NAME

       fitsort - sort FITS header information from a list of files

SYNOPSIS

       dfits <FITS files...> | fitsort <FITS keywords...>

DESCRIPTION

       fitsort  extract keyword values from a set of FITS headers and outputs it in an ASCII table format, which
       is compatible with most data processing software packages. It shall only be used in combination with  the
       dfits utility.

       The  ASCII  output  is  shown in columns. Columns are aligned with blank characters and also separated by
       tabulations. Blank alignment allows human readers to visualize the output in a pretty format, tabulations
       are  there  for  spreadsheet  compatibility. If you want to load out fitsort output into any spreadsheet,
       specify that fields shall be separated by tabulations and entries separated by linefeeds.

       Examples :
       dfits *.fits | fitsort BITPIX NAXIS NAXIS1 NAXIS2

       The output would look like:
       FILE           BITPIX   NAXIS    NAXIS1   NAXIS2
       file0001.fits  16       2        128      128
       file0002.fits  32       2        512      512
       ...

       ESO specific features in the FITS header are also supported. To get values for 'HIERARCH  ESO'  keywords,
       just give the complete names within double quotes. e.g.

       dfits *.fits | fitsort "HIERARCH ESO INS LENS"

       Another  way  of giving HIERARCH ESO keywords is to use the short FITS notation, the above example can be
       given as:

       dfits *.fits | fitsort INS.LENS

       Example: to retrieve the DPR keywords from an ESO FITS header, you would use:

       dfits *.fits | fitsort To be completed...  DPR.CATG DPR.TYPE DPR.TECH

       This second way of requesting HIERARCH ESO keywords is not only shorter to type, it  also  avoids  typing
       quotes or double-quotes on the command-line, making it easier to script with fitsort.

       Notice that the keywords you give on the command-line are case-insensitive.  The above line is equivalent
       to:

       dfits *.fits | fitsort dpr.catg dpr.type dpr.tech

OPTIONS

       -d     Do not print out the first output line. This option is useful  to  get  only  the  query  results,
              without the top line (giving all column names). This makes it easy to script fitsort from programs
              like awk or perl.

FILES

       Input files to dfits shall all comply with FITS format.  fitsort also supports HIERARCH ESO FITS format.

SEE ALSO

       dfits (1)

                                                   25 Jun 2001                                        fitsort(1)