macOS: installing CIAO 4.18 and CALDB 4.12.3 with the CIAO .dmg file.

Download the disk image file for your CPU type:

• Apple Silicon (M1/M2/etc, ARM): ciao-4.18.0.T.20251112-arm64.dmg (5Gb)
• AMD/Intel: ciao-4.18.0.T.20251112-x86_64.dmg (5Gb)

This will download and install CIAO, Sherpa, MARX, and Python 3.12 along with the base CALDB calibrations files.

If your connection times out when trying to download these files, they can also be found on our external Google Drive Folder.

Double click to open .dmg disk image file. You will see the following folder:

Now drag the ciao-4.18 folder onto the Applications folder. This will copy all the files into place.

After the copy is complete, close the .dmg folder.

System Extension Blocked pop-up

Some users have reported that a message appears when the copy starts that reads:

System Extension Blocked.
A program tried to load new system extension(s) signed by "Silicon Laboratories Inc." that need to be updated by the developer.

Simply click "OK" to proceed.

Open the Terminal application and run the following command:

xattr -rc /Applications/ciao-4.18

This command only needs to be run once when CIAO is installed.

Failure to run this command will result in Security warnings popping up each and every time any CIAO command is run.

Set up an alias to start CIAO.

For csh and tcsh users:

alias ciao "source /Applications/ciao-4.18/bin/ciao.csh"

for bash and zsh users.

alias ciao="source /Applications/ciao-4.18/bin/ciao.sh"

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.

The start-up scripts are automatically sourced when the user opens a new terminal window. To use the newly created alias in existing, open terminal windows users need to source the start-up script.

Run the CIAO smoke tests:

$ cd $ASCDS_INSTALL
$ bash test/smoke/bin/run_smoke_tests.sh

If there are any errors reported during the smoke tests, users can check the smoke test bugs page for possible solutions.

(Optional): Install blank sky background CALDB files

The ACIS and HRC blank sky background files are not included in the .dmg file. Users who need these files for their analysis will need to manually install them.

Option 1. Use the download_obsid_caldb script to download the blank sky files needed for the analysis of your specific observations. For example:

$ download_obsid_caldb acisf12345N006_evt2.fits outdir=$CALDB background=yes

where acisf12345N006_evt2.fits is the file name of the events file with which you want to use the blank sky files.

Option 2. Manually download and install the full set of blank sky files from the CALDB page. For example to download the ACIS blank sky files you would do something like:

$ ciao
$ cd $CALDB
$ curl -O https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/cdaftp/arcftp/caldb/acis_bkgrnd_4.9.7.tar.gz
$ tar xfz acis_bkgrnd_4.9.7.tar.gz

and/or for the HRC blank sky files:

$ ciao
$ cd $CALDB
$ curl -O https://cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/cdaftp/arcftp/caldb/hrc_bkgrnd_4.7.7.tar.gz
$ tar xfz hrc_bkgrnd_4.7.7.tar.gz