4.1  General Overview

The cdsclient package is a set of C and shell routines which can be built on Unix stations or PCs running Linux, which once compiled allow to query some databases located at CDS or on mirrors over the network.

The cdsclient package includes two generic query programs:

• vizquery, a program to remotely query VizieR. It connects the VizieR server via the HTTP protocol (requires an access to the port 80)
• find_cats, a program for fast access to large surveys from a list of positions, via a dedicated client (requires an access to the port 1660)

Specific programs like find2mass or finducac3 are connecting directly to one of the very large surveys available from CDS (a very large survey has 10⁷ or more rows). Using a specific program is faster than the generic vizquery program which has to locate and transport the data via data-base queries; but such progams exist only for the list of enumerated large surveys below.

4.2  Package Installation

The tar file is available at http://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/pub/sw/cdsclient.tar.gz or as the file cdsclient.tar.gz in the ftp://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/pub/sw/ directory.

1. Once the file is copied e.g. as the file cdsclient.tar.gz in your home directory, untar the file:

   tar xvfz cdsclient.tar.gz

   (the z option is available in the GNU tar; if your installation doesn't know the z option, execute
   gzip -cd cdsclient.tar.gz | tar xvf -
   )

   A subdirectory cdsclient-V.vv (where V.vv represents the version number) is created; move to that directory by
   cd cdsclient-V.vv

2. To configure the package for your system, type

   ./configure
   (on some old versions of System V, you might need to type sh configure )

   If you wish a final installation (executables, libraries, and manpages) in a non-standard directory tree structure (the default is /usr/local), specify the preferred prefix, e.g.
   ./configure --prefix=$HOME
   to prepare an installation of executables in your ~/bin directory — an installation which does not require any root privilege.

3. Type make to compile the package.

4. Type make install moves the various pieces to the standard directories (/usr/local/bin by default for the executables, see item 2 above to reconfigure, or just modify the value of PREFIX in the Makefile)

There are several query programs; as a rule, each program can be executed with the -help option to list the basic available options, e.g.

findgsc -help

A -HELP option is also available for details on the column contents for the programs that return data, like findgsc or findpmm

4.3  Package Contents

• findcat allows to retrieve the existing catalogues in CDS Archive. Usage:

  findcat [key... | catalogue_number]

  keys are words to look for, e.g. RADIO, Author's name, etc..., or catalogue number e.g. 8059 B/hst J/A+AS/94/519

• lscat displays a summary of the files making up a catalogue. Usage:

  lscat catalogue_number [catalogue_number...]

• catcat allows to copy a catalogue or a file extracted from a catalogue, either in plain ascii, in tar format, or in FITS format. Usage:

  catcat [-#] [-fits[.Z|.gz]|-tar[.Z|.gz] catalog[/file]

  -#: Specify how many lines from each file (default all) are to be printed.
  -tar: Get catalogue file(s) in TAR format
  compressed versions as tar.Z (Unix compress) or tar.gz (gzip)
  -fits: Get catalogue file(s) as FITS tables
  compressed versions as fits.Z (Unix compress) or fits.gz (gzip)
  catalog: catalog designation, e.g. 8059, VIII/59, J/A+AS/94/519 ...
  

  Note: The description file is named ReadMe, which means that short explanations may be displayed with commands

  catcat VIII/59/ReadMe
  catcat J/A+AS/94/519/ReadMe
  

• findcfhtd and findcfhtw allow to query the deep and wide CFHT-LS surveys