Provided by: stilts_3.4.7-4_all bug

NAME

       stilts-tapquery - Queries a Table Access Protocol server

SYNOPSIS

       stilts tapquery [nupload=<count>] [ufmtN=<in-format>] [uploadN=<tableN>] [ucmdN=<cmds>]
                       [ocmd=<cmds>]
                       [omode=out|meta|stats|count|checksum|cgi|discard|topcat|samp|tosql|gui]
                       [out=<out-table>] [ofmt=<out-format>] [upnameN=<adql-identifier>]
                       [tapurl=<url-value>] [interface=tap1.0|tap1.1|cap] [adql=<query-text>]
                       [parse=true|false] [sync=true|false] [maxrec=<nrow>]
                       [destruction=<iso8601>] [executionduration=<seconds>]
                       [compress=true|false] [upvotformat=TABLEDATA|BINARY|BINARY2]
                       [language=<lang-name>] [poll=<millisec>] [progress=true|false]
                       [delete=finished|never|always|now]

DESCRIPTION

       tapquery can query remote databases using the Table  Access  Protocol  (TAP)  services  by
       submitting  Astronomical  Data  Query Language queries to them and retrieving the results.
       TAP and ADQL are Virtual Observatory protocols.

       Queries can be submitted in either synchronous or asynchronous mode, as determined by  the
       sync  parameter.  In  asynchronous mode, if the query has not been deleted by the time the
       command exits (see the delete parameter), the result can be picked up  at  a  later  stage
       using  the  tapresume  command.  Table  uploads  are  supported, so it is possible (if the
       service supports this functionality), to upload a local  table  to  the  remote  database,
       perform a query involving it, such as a join with a remote table of some sort, and receive
       the result. This powerful facility gives you crossmatches between local and remote tables.

       This command does not provide any facility for querying the service for  either  table  or
       capability  metadata, so you will need to know about the service capabilities and database
       structure from some other source (possibly TOPCAT).

       Note: this command has been introduced at STILTS version 2.3, at which time most available
       TAP  services are quite new and may not fully conform to the standards, and usage patterns
       are still settling down. For this reason you may find that some TAP services do not behave
       quite  as  expected;  it is also possible that in future versions the command behaviour or
       parameters will change in line with changing service profiles or  in  the  light  of  user
       experience.

OPTIONS

       nupload=<count>
              The  number  of  upload tables for this task. For each of the upload tables N there
              will be associated parameters ufmtN, uploadN and ucmdN.

       ufmtN=<in-format>
              Specifies the format of upload table #N as  specified  by  parameter  uploadN.  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.  This parameter is ignored for scheme-
              specified tables.

       uploadN=<tableN>
              The location of upload table #N. 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 ufmtN parameter. Note that not all formats
                  can be streamed in this way.

                * A scheme specification of the form :<scheme-name>:<scheme-args>.

                * 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.

       ucmdN=<cmds>
              Specifies processing to be performed on upload table #N as specified  by  parameter
              uploadN,  before  any other processing has taken place. The value of this parameter
              is one or more of the filter commands described in SUN/256. If  more  than  one  is
              given,  they must be separated by semicolon characters (";"). This parameter can be
              repeated multiple times on the same command line to build up a list  of  processing
              steps.  The  sequence of commands given in this way defines the processing pipeline
              which is performed on the table.

              Commands may alteratively be supplied in an external file, by using the indirection
              character  '@'. Thus a value of "@filename" causes the file filename to be read for
              a list of filter commands to execute. The commands in the file may be separated  by
              newline characters and/or semicolons, and lines which are blank or which start with
              a '#' character are ignored.

       ocmd=<cmds>
              Specifies processing  to  be  performed  on  the  output  table,  after  all  other
              processing  has  taken  place.  The  value  of this parameter is one or more of the
              filter commands described in SUN/256. If more than  one  is  given,  they  must  be
              separated  by  semicolon  characters (";"). This parameter can be repeated multiple
              times on the same command line to build up a list of processing steps. The sequence
              of commands given in this way defines the processing pipeline which is performed on
              the table.

              Commands may alteratively be supplied in an external file, by using the indirection
              character  '@'. Thus a value of "@filename" causes the file filename to be read for
              a list of filter commands to execute. The commands in the file may be separated  by
              newline characters and/or semicolons, and lines which are blank or which start with
              a '#' character are ignored.

       omode=out|meta|stats|count|checksum|cgi|discard|topcat|samp|tosql|gui
              The mode in which the result table will be output. The default mode is  out,  which
              means  that  the  result  will  be  written as a new table to disk or elsewhere, as
              determined by the out and ofmt parameters. However, there are other  possibilities,
              which correspond to uses to which a table can be put other than outputting it, such
              as displaying metadata, calculating statistics, or populating a  table  in  an  SQL
              database.  For  some  values of this parameter, additional parameters (<mode-args>)
              are required to determine the exact behaviour.

              Possible values are

                * out

                * meta

                * stats

                * count

                * checksum

                * cgi

                * discard

                * topcat

                * samp

                * tosql

                * gui
               Use the help=omode flag or see SUN/256 for more information.

       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.

              This parameter must only be given if omode has its default value of "out".

       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.

              This parameter must only be given if omode has its default value of "out".

       upnameN=<adql-identifier>
              Identifier  to  use  in  server-side  expressions  for  uploaded  table #N. In ADQL
              expressions, the table should be referred to as "TAP_UPLOAD.<label>".

              The value must syntactically be an ADQL identifier ([A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*).

       tapurl=<url-value>
              The base URL of a Table Access Protocol service. This is the  bare  URL  without  a
              trailing "/[a]sync".

