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HEASoft v6.31.1 - Known Issues

If you are using HEASoft v6.31 and don't want to upgrade to v6.31.1 just yet, see the HEASoft 6.31 Issues List.

Several packages track issues separately from this page:

The following is a list of known issues in v6.31.1 of HEASoft not covered by the above pages.

Last modified Tuesday, 06-Jun-2023 10:28:59 EDT

  • IXPE & AstroPy:

    Due to a bug in certain 5.x versions of AstroPy, some files (such as the IXPE Level 1 event files) containing variable-length arrays may trigger in several IXPE tools a "ValueError" with the message "the heapsize limit for 'P' format has been reached. Please consider using the 'Q' format for your file.", even if the file is already formatted with the "Q" format. Affected versions of AstroPy appear to be 5.0.5, 5.0.6, 5.1.1, 5.2, 5.2.1, and 5.2.2, so users encountering this issue are advised to update to v5.3.0 or newer.


  • extractor & IXPE data:

    There are a couple of errors in extractor (and hence xselect) for IXPE data. Firstly, the dead time correction is ignored when creating spectra leading to a few percent error in normalizations and fluxes. Secondly, the stokes=UNWEIGHTED and stokes=SIMPLE options produce STAT_ERR which are about sqrt(2) too small, giving anomalously large values of the statistic when fitting. Those for stokes=NEFF are correct.

    A patch has been applied to the current source code & binary downloads (as of 2023 Jan. 31). To patch an existing source code installation (see below for updates to pre-compiled binaries), download the new version of extractor (v6.10), then rebuild it and reinstall, for example: 

    Unpack the patch tar file under your existing heasoft-6.31
(or heasoft-6.31.1) folder:

% cd heasoft-6.31/
% tar zxf ~/Downloads/heasoft-6.31.x_extractor6.10_src.tar.gz

Initialize heasoft, then:

% cd heasoft-6.31/ftools/heasarc/tasks/extractor
% hmake clean
% hmake all
% hmake install
    To update pre-compiled binary distributions, download the relevant patch file from this list, and unpack it under your existing heasoft-6.31 (or heasoft-6.31.1) folder:



  • HEASIM skyback:

    The HEASIM background-estimating tool skyback is broken for RA values less than 1, and generates incorrect nh values for other sky positions. A fixed version of the source code is available for download here. To rebuild skyback, download that file and then: 

    Copy the new "doWork.c" into this folder:

heasoft-6.31.1/heasim/skyback/

Next, initialize heasoft and then:

% cd heasoft-6.31/heasim/skyback/
% hmake clean
% hmake all
% hmake install

  • NICER nigeodown & "LWP::Simple":

    The NICER task nigeodown attempts to use the Perl module LWP::Simple, though it doesn't actually need it. If this module is not available with your Perl installation and nigeodown complains as a result, you may simply remove the relevant "use" command (line 41) in $HEADAS/bin/nigeodown: 

    use LWP::Simple qw(getstore is_success $ua);

  • Mac "C compiler cannot create executables":

    The HEASoft configure script may fail with "C compiler cannot create executables", and one of the config.logs may show

    ld: library not found for -lSystem

    This error typically implies that your compiler suite (e.g. Homebrew or MacPorts) is out-of-synch with the Apple (XCode) Command Line Tools (CLT), for example if you updated the CLT but did not reinstall Homebrew after doing so. Since these third-party compilers use the CLT, they must typically be rebuilt/reinstalled whenever XCode/CLT are updated.

    For example, some users have worked their way past this by uninstalling the CLT and then reinstalling the CLT, then uninstalling and reinstalling the Homebrew compilers.

    Another common problem in the configure stage is the following:

    ld: unsupported tapi file type '!tapi-tbd' in YAML file '/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX10.15.sdk/usr/lib/libSystem.tbd' for architecture x86_64

    This can typically be resolved by putting /usr/bin at the front of your PATH environment variable (as recommended in our Mac installation guide).

  • WSL and Windows PATH variables:

    Some users of WSL on Windows may have PATH environment variables that contain directory paths containing double quotes ("). The HEASoft initialization will fail as a result, so users need to modify their PATH variable to remove the offending characters.

  • Using "sudo" or "screen":

    Since configuring HEASoft typically works best when setting environment variables to point to specific compilers, using sudo at the configure stage is not recommended since sudo spawns a new shell that does not automatically inherit current environment settings. The sudo command should not be needed for configuring in any case; it should only be necessary when running "make install", and only then if you are writing to a root-protected area (e.g. /usr/local or /Applications).

