xsut -- Xte Selective UnTar
xsut
XSUT is a tool designed by the RXTE GOF as a graphical front-end to the GNU tar program to help in selectively untarring RXTE data tapes or tar files (eg, resulting from downloading archived data). Note that it is NOT a general untarring GUI; it is specifically designed to handle the particular obsid/appid layout of RXTE data trees. It is most useful in those cases when one does not necessarily want to unpack the entire tape or archive file, for example because of disk space constraints. If disk space is not an issue one will almost certainly find it faster to simply untar the whole tape and then delete the unneeded portions, since XSUT must first scan the entire tape or archive file before doing anything else.
You can invoke xsut by simply typing 'xsut' at your command prompt. More information is available as online help by clicking with your mouse on the "Help" button visible in the GUI.
XSUT is designed as a front-end to the GNU tar program and takes advantage of several of its unique features. You must have GNU tar installed and visible in your search path to use this tool. If you don't already have GNU tar you'll have to get it (eg, from prep.ai.mit.edu or mirror sites) and then follow the simple instructions to build and install it so that it shows up in your search path as either "gtar", "gnutar", or just "tar".
First, invoke XSUT while in the directory into which you'll ultimately want to extract the data files. To do this, make sure you're set up to access FTOOLS v4.1 as usual and then just type "xsut".
(For simplicity, hereafter in these instructions we will refer to a "tape" but the tool works exactly the same when applied to a tar file on disk which contains a normal RXTE data tree. The tar file may be gzipped as long as it has the suffix ".tar.gz" or ".tgz")
Next, point the tool either at the tape device onto which you've put your RXTE data tape or directly at your tar file on disk. Type the name of your tape device (or pathname of the tar file) in the entry box next to the "Scan" button (eg, "/dev/rst0") and then press "Scan". Note that you can even access a tape device on another networked machine if necessary by using the convention "othermachine:/dev/rst0" for the device name.
While the tape is being scanned you will see an informational placard which will indicate the progress of the scan. It may well take 30 minutes or more to scan your entire tape!
Once the scan is complete the listboxes on the main GUI should display all of the ObsIds which were found on the tape and a complete list of files under those ObsIds. The next step is to select the ObsIds and/or files you want to extract using either the drop-down menus or just by doing "point-and-click" in the listboxes. The "Files" menu provides a handy mechanism to select particular groups of files, eg, Standard Products, PCA Custom Modes, Housekeeping, etc. This "Specific AppIds" submenu is a so-called "tearoff" (indicated by the dotted line at the top); by clicking on that dotted line you can keep the menu up on your screen for repeated selections even when the main (Files) menu is closed.
NOTE. To select multiple entries in the listboxes you probably need to hold down the CNTRL key while clicking, though this may vary depending on your choice of window manager.
You can play around with the ObsId/File selections all you like. Pressing the "Apply selections" button at any time will update the displayed file list according to your selected criteria and will also tell you how much disk space it would take to extract the currently selected files.
Once you're satisfied with the displayed list of files, press the "Extract" button and wait for the selected files to be extracted to the current directory. The informational placard will once again pop-up to show the progress of the file extraction.
None
Requires GNU tar (but this is a feature, not a bug!)
Please address any problem reports, questions or comments to: xtehelp@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov