IRAF v2.11 is installed on all SunOs and Solaris platforms on both the HQ and summit networks. This version can read and write FITS-format images directly; no translation to IRAF .imh format is required.

1. The IRAF environment for all observer accounts is pre-created using a local script entitled lmkiraf. This script defines the home and imdir directories, the latter defaulted to the local scratch disk /h/scratch1 in the user's account subdirectory there. There are many other scratch disks available; see these instructions for more information. We recommend copying raw data from the instrument host data storage directory to a scratch disk before working on it; this can be accomplished automatically using the copymon utility, or manually via the cp command.

   Other environment details:

   1. The terminal type to use is xgterm. A login session under xgterm is available from the Login Sessions pulldown menu. A known xgterm release bug is inactive backspace, but this has been circumvented locally by including

      stty erase ^H

      in the account's .cshrc file.
   2. The printer variable for stdplot is automatically set to spool to the user's Unix PRINTER environment variable.
   3. The observer can use any one of the three common IRAF image display servers: Ximtool, SAOimage, or SAOtng. It is important to invoke the image display server from the OpenWindows pulldown menu in order to ensure that the imtool and IRAF can communicate. To do so, select the IRAF and IDL menu, then select IRAF, then release on the imtool of choice from the menu of options.

2. The best way to launch IRAF on the local host is by using the window manager's pulldown menu options under the IRAF and IDL item. This allows you to use any combination of command language (cl or ncl) and image display tool (SAOtng, Ximtool, or SAOimage).

   To run IRAF on a remote host, simply launch an xgterm window on that host, go to your IRAF home directory (cd ~/iraf), and type cl.

3. The image display tools SAOtng and Ximtool can be started from any login session. The old SAOimage can still be used, but may require editing your .local_iraf file as indicated in that file's comments. Please note that these tools do not display or run on 24-bit enabled displays.
4. The stsdas and tables external packages are also installed and loadable upon starting IRAF.