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 3.2-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)