FIEStool - Frequently Asked Questions

Over the time we've been collecting some questions about FIEStool. If you have problems trying to run it after the install procedure, please check here for a solution.

I get an error complaining about an object lacking attributes!
I'm trying to reduce my data, but FIEStool complains about "bpm" for task "fit1d"
I have downloaded the dependencies, how do I install them?
I have installed all the dependencies, but FIEStool keeps complaining about not being able to import them. I can import the required modules from the command line, though
I have the exact problem you're talking about in the previous point, but I don't (have permissions/want to modify the code)
What is this Tkinter FIEStool keeps complaining about? It's not on your requirement list!
I'm using Apple's OSX!!

Python/IRAF/PyRAF errors

Q: I get an error complaining about 'Header' object not having an attribute

An user reported an error message which ends like this:

 05:28:11 *** (0)   File "/home/me/FIEStool/tasks.py", line 194, in run
 05:28:11 *** (0)     if data[0].header.has_key('NAXIS2'):
 05:28:11 *** (0) AttributeError: 'Header' object has no attribute

This is due to a change in the Python language. While we don't support running FIEStool running Python 3, the maintainers of PyFITS decided for their version 3 of the library to remove has_key from the dictionary-like interface provided by the Header objects, which leads to this error.

We released FIEStool 1.3.3 to adapt the code to those changes.

Q: Reducing the data, I get the following message: Unknown parameter requested: "bpm" for task: "fit1d" in pkg: "imfit"

The error looks like this:

 22:39:26 *** (0) An unknown error occured in "normflat" :
 22:39:26 *** (0) Traceback (most recent call last):
 22:39:26 *** (0)   File "./taskManager.py", line 51, in runTask
 22:39:26 *** (0)     task().run(*args, **kwds)
 22:39:26 *** (0)   File "/home/paolo/FIEStool/tasks.py", line 1504, in run
 22:39:26 *** (0)     irafWrappers.fit1d(tempframe3, tempframe4)
 22:39:26 *** (0)   File "/home/paolo/FIEStool/irafWrappers.py", line 290, in fit1d
 22:39:26 *** (0)     ParList = _getparlistname('fit1d')
 22:39:26 *** (0)   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pyraf/iraftask.py", line 767, in __call__
 22:39:26 *** (0)     return self.run(*args, **kw)
 22:39:26 *** (0)   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pyraf/iraftask.py", line 359, in run
 22:39:26 *** (0)     self._run(redirKW, specialKW)
 22:39:26 *** (0)   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pyraf/iraftask.py", line 808, in _run
 22:39:26 *** (0)     irafexecute.IrafExecute(self, pyraf.iraf.getVarDict(), **redirKW)
 22:39:26 *** (0)   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pyraf/irafexecute.py", line 362, in IrafExecute
 22:39:26 *** (0)     raise exc
 22:39:26 *** (0) IrafError: Unknown parameter requested: "bpm" for task: "fit1d" in pkg: "imfit"

The reason for this error is an IRAF parameters file that comes with FIEStool. It was generated for a version of IRAF older than the one you've got installed, and it's missing a parameter.

The fix is very simple, and we produced FIEStool 1.3.2.3 just to include it. If you don't want to re-download the whole FIEStool just for this, please find the following file:

     FIEStool/taskconf/CalibCalc/fit1d.par

And add this line to it:

     bpm,s,h,"",,,'Bad pixel mask(s)'

General questions

Q: I have downloaded the dependencies, how do I install them?

Usually Python packages come with a setup.py script. The usual way to run it is

   $ python setup.py install

That should install things under your system-wide Python module repository. If you prefer to keep things tidy and install non-packaged software under a different place, then try:

   $ python setup.py install --prefix=/some/other/place

The setup.py script usually install things under PREFIX/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages/, being "X.Y" the version. So if you specify /usr/local as a prefix and your Python claims to be version 2.5.1, the install path for your modules will be /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/.

Be careful. Python knows a number a places where to search for modules, and if you put them somewhere else you won't be able to readily import them. In that case, you'll need to add the extra path to your environment. E.g., on csh:

   setenv PYTHONPATH /opt/mysoft/lib/python2.5/site-packages

Q: I have installed all the dependencies, but FIEStool keeps complaining about not being able to import them. I can import the required modules from the command line, though

In short: You're probably using different versions of Python.

You can have a number of different Python environments on your computer, either different versions (e.g., Python 2.3 vs. 2.5) or customized ones. I assume here that you type "python" to use Python from the command line, and that you used that one to install the dependencies. Maybe FIEStool is picking up a different one. What you should do first is to locate the directory where FIEStool.py is sitting on, then check what Python is FIEStool using:

   $ head FIEStool.py

That will print the first few lines of code. The first one will probably read like this:

   #!/usr/bin/python

Then you should check which Python version are you using:

   $ which python
   /usr/bin/python

In my case both are the same, but maybe not in yours. If they are different, then please modify the first line of FIEStool.py so that it matches yours.

NB: in newer versions of FIEStool, our version may read like this:

   #!/usr/bin/env python

In that case, we should be running already the default python executable in your system

Q: I have the exact problem you're talking about in the previous point, but I don't (have permissions/want to modify the code)

Don't worry. Assuming that you invoke your particular version of Python using the "mypython" command, you can just run FIEStool like this:

   $ mypython /path/to/FIEStool.py

It may be a bit cumbersome, but it will work.

Optionally, you can make a shell alias or desktop link to call FIEStool like this

Q: What is this `Tkinter` FIEStool keeps complaining about? It's not on your requirement list!

TkInter is the default graphics environment for Python. It is based on Tcl/Tk and comes bundled with Python's source distribution. That means it should be already installed on your computer along with Python itself.

It is not a core Python feature, though, meaning that Python can happily run without it, and so some distributors (e.g., some Linux packagers) tend to put TkInter in a separate package.

We can't just keep track of every distributor's choice or naming of package, so please don't ask us how to install TkInter on your computer if it's not there.

Anyway, we can tell you that on Debian distributions (and Debian derived, like Ubuntu), the package is called python-tk for the default version. In Red Hat it should be called something along the lines of python-tkinter or python2-tkinter. In Gentoo you don't have such thing as a "package", but you'll probably need to specify that you want tcltk support when building Python.

OS X questions

Some FIEStool users want to use it from their Apple computers, under OS X. Some of them have problems running FIEStool, but there's nothing on FIEStool platform-dependant, except for Python itself so, no, there's not going to be (or a need for) a "FIEStool for OSX"

The problems come usually from the dependencies themselves: they may be difficult to install on OSX.

We haven't produced (yet) instructions on installing FIEStool on Apple computers, but most OSX users that have asked for our help had previously installed (or were planning to install) the ESO Scisoft software bundle on their computers.

We don't endorse or support Scisoft, but it happens to include all the software you need to run FIEStool, so it could be worth trying using them together.

Last modified: April 19 2023