              In  the  usual  case,  the  default values of the various endpoints (sync and async
              query submission, tables metadata, service-provided examples etc) use this URL as a
              parent and append standard sub-paths.

              In  some  cases  however,  determination  of  the endpoints is more complicated, as
              determined by the interface parameter which may cause endpoints to be read from the
              capabilities  document  at  tapurl/capabilities,  and  by  other  endpoint-specific
              parameters  (syncurl,  asyncurl,   tablesurl,   capabilitiesurl,   availabilityurl,
              examplesurl) for fine tuning.

       interface=tap1.0|tap1.1|cap
              Defines  how  the  service endpoints and the version of the TAP protocol to use for
              queries is determined. This  may  take  one  of  the  following  (case-insensitive)
              values:

                * TAP1.0:  The  standard  TAP endpoints are used, without examining the service's
                  capabilities document. The service is queried using  version  1.0  of  the  TAP
                  protocol.

                * TAP1.1:  The  standard  TAP endpoints are used, without examining the service's
                  capabilities document. The service is queried using  version  1.1  of  the  TAP
                  protocol.

                * cap:  The service's capabilities document is examined, and the endpoints listed
                  there are used.

              The capabilities document, if used, is read  from  tapurl/capabilities  unless  the
              capabilitiesurl parameter is defined, in which case that is used.

              The  baseline  value  of  all  the  TAP  service  endpoints  (sync,  async, tables,
              capabilities, examples) are  determined  by  this  parameter,  but  each  of  those
              endpoint   values   may  be  overridden  individually  by  other  endpoint-specific
              parameters  (syncurl,  asyncurl,   tablesurl,   capabilitiesurl,   availabilityurl,
              examplesurl)

              For default (unauthenticated) access, the default value is usually suitable.

       adql=<query-text>
              Astronomical Data Query Language string specifying the TAP query to execute. ADQL/S
              resembles SQL, so this string will likely start with "SELECT".

       parse=true|false
              Determines whether an attempt will be made to check the syntax of the ADQL prior to
              submitting the query. If this is set true, and if a syntax error is found, the task
              will fail with an error before any attempt is made to submit the query.

       sync=true|false
              Determines whether the TAP query is submitted in synchronous or asynchronous  mode.
              Synchronous (true) means that the result is retrieved over the same HTTP connection
              that the query is submitted from. This is uncomplicated, but  means  if  the  query
              takes  a  long  time  it  may  time  out and the results will be lost. Asynchronous
              (false) means that the job is queued and results may be retrieved  later.  Normally
              this  command  does the necessary waiting around and recovery of the result, though
              with appropriate settings you can get  tapresume  to  pick  it  up  for  you  later
              instead. In most cases false (the default) is preferred.

       maxrec=<nrow>
              Sets  the  requested  maximum row count for the result of the query. The service is
              not obliged to respect this, but in the case that it has a default  maximum  record
              count,  setting  this  value may raise the limit. If no value is set, the service's
              default policy will be used.

       destruction=<iso8601>
              Posts an updated value of the UWS DESTRUCTION parameter to the query job before  it
              starts. This only makes sense for asynchronous jobs (sync=false).

              The  supplied value should be an ISO-8601-like string, giving the new requested job
              destruction time. The service is not obliged to honour this request. See UWS  v1.0,
              sec 2.2.3.3.

       executionduration=<seconds>
              Posts  an  updated  value  of  the UWS EXECUTIONDURATION parameter to the query job
              before it starts. This only makes sense for asynchronous jobs (sync=false).

              The supplied value is an integer giving the maximum number  of  wall-clock  seconds
              for which the job is permitted to execute before being forcibly terminated. A value
              of zero indicates unlimited duration. The service is not  obliged  to  honour  this
              request. See UWS v1.0, sec 2.2.3.4.

       compress=true|false
              If  true,  the  service  is  requested  to  provide  HTTP-level compression for the
              response stream (Accept-Encoding header is set to "gzip", see RFC 2616). This  does
              not  guarantee that compression will happen but if the service honours this request
              it may result in a smaller amount  of  network  traffic  at  the  expense  of  more
              processing on the server and client.

       upvotformat=TABLEDATA|BINARY|BINARY2
              Determines  how  any uploaded tables will be serialized for transmission to the TAP
              server. The supplied string is the name of one of the defined VOTable serialization
              formats.  The  choice  shouldn't  affect any results, though it may affect required
              bandwidth, and some services may (though should not) have non-standard requirements
              for serialization format.

       language=<lang-name>
              Language to use for the ADQL-like query. This will usually be "ADQL" (the default),
              but may be set to some other value supported by the service, for instance a variant
              indicating  a  different ADQL version. Note that at present, setting it to "PQL" is
              not sufficient to submit a PQL query.

       poll=<millisec>
              Interval to wait  between  polling  attempts,  in  milliseconds.  Asynchronous  TAP
              queries  can  only find out when they are complete by repeatedly polling the server
              to find out the job's status. This parameter allows  you  to  set  how  often  that
              happens.  Attempts  to set it too low (<50) will be rejected on the assumption that
              you're thinking in seconds.

       progress=true|false
              If this parameter is set true, progress of the job is reported to  standard  output
              as it happens.

       delete=finished|never|always|now
              Determines  under  what  circumstances the UWS job is to be deleted from the server
              when its data is no longer required. If it is not deleted, then the job is left  on
              the  TAP  server  and it can be accessed via the normal UWS REST endpoints or using
              tapresume until it is destroyed by the server.

              Possible values:

                * finished: delete only if the job finished, successfully or not

                * never: do not delete

                * always: delete on command exit

                * now: delete and return immediately

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/sun256/index.html

VERSION

       STILTS version 3.4.7-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-TAPQUERY(1)