LIGOtools Package: guild

This package contains a single utility, guild, which is primarily a graphical user interface to the LDAS metadata database, helping the user to construct database queries and displaying the results. It can also be used to retrieve small amounts of "recent" (last 24 hours or so) frame data from the observatories, making use of the LDAS frameAPI. It also has a graphical interface to submit any LDAS job, and a nifty "time converter" utility to convert back and forth between GPS seconds and date/time strings.

Author: Peter Shawhan

Version 3.31.0

Release date: March 14, 2004

Frequently Asked Questions related to this package

Notes

guild is a program that is included in LIGOtools, but also can be used without LIGOtools. The LIGOtools version of guild relies on the LIGOtools 'tclexe' package. There is also a script version, guild.tcl, which should run on any system (Unix, Windows, Macintosh) on which Tcl/Tk version 8.3 or later has been installed. Finally, there is a standalone version of guild (requiring neither LIGOtools nor Tcl/Tk) for Windows. See the bottom of this page to download the script or Windows standalone version.
If using guild for the first time, read the note about Getting Started.
Some tables in the LDAS database have never been put into active use.
When submitting your first query, guild may prompt you for your LDAS username and password (NOT your Unix username and password). However, if you have run the ldaspw utility, then guild will read your username and password out of the file written by that utility.
guild can retrieve frame data from LDAS, including from the SAM-QFS archive attached to the CIT LDAS system. (It cannot retrieve data from the older hpss archive at Caltech.) You can request entire frames or selected channels. Remember that network bandwidth from LHO/LLO to the outside world is limited, so do not ask for too much data!

Documentation

If using guild for the first time, read the note about Getting Started.
Several guild windows have "Help" buttons which bring up on-screen help. Here are the contents of the on-screen help windows as html:
Database table design document (a bit outdated).

LIGOtools distribution file

Normally, you should use the ligotools_update utility to download and install new packages or new versions of existing packages, since it automatically figures out what packages need to be updated. However, if you wish to do so manually, then click on the name of the appropriate distribution file (below) with the right mouse button and choose "Save Link As..." from the popup menu. Note that you must save it on your disk with exactly the same name as it has on this web site. After the file has been downloaded, do:
ligotools_install <file>
where <file> is the file which was downloaded. This procedure will be quicker if the environment variable LIGOTOOLS is set to the main LIGOtools directory.

LIGOtools package distribution (for all operating systems): guild_3.31.0_ALL.tar.gz (161 kb)

Non-LIGOtools versions

Script version, for use without LIGOtools (requires Tcl/Tk 8.3 or later): guild.tcl (714 kb)
Standalone executable for Windows (a somewhat older base version, but virtually all newer functionality is provided via automatic web-patching): guild.exe (1285 kb)