Installing IRAF
Introduction
You really need 3 things to run IRAF: * Apple’s X11 (see the X11 tab at the top) * IRAF (from the download page) * X11IRAF (mainly xgterm, but this isn’t 100% necessary, just wise - also on the download page.)
You will run X11, run xgterm within x11, and run IRAF from the xgterm. If that all sounds confusing, the IRAF button (also on the download page) might be a good tool to have.
Getting IRAF up and running
The easiest way to install IRAF is to use the Mac OS X installers I have created. You can find them both for Intel or for PPC from the download page.
Making the iraf user account
Step 1. Do not launch the package file just yet, you must first make the IRAF user. IRAF requires the creation of a user on the machine named ‘iraf’ who owns all the iraf files. Creating the User is easy though.
Open up System Preferences and click on the Accounts Click on the + button… and set it up so. The login picture doesn’t matter of course.
Make the IRAF User an Admin by checking the box.
Click save, and you’re done creating the IRAF user.
Step 2. Expand the archive. Double-clicking should launch Apple’s built in decompression helper program. You’ll be greeted by a folder containing a .pkg installer, the Installing PC IRAF users guide in PDF format, and a README written by yours truly. At least, I think those are all still included.
If you have already downloaded the .pkg installer from contrib as your normal login, you should probably go ahead and move it to Shared folder that’s in /Users, or if that doesn’t work try copying it to the Drop Box in the Iraf User’s Public folder.
Step 3, Installation. Now you can log out of Mac OS X via the Apple menu and then log back in as the Iraf User, or if you’re running Panther or later use fast user switching to switch to the IRAF User. As you log into MacOS X for the first time as the Iraf User things will look odd on your OS X desktop. The dock will seem big, the background will probably be diffrent. Find the IRAF .pkg installer, or go download it and double-click the .pkg file inside the folder after you’ve decompressed and expanded the archive.
You should be familiar with the MacOS X installer. Simply follow the on-screen instructions. In MacOS 10.1 and again 10.3, when the installer is done, it will likely seem to work and then at the end say Errors occured when installing the software, try again. Ignore that. It should work just fine, you can check in the Finder or Terminal to see that all the files are there in /iraf. For some reason this does not happen in Jaguar.
Now it’s time to use the Terminal. You can stay logged in as ‘iraf’
for this. Launch Terminal.app from /Applications/Utilities, change
directories to /iraf/iraf/unix/hlib/ and run the IRAF install script.
Note: The first time you run a command with sudo it’ll give you a lecture on using it. Each time you run a command with sudo it will ask for your password (not the root password.) Only administrators can run sudo. This is why it’s helpful that you make the iraf user an admin. Just to simplify this process.
% cd /iraf/iraf/unix/hlib
% sudo ./install
Follow the install scripts onscreen instructions. The script
should run without any errors. You can choose either /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin as the iraf local comands directory, I believe /usr/bin/ is the default… this has the advantage of being in your PATH by default.
You’re done! IRAF is installed. Now back to your normal login account. You can log out of OS X as IRAF and go back to your normal account.
First Time Setup
So, this part should be familiar to you. It’s probably best to make an iraf directory in your home directory, so startig in your home directory:
% mkdir iraf
% cd iraf
% mkiraf
This makes you an iraf directory that will store your iraf parameter files and other things. The login.cl file generated will determine your terminal type, so it will ask you to choose. If you’re going to install X11IRAF, then xgterm is probably a good choice. If you’re going to use X-Windows but not xgterm then go with xterm. Otherwise, if you plan on just using the OS X terminal, pick vt100.
If the mkiraf step doesn’t work, and you get a command not found problem, then you need to add /usr/local/bin to your path. Alternatively, you can pick /usr/bin when you run the iraf install script at the beginning. For information on changing your path check out the unix page or also here on changing the path in the bash shell. The bash shell is the shell by default for new users, so you may very well be using bash.
Now type in your iraf directory
% cl
and all should be working. IRAF is running on your Mac. However, most users will want X11 to get the full benefits of IRAF.