[Difx-users] DiFX-2.5 released

[Adam Deller]

Dear difx-users,

After nearly 3 years of steady development, the DiFX Developers are happy
to roll out the next stable version of DiFX.  This version has gone through
extensive testing at several locations and is thought to be a very solid
release, building on an already highly successful DiFX 2.4 series. Thanks
to all who contributed code, documentation, testing, and funding for these
efforts.  Only the highlights are listed in the release notes below, while
numerous other new utilities and added functionality are identified in the
ChangeLog file that accompanies most DiFX modules.  Updated, but still
incomplete, documentation for DiFX can be found at the DiFX wiki:
https://www.atnf.csiro.au/vlbi/dokuwiki/doku.php/difx/start and the users
guide: https://www.atnf.csiro.au/vlbi/dokuwiki/lib/exe/fetch.php/
difx/difxuserguide.pdf

The source code can be obtained via SVN at: https://svn.atnf.csiro.au/difx
/master_tags/DiFX-2.5.1 .

The annual DiFX Developers and Users meeting will be held Oct 16 to 20 in
Bologna, Italy.  Information about this meeting can be found at
https://indico.ira.inaf.it/event/5/overview, and we hope to see many of you
there!  (If you're planning to attend and haven't yet registered, the
deadline was yesterday, so please make arrangements ASAP!)

Kind regards,
Adam on behalf of the DiFX developers

DiFX 2.5.1 Release Notes

Major new features
------------------
* Innitial support for correlating Mark6.  This is still much a work in
progress.
* Multiple datastreams per antenna supported via vex2difx
* New delay model program: difxcalc11.  No longer requires calcserver.
* Support for more than 6 days of EOP values.
* "Union mode" in difx2fits allows merging of correlation output that uses
different setups.  Some restrictions apply.  Designed for GMVA and
RadioAstron use.
* Improved VDIF support: wider range of bits/threads, support for
multi-channel, multi-thread VDIF, support for complex multi-thread VDIF
* Support for new VDIF Extended Data Version 4 which is useful for
multiplexed VDIF data.  See: http://vlbi.org/vdif/docs/edv4description.pdf
* Python bindings for vdifio and mark5access
* mpifxcorr: per-thread weights implemented
* Automatic selection of arraystride by mpifxcorr if set to zero; this is
done per-datastream.  Very useful for correlation of ALMA data or others
with non-standard sample rates.
* Automatic selection of xmacstride by mpifxcorr if set to zero
* Automatic selection of guardns by mpifxcorr if set to zero
* mpifxcorr can now operate with unicast messages instead of multicast.
Useful in some situations where multicast is not supported.
* New "dirlist" module/file directory listing format. * mk5cp append mode
to resume interrupted copy
* ALMA support in HOPS: non-power-of-two FFTs, up to 64 freq. channels,
full linear/circular/mixed polarization support
* HOPS improvemetns for VGOS through improved manual phase cal support
* New package: polconvert.  Used to post-correlation convert from linear to
circular polariations
* New package: autozoom.  Helps a user develop .v2d file content when
setting up complicated zoom band configurations.
* New package: datasim: generate baseband data suitable for simulated
correlation
* Improved error reporting in many places

Bug fixes
---------
* fix for incorrect reporting of memory use by mpifxcorr (needed longer int
sizes)
* dataweights would sometimes be incorrect after abrupt ending of data from
a datastream.
* FITS-IDI files produced by difx2fits more standards compliant; fix
problem that caused AIPS task VBGLU to fail.
* Several segfaults across a number of programs/utils now are caught and
provide useful feedback.

Caveats
-------
* Various changes made between DiFX 2.4 and 2.5 are not API-compatible.
Please don't mix packages from these two releases.  If you have non-DiFX
software that links against the DiFX libraries, be sure to recompile them.
A small number of changes may result in need to restructure such code.
* Unlike previous DiFX releases, each tagged version will be its own SVN
copy.  If the number of minor releases within the 2.5 series gets large,
some (reversible) pruning of the SVN repository may occur.  There has been
some debate about the best tagging strategy: bring any strong opinions to
the Bologna meeting, where further changes to release and tagging policies
can be discussed if needed.

-- 
!=============================================================!
Dr. Adam Deller
ARC Future Fellow, Senior Lecturer
Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing
Swinburne University of Technology
John St, Hawthorn VIC 3122 Australia
phone: +61 3 9214 5307
fax: +61 3 9214 8797

office days (usually): Mon-Thu
!=============================================================!
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