Frequently asked questions

Q: I start vdat and I get an error finishing with:

vdat.config.core.ConfigurationError: The file 'vdat_setting.cfg' does not exist

A: VDAT needs some configuration file to run. You can retrieve them with the vdat_config copy command. See Use VDAT: how to for more information

Q: When running vdat I see the following warning:

UserWarning: 'CUREBIN' environment variable is not set. If the 'curebin'
option in the configuration file is set to interpolate from 'curebin_env',
all the vdat commands requiring cure binaries will fail.

What is CUREBIN/cure and why do I need it?

A: cure is a library of programs used to reduce HETDEX data. Most of the commands shipped with VDAT use some cure executable. CUREBIN is an environment variable pointing to the cure binaries. See ltl and cure for instructions.

Q: It tells me there’s no raw or redux directory.

A: you probably refers to this error:

2016-06-01 11:47:39,101 CRITICAL Neither the raw directory '['/path/to/raw']' nor the redux directory '/path/to/redux' exist. This is a problem. Aborting.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/[...]/bin/vdat", line 9, in <module>
    load_entry_point('vdat', 'gui_scripts', 'vdat')()
File "/[...]/vdat/libvdat/vdat.py", line 115, in main
    vdatlink.symlink("start symlinking the redux directory")
File "/[...]/vdat/libvdat/symlink.py", line 71, in symlink
    raise vutil.VDATDirError("The raw and redux directories cannot be"
vdat.utilities.VDATDirError: The raw and redux directories cannot be found: VDAT cannot run.

VDAT needs data to run. If it’s the first time you run it you need to specify one or more directories containing the raw data, as explained in Use VDAT: how to. Once you have ingested the data, VDAT reloads them and it is not necessary anymore to provide the raw directory.

Q Why I get “vdat: cannot connect to X server” or “DISPLAY NOT SET” when I run VDAT?

A: VDAT has a GUI based on Qt technologies and requires a working graphical environment. If you are running it on a remote computer via ssh, make sure that you enable X11 forwarding with the -X option.