to mission-specific
data analysis software (MAXI, NICER, et al.), but includes many other
enhancements and fixes, including updates to most legacy software which
fix run-time memory issues under newer Debian-based Linux OS (i.e. Ubuntu
18.10 and 19.04).

As before, configuration-related changes throughout the package mean that
users who already have HEASoft installed will need to completely replace
their software installation; there is no clean way to simply overlay
this new release or to update an existing installation.

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                                    CFITSIO
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- Added set of drivers for performing ftps file transfers.

- Tile sizes for compression may now be specified for any pair of
  axes, where previously 2D tiles where limited to just X and y.
  
- Fix to ffgsky and ffgkls functions for case of keyword with long
  string values where the final CONTINUE statement ended with '&'.
  If the final CONTINUE also contained a comment, it was being 
  repeated twice when passed back through the 'comm' argument.

- Fix made to ffedit_columns() for case of multiple col filters
  containing wildcards.  Only the first filter was being searched.

- fits_copy_rows (ffcprw) can now handle 'P'-type variable-length columns.
  
- Fix made to an obscure case in fits_modify_vector_len, where a 
  wrongly issued EOF error may occur.

- Added internal fffvcl() function.

- Fixed bug in new 0-or-more wildcard pattern matching; one is to handle
  the match like -#COMMENT+ which doesn't have a wildcard, but still needs
  to match 0-or-more; a second is a 'bug' dealing with how CFITSIO scans
  for keywords with and without wildcards and whether the 'current' header
  position is reset or not.

********************************************************************************
                                    ATTITUDE
********************************************************************************

- prefilter: Replaced call to obsolete atRigidity (float) with
  atRigidityD (double), and excised call to initialize_asca_derive_cor
  which was just a wrapper to the obsolete function atRigSet.

- aspect: Initialized local variables

********************************************************************************
                                    CALTOOLS
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  addarf, addrmf, cmppha, cmprmf, col2img, dmprmf, marfrmf,
  rbnrpsf, rpsf2eef, rpsfqdp, st2rpsf

- Replaced older tools with Perl wrappers to their newer counterparts in
  the heasptools package:

  gcorpha -> ftgcorpha
  gcorrmf -> ftgcorrmf
  genrsp -> ftgenrsp
  rbnrmf -> ftrbnrmf
  rsp2rmf -> ftconvoldrsp

********************************************************************************
                                     FIMAGE
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  fadapt, fboxcar, fgauss, fim2lst, fimconcat, fimgbin, fimgdmp,
  florentz, fmedian, fvec2img

********************************************************************************
                                     FUTILS
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  fcurve, fplot

- Removed deprecated task 'findex'

********************************************************************************
                                      FV
********************************************************************************

- Fixed random Mac OS crashes of iwidget radio box in menus for Preferences,
  'Export table to text', 'Create new table', 'Create new extension'

- Fixed export to text for image extensions on Mac OS

- Updated scripting capability; added 'closehelp' and 'closetool' options
  to enable closing of help and skyview, catalog, vizier via script

- Fixed exporttable issue and also allow the function to bypass GUI
  interaction via script

- Removed GUI to run ftools

********************************************************************************
                                     HEAGEN
********************************************************************************

- barycorr: (v2.2) Added support for NuSTAR 'fine' clock correction;
  allow clockfile=NONE for all missions

********************************************************************************
                                    HEASARC
********************************************************************************

- nh: Changed the default map to the HI4PI (A&A, 594, A116);
  changed the default parameters size and disio to be optimized to
  the HI4PI map; changed array size and type; added code to trap
  nh negative value, coordinates wrap

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  ascii2pha, extrpsf, fadmap, grppha, hkexpand, mathpha, sf2pha

- rbnpha: Replaced by a wrapper to ftrbnpha (heasptools)

********************************************************************************
                                HEASP / HEASPTOOLS
********************************************************************************

- Changed rmf compression criterion to only include elements with
  values > LO_THRES instead of >= LO_THRES

- Updates to Python module to work for both Python 2 and 3.

- Trapped a potential problem in getValues if maxEindex < minEindex;
  Write EBOUNDS and MATRIX energy columns as D instead of E to avoid
  precision issues with high-resolution optical/UV spectra

- ftsdss2xsp: Fixed check of PLATEID keyword. It is in the primary header,
  not the COADD extension.

- Added wrappers for some old CALTOOLS and HEASARC tasks (see above):
  rbnpha, rbnrmf, gcorpha, gcorrmf, genrsp, rsp2rmf

********************************************************************************
                                    HEATOOLS
********************************************************************************

- ftmerge: (v2.3) Flush output table after each input is processed

- ftsort (v1.8), ftmergesort (v2.0): Improved to handle variable-length
  columns

- ftverify: (v4.19) Added option to test that HIERARCH keywords conform
  to the ESO convention

********************************************************************************
                                     TIME
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  deadtime, fltime, mgtime

- maketime: (v2.15) Fixed bug in new premax/postmax code - now correctly
  handles gaps; improved premax/postmax logic for corner cases

********************************************************************************
                                    XRONOS
********************************************************************************

- Note that under newer Debian-based systems (e.g. Ubuntu 18.10 and
  newer), many XRONOS tasks currently suffer memory faults.  These
  are expected to be fixed in a later HEASoft release or patch.

