NAME

       stilts-tcopy - Converts between table formats

SYNOPSIS

       stilts tcopy [in=<table>] [out=<out-table>] [ifmt=<in-format>] [ofmt=<out-format>]

DESCRIPTION

       tcopy  is  a  table  copying tool. It simply copies a table from one place to another, but
       since you can specify the input and output formats as desired, it  works  as  a  converter
       from any of the supported input formats to any of the supported output formats.

       tcopy  is just a stripped-down version of tpipe - it doesn't do anything that tpipe can't,
       but the usage is slightly simplified. It is provided as a drop-in replacement for the  old
       tablecopy  (uk.ac.starlink.table.TableCopy)  tool which was supplied with earlier versions
       of STIL and TOPCAT - it has  the  same  arguments  and  behaviour  as  tablecopy,  but  is
       implemented somewhat differently and will in some cases be more efficient.

OPTIONS

       in=<table>
              The location of the input table. This may take one of the following forms:

                * A filename.

                * A URL.

                * The  special  value  "-", meaning standard input. In this case the input format
                  must be given explicitly using the ifmt parameter. Note that  not  all  formats
                  can be streamed in this way.

                * A  system  command  line  with  either  a  "<" character at the start, or a "|"
                  character at the end ("<syscmd" or "syscmd|"). This executes the given pipeline
                  and  reads  from its standard output. This will probably only work on unix-like
                  systems.
               In any case, compressed data in one of the supported  compression  formats  (gzip,
              Unix compress or bzip2) will be decompressed transparently.

       out=<out-table>
              The  location of the output table. This is usually a filename to write to. If it is
              equal to the special value "-" (the default) the output table will  be  written  to
              standard output.

       ifmt=<in-format>
              Specifies  the  format  of  the input table as specified by parameter in. The known
              formats are listed in SUN/256. This flag can be used if you know what  format  your
              table is in. If it has the special value (auto) (the default), then an attempt will
              be made to detect the format of the table automatically. This cannot always be done
              correctly  however,  in  which  case the program will exit with an error explaining
              which formats were attempted.

       ofmt=<out-format>
              Specifies the format in which the output table will be written (one of the ones  in
              SUN/256 - matching is case-insensitive and you can use just the first few letters).
              If it has the special value "(auto)" (the default), then the output  filename  will
              be examined to try to guess what sort of file is required usually by looking at the
              extension. If it's not obvious from the filename what output format is intended, an
              error will result.

SEE ALSO

       stilts(1)

       If  the  package  stilts-doc  is installed, the full documentation SUN/256 is available in
       HTML format:
       file:///usr/share/doc/stilts-doc/sun256/index.html

VERSION

       STILTS version 3.1-2-debian

       This is the Debian version of Stilts, which lack the support  of  some  file  formats  and
       network protocols. For differences see
       file:///usr/share/doc/stilts/README.Debian

AUTHOR

       Mark Taylor (Bristol University)

                                             Mar 2017                             STILTS-TCOPY(1)