BuildingMakeMs
This page describes how to build the new version of the makems tool (repository version 7162 and later, note that repository path is now trunk/makems.) Earlier versions (repository path trunk/MakeMS) are described in BuildingOldMakeMs.
-
casacore
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The Boost.Preprocessor library (http://www.boost.org, Debian/Ubuntu packagage
libboost-dev). -
cmake 2.6 or higher
If you've built casacore and Timba, then you probably have all prerequisites installed (except possibly boost).
makems resides in a separate directory on our Subversion server. Check out as follows:
$ svn co svn://lofar9.astron.nl/var/svn/repos/trunk/makems
or (if you have a lofar9 account):
* ```
$ svn co svn+ssh://lofar9.astron.nl/var/svn/repos/trunk/makems
Refer to makems/README_build.txt. Here's a copy of the readme as of r7162, please check the file itself for more up-to-date information.
Prerequisites: a subset of the MeqTrees stuff (cmake 2.6, blitz, etc.)
The build, in a nutshell:
$ cd
-DUSE_LOG4CPLUS=OFF -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF ../..
$ make
The executable is then built as build/gnu_opt/CEP/MS/makems.
makems.pdf describes use of the tool (ignore the parts about building a distributed MS, as we compile without this capability.) In a nutshell, there is a makems.cfg file, and an ANTENNA table (referenced from that file.) For an example, go into MakeMS/examples, and run "makems makems.cfg". This will create an MS called test.MS_p0.
# Running makems
You need a file called `makems.cfg` in the current directory. This describes the various attributes of the MS. Examples are available under `makems/examples`.
You also need an ANTENNA table giving antenna positions (`makems.cfg` tells the tool which table to use). You can copy an ANTENNA table from any existing MS. Alternatively, you can create this table from scratch using the pyrap_tables interface -- I'm hoping someone will make a script for this and place it into the waterhole soon...
Note that `makems` can split MSs into chunks of time (see the `NParts` parameter in `makems.cfg`.) Even if you don't use this feature (NParts=1) and make only one MS, it is still going to be called `*.MS_p1` ('p1' stands for part 1), so you might want to rename it to `*.MS`.