Institut für Astronomie und AstrophysikAbteilung AstronomieSand 1, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany |
MRD_HREAD
Reads a FITS header from an opened disk file or Unix pipe
Like FXHREAD but also works with compressed Unix files
MRD_HREAD, UNIT, HEADER [, STATUS, /SILENT ]
UNIT = Logical unit number of an open FITS file
HEADER = String array containing the FITS header.
STATUS = Condition code giving the status of the read. Normally, this is zero, but is set to -1 if an error occurs, or if the first byte of the header is zero (ASCII null).
/SILENT - If set, then warning messages about any invalid characters in the header are suppressed. /FIRSTBLOCK - If set, then only the first block (36 lines or less) of the FITS header are read into the output variable. If only size information (e.g. BITPIX, NAXIS) is needed from the header, then the use of this keyword can save time. The file pointer is still positioned at the end of the header, even if the /FIRSTBLOCK keyword is supplied.
The file must already be positioned at the start of the header. It must be a proper FITS file.
The file ends by being positioned at the end of the FITS header, unless an error occurs.
Written, Thomas McGlynn August 1995 Modified, Thomas McGlynn January 1996 Changed MRD_HREAD to handle Headers which have null characters A warning message is printed out but the program continues. Previously MRD_HREAD would fail if the null characters were not in the last 2880 byte block of the header. Note that such characters are illegal in the header but frequently are produced by poor FITS writers. Converted to IDL V5.0 W. Landsman September 1997 Added /SILENT keyword W. Landsman December 2000 Added /FIRSTBLOCK keyword W. Landsman February 2003
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