- (libxronos) Fixed attempts to address arrays with 0 index as kmax array
  has not been initialized

********************************************************************************
                                    XSELECT
********************************************************************************

- Fix for 'select hk' command: Needed to specify prefr/postfr parameters to
  maketime to avoid an output message that xselect interpreted as a failure.

- Trapped case of region not being set when one is required to make the response.

- When writing out the observation catalog no longer page but write the whole
  thing out in one go.  Since everyone has scrolling terminal windows paging
  is no longer necessary and the change enables running scripts with large
  observation catalogs.

********************************************************************************
                                     XSPEC
********************************************************************************

HEASoft 6.26 includes Xspec 12.10.1f.

See also:

 https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/lheasoft/xanadu/xspec/issues/issues.html

********************************************************************************
                                     XSTAR
********************************************************************************

Xstar v2.54:

- Changes to improve printout of abundances and other input parameters.
  Repair of a bug affecting the output to xout_spect1.fits which mixed
  the incident continuum into the outward-emitted radiation field.

********************************************************************************
                                     ASCA
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  ascaarf, ascaeffmap, cleansis, ghkcurve, sisclean

********************************************************************************
                                     CGRO
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  bcmppha, like, specmat

********************************************************************************
                                     EXOSAT
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  cmadead, exomerge

- automerge: Modified temporary output filenames.

********************************************************************************
                                     MAXI
********************************************************************************

- Updated solar paddles ASCII files used in the task mxscancur

- Updated keywords for ver2 processing

- Update code in libraries to support version 2 of the data 

- mxdownload_wget.pl: Changed to make default for data download to point
  to HEASARC instead of DARTS

- mxproduct: Now handles the leap second file from REFAREA as the first
  choice; includes a more robust check for CALDB; fixes multiple spectra sum

********************************************************************************
                                     NICER
********************************************************************************

NICERDAS Version 6:

- nicerl2: (v1.7) Fixed bug in passing nimaketime parameter with quotes;
  now runs nipprefilter2 to update the filter file

- nicerl2, nimaketime, niprefilter2: Changes to accomodate new parameter
  options of nimaketime and niprefilter

- nicertimeconv: Added nicer_epoch_time() function to relate NICER MET to
  Unix MET

- nimaketime: Changed data screening defaults based on 18 months of operation

********************************************************************************
                                     ROSAT
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  ao, calcbgdcor, detect, hriaspcor, hriexpmap, hrifilt, hrirpsf, mkqsrc, pcarf,
  pcecor, pcexpmap, pcfilt, pcparpha, pcrpsf, pcsasscor, pctcor, src2pha, tilt

********************************************************************************
                                     SWIFT
********************************************************************************

XRTDAS Build 35 (v3.5.0):

- xrtcalcpi: Added dependence on event grade for the energy offset
  correction associated to charge traps

- xrtpipeline: Added new input parameters used for the `xrtwtcorr' run

- xrtwtcorr: Added identification and flagging of trailing charge pixels
  for data taken in Windowed Timing mode

Note that these updates require CALDB updates XRT 20190412 and MIS 20180305

********************************************************************************
                                    VELA5B
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  fvelalc, fvelgallc, fvelmap

- fvelalc: (fvelalc.par) Added default values to maxflux & maxerr parameters

- fvelgallc: Commented out NAXIS=2 error condition trap as NAXIS comes
  up as 0 incorrectly in some rare instances (unless optimization is
  lowered) and is otherwise unused; other FITS characteristics are correct

********************************************************************************
                                     XTE
********************************************************************************

- Replaced udmget/udmfre with allocate/deallocate in the following tasks:

  addshots, addsine, fakelc, hxtarf, pcaclrsp, perdgrm, saextrct,
  seextrct, xpcaarf, xtecol

- pcabackest: (v3.12) Code cleanup including new more mathmatically
  correct interpolation routines which are strictly flux conserving

- Removed deprecated task 'fgabor'

********************************************************************************
                                     MISC.
********************************************************************************

- PGPLOT: Made checking for drivers that use 'vector' fonts more generic;
  Prevent text field overflow when writing PostScript files; modified
  degrees-minutes-seconds labeling code to be more visually consistent;
  old symbols were effectively superscripted twice, which leads to small and
  high symbols; now they are at same level and size as 'd' 'h' 's' symbols

- Updated handling of shared libraries on Linux, i.e. to use rpath and to
  resolve symbols (where possible) at library build time.  Reworked linker
  flags on Macs: synchronized shared library linker flags to all use
  "-undefined dynamic_lookup", adding "-flat_namespace" when using XCode
  clang[++] or (just) for Python libraries when _not_ using XCode clang[++].
  This approach fixes problems loading Python libraries when built with a
  complete (third-party) GCC suite.

Web page maintained by: Bryan K. Irby