Configuring the ORAC-DR environment

ORAC-DR uses environment variables to configure the global behaviour of the data reduction pipeline. Environment variables specify the input and output directories, the instrument type and the recipe/primitive locations. In general these variables are set by the start up script.

The following variables are used by the pipeline:

ORAC_DIR

This is the location of the ORAC-DR software. At the JAC this will be /jcmt_sw/oracdr. This variable is set as part of the Starlink login.

ORAC_PERL5LIB

This is the location of the ORAC perl libraries. It should be set to ${ORAC_DIR}/lib/perl5 This variable is set as part of the Starlink login.

ORAC_INSTRUMENT

This environment variable is used to inform ORAC-DR of the instrument that is to be used by the pipeline. This configures the primitive and recipe directories, file-naming conventions and other instrument specific options. In order to process SCUBA data this environment variable should be set to `SCUBA'. This is set by the oracdr_scuba command.

ORAC_DATA_CAL

This variable should point to the directory containing the calibration information. In SCUBA's case these are the files that determine the rules that should be used for choosing skydip taus or gains. This is set by the oracdr_scuba command. At JAC this should be set to /jcmt_sw/oracdr_cal/.

ORAC_DATA_IN

This is the directory containing the raw data files. It is equivalent to the DATADIR environment variable used by the SURF software. Currently ORAC-DR must use raw data - partially processed data can not be pipelined. At the telescope this is usually set to /jcmtarchive/YYYYMMDD/. The SURF command scusetenv can be used to set this variable automatically (with no argument the current UT is assumed; an argument is assumed to be the requested UT date). This is set by the oracdr_scuba command.

ORAC_DATA_OUT

This is the directory used for writing output data. Data files are written to this directory rather than to the current directory. Reduced groups are stored in files of the form YYYYMMDD_grp_NNNN_sub.sdf where NNNN is the observation number and sub is the sub-instrument name (e.g. long, short...) This directory will contain the display definition file (disp.dat) and the skydip and gain index files. The oracdr_scuba command sets this value to the current directory. This directory should be on a local disk if at all possible.