Custom Installation: CIAO 4.15.2 & CALDB 4.10.7

Please be aware of the following issues before installing CIAO 4.15.2 (see the watchout page for more information):

• ciao-install edition of CIAO 4.15.2 only supports Python 3.9

• macOS users:

  • Problem with plotting using sherpa and scripts such as deflare/lc_clean
  • must install recent versions of XQuartz and XCode
  • if using conda, use the Intel x86-64 MacOS distribution and not the ARM64 distribution

• CIAO 4.15.2 does not support 32-bit Linux, CentOS6, or macOS High Sierra (10.13) and earlier.

• Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file can be ignored as long as the test reports PASS.

Do Not Install as Root or Super User

It is strongly suggested that CIAO be installed as a non-privileged, regular user and not as the root or a super user.

Install CIAO in new terminal window

Users should install CIAO in a new terminal window which is not already configured for CIAO-4.15.2 or earlier, nor setup for any other common analysis packages such as FTOOLS/HEASOFT/XSPEC, SAS, or others.

Run the script that has been downloaded; this will download the requested parts of CIAO and install them on your system, and is described in more detail in the Installing CIAO 4.15.2 using the ciao-install script thread:

unix% bash /<path>/ciao-install

We strongly suggest that the smoke tests are run, the results reviewed, and that the bug page for CIAO installation is reviewed before contacting the CXC Helpdesk if there are any problems.

Set up an alias to start CIAO: for example, if CIAO has been installed into the directory /soft/ciao-4.15.2/, then

alias ciao "source /soft/ciao-4.15.2/bin/ciao.csh"

for csh and tcsh users and

alias ciao="source /soft/ciao-4.15.2/bin/ciao.sh"

for bash and zsh users.

Users may wish to add this alias command to their start-up scripts. For bash and zsh the alias can be added to the $HOME/.bash_profile or $HOME/.bashrc file. For tcsh the alias can be added to the $HOME/.tcshrc or $HOME/.cshrc file.

This alias should then be called in the terminal in which you plan to use CIAO (multiple terminals can be set up to use CIAO at the same time). When called, a version message will be displayed and then the parts of CIAO that were downloaded - such as tools or Sherpa - will be available:

unix% ciao
CIAO configuration is complete... 
CIAO 4.15 Monday, November 21, 2022
  bindir      : /soft/ciao-4.15.2/bin
  CALDB       : 4.10.7

Please review the notes on starting and installing CIAO for potential conflicts between CIAO and other systems, such as XMM SAS and HEASoft.

The ciaover script can be used to display the CIAO and CALDB versions (it reports the same information that the ciao alias above does). The --version flag to python can be used to display the Python version in use:

unix% python --version
Python 3.9.9

Once CIAO has been started, the MARX suite of tools for simulating the on-orbit performance of Chandra can be downloaded and installed with the install_marx script (it can be installed at any time). The script takes a single argument, the location to install MARX. Change /soft/marx to a suitable location:

unix% install_marx /soft/marx

An alias can be created to set the MARX environment. For instance

alias setup_marx "source /soft/marx/marx-5.5.2/setup_marx.csh"

for csh and tcsh users and

alias setup_marx="source /soft/marx/marx-5.5.2/setup_marx.sh"

for bash and zsh users.