GNU Astronomy Utilities

The GNU Astronomy Utilities (Gnuastro) is an official GNU package consisting of separate programs for the manipulation and analysis of astronomical data. All the various utilities share the same basic command line user interface for the comfort of both the users and developers. GNU Astronomy Utilities is written to comply fully with the GNU coding standards so it integrates finely with the GNU/Linux operating system. This also enables astronomers to expect a fully familiar experience in the source code, building, installing and command line user interaction that they have seen in all the other GNU software that they use.

For starters

In case you are new to Gnuastro, you might find these links useful:

Quick start: To install Gnuastro.
List of GNU Astronomy Utilities: For a complete list of utilities.
Tutorials: for entertaining and easy to read real world examples of using Gnuastro.

Downloading GNU Astronomy Utilities

We are working hard on the first release of the source code as soon as possible. To be informed when it is released (and keep up to date with all future Gnuastro announcements), please subscribe to info-gnuastro. The documentation (manual) is ready and available.

Gnuastro can be found on the main GNU ftp server: (not yet activated)http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/ (via HTTP) and (not yet activated)ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/ (via FTP). It can also be found on the GNU mirrors; please (not yet activated)use a mirror if possible.

Documentation

Documentation (manual) for Gnuastro is available online in various formats, as is documentation for most GNU software. After installing Gnuastro, you can access the documentation for the full package or individual programs on the command line, in Info format, by running any of the top three commands below for varying levels of generality (the name in the top three is not case sensitive):

info gnuastro: To view the complete GNU Astronomy Utilities manual.
info ProgramName: To view the complete section about ProgramName. For example info NoiseChisel or info ImageCrop.
info astprogname: To only view the "Invoking ProgramName" sub-section of the manual. Each program has this subsection which explains the input(s), output(s) and command line options for that particular program. For example info astnoisechisel or info astimgcrop.
astprogname --help: A description and full list of options (classified by context) for this program will be printed.
man astprogname: A man page listing the options and arguments of this program.

Mailing lists

Gnuastro has the following mailing lists:

bug-gnuastro is used to discuss most aspects of Gnuastro, including development and enhancement requests, as well as bug reports.
help-gnuastro is for general user help and discussion.
info-gnuastro is for announcements made by Gnuastro developers for the user community.

Security reports that should not be made immediately public can be sent directly to the maintainer. If there is no response to an urgent issue, you can escalate to the general security mailing list for advice.

Getting involved

Development of GNU Astronomy Utilities, and GNU in general, is a volunteer effort, and you can contribute. For information, please read How to help GNU. If you'd like to get involved, it's a good idea to join the discussion mailing list (see above).

Test releases: Trying the latest test release (when available) is always appreciated. Test releases of Gnuastro can be found at http://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/ (via HTTP) and ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/ (via FTP).
Development: GNU Astronomy Utilities is still under active development. So if you are interested, please have a look at the Developing chapter of the documentation and start hacking into Gnuastro or even write your own utility within it. If you feel you want to share your work as an official section of Gnuastro, please contact the maintainer (below). For development sources, bug trackers, task trackers (planned features to be added), and other information, please see the Gnuastro project page at savannah.gnu.org. The trackers can be a good starting point if you want to get involved in the coding.
Maintainer: GNU Astronomy Utilities is created and maintained by Mohammad Akhlaghi <akhlaghi::at::gnu.org>. Please use the mailing lists for contact.

Licensing

GNU Astronomy Utilities (Gnuastro) is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.