    Similarly, the screen command does not inherit all environment variables, so if you spawn a screen session before running the configure script, be sure to check or set environment variables after starting the screen utility.

  • "Developer cannot be verified" or "unidentified developer" error on Macs:

    Some Mac users have reported problems configuring and/or running pre-compiled HEASoft binaries. To free HEASoft binaries from the Apple quarantine, use the xattr utility, e.g.: 
    $ cd heasoft-6.31.1/x86_64-apple-darwin20.6.0
$ xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine BUILD_DIR/configure lib/* bin/*

  • Fortran compiler requirements:

    HEASoft now includes a new dependency on the FGSL library which requires a Fortran 2008 feature (c_loc for targeted arrays); therefore GNU Fortran compilers older than version ~5.x are unsupported.

  • Perl symbol lookup error, "undefined symbol: Perl_Gthr_key_ptr":

    If running a HEASoft Perl script generates an error similar to the above, it may result from a Perl version incompatibility (common when using the pre-compiled binaries), but it may also occur if you have the VERSIONER_PERL_PREFER_32_BIT environment variable set to "yes". If "echo VERSIONER_PERL_PREFER_32_BIT" returns "yes", then unset it: 

       unset VERSIONER_PERL_PREFER_32_BIT

or, in C-shell:

   unsetenv VERSIONER_PERL_PREFER_32_BIT
  • Mac "configure failed..." Fortran compiler issue:

    The configure script may generate an error ("Configure failed in the AST package!", or "configure failed for heacore component fftw!") resulting from a MacPorts assembler (as) under /opt/local/bin being ahead of the default Apple /usr/bin/as in a user's PATH (which may result from an automated change made to .profile during a MacPorts installation). To get past this issue, put /usr/bin at the front of your PATH: 

       export PATH="/usr/bin:$PATH"
  • MacPorts "unexpected token" linker issue:

    If you are using MacPorts compilers in your build, 'make' may fail when building the HEASoft source code distribution with an error referring to a new Xcode linker ("ld") format ("tbd"), e.g.: 

    ld: in '/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreEmoji.framework/Versions/A/CoreEmoji.tbd', unexpected token: !tapi-tbd-v2 ...
    The underlying issue is discussed here and here; it appears that when new versions of the XCode command line tools are released, problems such as this may affect MacPorts compilers until they catch up with Apple's changes. Users should be able to get around the error in our build by installing the MacPorts 'xcode' variant of the linker ld64 as a temporary measure: 
    
    sudo port install ld64 +ld64_xcode
    and when MacPorts eventually supports the latest XCode command line tools, you can switch back to the latest ld64 with the following: 
    
    sudo port install ld64 +ld64_latest
  • Mac "suffix or operands invalid for 'movq'" Fortran compiler issue:

    When using the gnu.org gfortran binaries note their recommendation that when installing new versions of the compiler you should remove the previous gfortran installation first: 

       $ sudo rm -r /usr/local/gfortran /usr/local/bin/gfortran
    Failure to do so may result in a corrupted compiler installation, leading to the "suffix or operands invalid for 'movq'" error.


  • Ubuntu ds9 & HEASoft:

    After initializing HEASoft on Ubuntu Linux, the ds9 GUI (if installed) may fail to start up (mentioning "can't find package xml", "can't find package uri 1.1", or "package require base64""). This results from incompatibilities between the Tcl/Tk included with HEASoft and the Ubuntu system libraries. Until a more elegant solution can be devised, we recommend that users try one of the following options, depending on the file type of your ds9 (shell script or compiled executable - check the output from "file `which ds9`" to determine which it is): 

    
1) If ds9 is the shell script version, edit it to change the line

     exec wish8.6 -f ${DS9_HOME-/usr/share/saods9}/library/ds9.tcl $*

   to

     exec /usr/bin/env -u LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/bin/wish8.6 -f ${DS9_HOME-/usr/share/saods9}/library/ds9.tcl $*

or

2) If ds9 is the compiled executable version, create a new file
   "$HEADAS/bin/ds9" containing the following lines:

     #!/bin/sh
     exec /usr/bin/env -u LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/bin/ds9 "$@"

   (Note this assumes that `which ds9` = /usr/bin/ds9)

   To make the new script executable, run the following command:

     $ chmod +x $HEADAS/bin/ds9

   Then, as long as $HEADAS/bin is ahead of /usr/bin in your PATH, you
   should now be able to successfully run ds9 from the command line:

     $ rehash
     $ ds9


  • "relocation R_X86_64_32 against `.rodata' can not be used when making a shared object":

    Users building HEASoft from the source code distribution may run into this error which refers to a "Bad value" in the file heacore/wcslib/C/cel.o, from which the linker "could not read symbols". It also suggests that you "recompile with -fPIC". This situation most likely occurrs when users perform a re-build after a previously unsuccessful build attempt. To get past this issue, try the following: 
    
   $ cd heasoft-6.31.1/BUILD_DIR
   $ make distclean
    When that finishes, restart the build procedure beginning with "./configure", then "make", and let us know if this does not resolve the problem.


