Configuration options

GAIA has many options that can be defined when starting it up. These are best set using the Startup options... window located in the File menu, but you also define these on the command-line:

option	Meaning
-autoscale	Auto scale image to fit window (disables zoom)
-autofit	Auto fit new images to window
-always_merge	Merge primary and extension headers
-blank_color	Colour for blank pixels
-catalog	Open windows for the given catalogs on startup
-check_for_cubes	Check input files to see if they are cubes (1)
-component	NDF component to display on startup
-component	The NDF component (data, variance or quality)
-default_cmap	Change the default colour map
-demo_mode	Make the demo toolbox available
-extended_precision	Show milliarcsecond readout precision
-float_panel	Detach the control panel
-focus_follows_mouse	Image and entry focus follows mouse pointer
-force_degrees	Display decimal degrees in main window readout
-font_scale	A scale for non-pixel display fonts
-geometry	A geometry for the main window
-ident	A string to add to the window titles
-interop_menu	Reveal the Interop menu for SAMP interactions
-image_background	Colour for the background of the main image
-isize	Search box for centroiding (9)
-linear_cartesian	Assume CAR projections are a linear mapping
-maxshift	Maximum shift when centroiding (5.5)
-pick_zoom_factor	Default scale factor used in pick object window
-pixel_indices	Display NDF pixel indices as X,Y
-quiet_exit	Issue a warning before exiting GAIA (0)
-show_hdu_chooser	Automatically show the HDU chooser
-transient_tools	Make toolboxes transient
-transient_spectralplot	Make spectral plot window transient
-visual	X visual (pseudocolor, truecolor, visual id)
-with_colorramp	Display a colour ramp
-with_pan_window	Display a pan window
-with_zoom_window	Display a zoom window

The full list of options can be seen using the --help option.

So for instance if you wanted to float the control panel (useful for smaller displays) and have a grey default colourmap. Then start using the command:

% gaia image_name -default_cmap ramp -float_panel 1

The colour maps available can be found by listing the $STARLINK_DIR/bin/gaia/colormaps directory. Or alternatively to save some space without floating the panel try:

% gaia image_name -with_zoom_window 0 -with_pan_window 0

(1 means true and 0 false).

If you'd like the toolboxes to remain on top of the display window they are associated with then set the transient_tools option to 1 (the precise behaviour you get depends on your window manager¹).

If you prefer to point at the image and text entry fields before using the keyboard, rather than having to click in them first, then use the command:

% gaia image_name -focus_follows_mouse 1

Some additional configuration options are only available using environment variables. The most useful of these is the GAIA_TEMP_DIR variable, that defines a directory that will be used for writing most temporary files. The default is to write these into the current directory which can be a problem when working on read-only data.