[fitsbits] Fits recognition

Hi to all,

how to know programmatically if a fit/fits extension file is a true fit
file?

Thanks, Emiliano

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007, eggpap wrote:

how to know programmatically if a fit/fits extension file is a true
fit file?

Do not understand exactly your question :

- if you mean if a FITS extension (extension HDU, other than
primary HDU) can be considered as or extracted into a standalone FITS
file, this is generally not true, some form of minimal primary
header, with no primary array, will be required anyhow

- if you mean that the extraction of the extension HDU with minimal
header massaging instead of adding a minimal primary header, this
is true for IMAGE (or IUEIMAGE) extensions. They can be very easily
turned in standalone FITS files (replacing the XTENSION keyword with
a SIMPLE keyword)

any other kind of extension REQUIRES the presence of a primary HDU
with no data array

- if you mean just testing that a generic FITS file is well formatted,
you'd need to run a verifier program like fverify


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