  • fv - XPA_METHOD:

    Some users of the fv GUI may experience long delays at startup, or error messages of the type "XPA$WARNING: xpans needs to be running on this machine", or "XPA$ERROR: invalid host name specified: $host:$port" (when using the ds9 display device). These issues tend to occur on Macs with customized firewall settings, or on machines without valid IP addresses. This can be resolved by setting the XPA_METHOD environment variable to the value "local" (to use local/UNIX sockets instead of inet sockets): 
    
        export XPA_METHOD=local          # Bourne shell (bash/sh)
or
        setenv XPA_METHOD local          # C-shell (csh/tcsh)
  • Perl version mismatch::

    Pre-compiled Perl libraries used extensively by mission software (Swift, Suzaku, NuSTAR) and other packages are not especially portable, so we generally recommend building HEASoft from the source code distribution.


  • xspec / PLT - wenv, whead, wdata:

    Some GNU Fortran compilers (gfortran 4.4.x, 4.0.x, 4.1.x) appear to have internal issues which prevent the PLT commands wenv, whead and wdata from working unless an output file is specified; i.e. attempts at producing terminal output may fail with "Fortran runtime error: Invalid argument". To get around this, provide an output file name when using these commands, for example: 
         wenv myFile1.qdp
     whead myFile2.qdp
     wdata myFile3.qdp


  • HEASoft and other software packages (CIAO, XMM-SAS):

    Please note:

    Users may wish to download and run our hwrap script to create an alternate runtime environment for HEASoft to help avoid conflicts with other software packages, but if not, please take note of the potential pitfalls below:

    • CIAO:

      Please see the following notes at the CXC website regarding the potential dangers of using CIAO and HEASoft together in the same session:



    • XMM-SAS:

      The XMM-SAS setup typically adjusts your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable (or DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on macOS) to include the SAS library folders, one of which includes a copy of the C++ compiler library (libstdc++). This can cause problems building HEASoft, so we recommend that HEASoft be built in a session in which the SAS has not been initialized, or at least one in which your [DY]LD_LIBRARY_PATH is either empty or otherwise does not include the installed SAS directories.

      Similarly, after both SAS and HEASoft are installed, if they are initialized in the same session (terminal), C++-based tasks such as XSPEC may suffer runtime problems if the XMM-SAS library directories precede the one needed by XSPEC in [DY]LD_LIBRARY_PATH (as is the case if the SAS is initialized after HEASoft. As an example, if you compiled HEASoft on a Mac using the Homebrew compilers, XSPEC will need to have the Homebrew library path ahead of the SAS library directories in your DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: 
           For example:

     C-shell:

         setenv DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH "/usr/local/opt/gcc/lib/gcc/10:${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}

     Bourne shell:

         export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/opt/gcc/lib/gcc/10:${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}
      Additionally, when both the SAS & HEASoft are used in the same session and the SAS was initialized after HEASoft, the SAS setup changes the value of the environment variable PGPLOT_FONT with the result that plots in e.g. XSPEC may (or may not, depending on the software distributions in use) have no axis labels or values. Users can fix this by resetting PGPLOT_FONT to point to the HEASoft location: 
           C-shell:

         setenv PGPLOT_FONT $HEADAS/lib/grfont.dat

     Bourne shell:

         export PGPLOT_FONT=$HEADAS/lib/grfont.dat
      or by simply re-initializing HEASoft: 
           C-shell:

         source $HEADAS/headas-init.csh

     Bourne shell:

         . $HEADAS/headas-init.sh
      This may in turn have consequences for plotting in XMM-SAS, in which case users may need to return PGPLOT_FONT to the SAS setting when using it for data analysis.


If you have any questions about the information above, please write to us at the FTOOLS help desk.
FTOOLS HELP DESK

If FTOOLS has been useful in your research, please reference this site (http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftools) and use the ASCL reference for HEASoft [ascl:1408.004] or the ASCL reference for the original FTOOLs paper [ascl:9912.002]:

Blackburn, J. K. 1995, in ASP Conf. Ser., Vol. 77, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems IV, ed. R. A. Shaw, H. E. Payne, and J. J. E. Hayes (San Francisco: ASP), 367.

Web page maintained by: Bryan K. Irby