ERROR: Cannot open connected subprocess (./x_system.e)

irafn00b wrote on May 07, 2009

I have a few problems after following installation instructions found on http://geco.phys.columbia.edu/~rubab/iraf/iraf_step_by_step_installation

:~/projects/iraf contains my login.cl and it is where I performed mkiraf

:~/projects/iraf$ ecl
setting terminal type to xgterm...
timeout - terminal type set wrong? (`stty termtype' to reset)
ERROR: Cannot open connected subprocess (./x_system.e)
     called as: `prcache (directory)'
     called as: `cl ()'
     called as: `cl ()'
Error while reading login.cl file - may need to rebuild with mkiraf
Fatal startup error.  CL dies.

I went up one directory, and performed the same command, it worked but there were errors:

:~/projects/$ ecl
Warning: no login.cl found in login directory
      ace         dimsum      guiapps     mxtools     plot        system
      color       fitsutil    images      nlocal      proto       tables
      ctio        fuzzy       language    nmisc       softools    utilities
      dataio      gemini      lists       noao        spectime    vol
      dbms        gmisc       mscred      obsolete    stsdas      websvc
ecl> dataio
      bintxt      mtexamine   rfits       txtbin      wtextimage  
      export      rcardimage  rtextimage  wcardimage  
      import      reblock     t2d         wfits      
 
ecl> ace
ERROR: task `ace' has no param file
ecl> color
ERROR: task `color' has no param file
ecl> ctio
ERROR: task `ctio' has no param file
ecl> dataio
      bintxt      mtexamine   rfits       txtbin      wtextimage  
      export      rcardimage  rtextimage  wcardimage  
      import      reblock     t2d         wfits       

dataio> import
ERROR: Cannot open connected subprocess (./x_dataio.e)
dataio> 

Any ideas what might be wrong?

---

Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on May 07, 2009

The message generically means the binary couldn't be found. This is usually a problem in the definition of the $iraf path (which should always be defined with a trailing '/'). The x_system.e should be in the same directory as the CL binary which is obviously being found, but you're the second Ubuntu user this week to report a problem,

Any chance this is a 64-bit system? If you login without the login.cl file, what is the result of

cl> show iraf arch                     # note two variable names
cl> =osfn("bin$")

I would expect the first command to return "/iraf/iraf/" and ".linux", and the second to print "/iraf/iraf/bin.linux/". On 64-bit systems it's sometimes possible that the filesystem inode is a 64-bit value and causes problems in that the iraf kernel doesn't "see" the file.

-Mike

---

irafn00b wrote on May 07, 2009

I see the similar error reported by epud, and I've pasted the $iraf/unix/hlib/sysinfo script output on pastebin since it would make for a terribly long post otherwise:

http://pastebin.com/f30ea4d8e

Here are the commands you asked for me to execute:

:~$ su - iraf  #logging in without the cl file
Password: 

% show iraf arch 
show: Command not found.

% =osfn("bin$")
Illegal variable name.

And for kicks:

$ locate x_system.e
/iraf/iraf/unix/bin.linux/x_system.e
/iraf/irafbin/bin.linux/x_system.e
$ cd /iraf/iraf/unix/bin.linux/
$ ./x_system.e 
> 

So, executing the binary seems to not be a problem. Also of note, this isn't a 64 bit machine.

---

Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on May 07, 2009

Here are the commands you asked for me to execute:

% show iraf arch
show: Command not found.
% =osfn("bin$")
Illegal variable name.

Could you please run these under the CL and post the results? Earlier, you were able to login to the CL from a directory with no login.cl file, I need you
to repeat that.

-Mike
[/quote]

---

irafn00b wrote on May 07, 2009

:~/projects/$ ecl
Warning: no login.cl found in login directory
      ace         dimsum      guiapps     mxtools     plot        system
      color       fitsutil    images      nlocal      proto       tables
      ctio        fuzzy       language    nmisc       softools    utilities
      dataio      gemini      lists       noao        spectime    vol
      dbms        gmisc       mscred      obsolete    stsdas      websvc

ecl> show iraf arch
/iraf/iraf/
ERROR: No such environment variable
     called as: `show (iraf, arch)'
ecl> -osfn("bin$")
**: -osfn("bin$")
          ^
ERROR: syntax error
ecl> 

---

Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on May 07, 2009

The 'arch' variable isn't defined and I looked at the installation instructions you followed and if you indeed installed V2.13 then I think you're seeing a known bug in the CL startup script. To fix it you can either download http://iraf.net/ftp/pub/cl.csh and copy it to the $iraf/unix/hlib directory, or a better solution would be to install the more recent V2.14.

-Mike

---

irafn00b wrote on May 07, 2009

Retried the installation process and it works, I think that maybe I was ownership of files during installation affected the last installation. I only used sudo when I didn't have privileges to do what an isntruction said.

Something that happened last time and happened again which concerns me:

% python python/compileall.py ./python/*
Listing ./python/acs ...
Listing ./python/acs/axe ...
Listing ./python/acs/axe/asciidata ...
Listing ./python/acs/axe/axesrc ...
Listing ./python/acs/axe/lib ...
Listing ./python/acs/calacs ...
Listing ./python/acs/calacs/acs2d ...
Listing ./python/acs/calacs/acsccd ...
Listing ./python/acs/calacs/acsrej ...
Listing ./python/acs/calacs/acssum ...
Listing ./python/acs/calacs/calacs ...
Listing ./python/acs/calacs/lib ...
Listing ./python/acs/doc ...
Listing ./python/axe ...
Listing ./python/axe/asciidata ...
Listing ./python/axe/axesrc ...
Listing ./python/axe/lib ...
Listing ./python/compileall.py ...
Can't list ./python/compileall.py
Listing ./python/compileall.pyc ...
Can't list ./python/compileall.pyc
Listing ./python/print_asn.py ...
Can't list ./python/print_asn.py
Listing ./python/print_asn.pyc ...
Can't list ./python/print_asn.pyc
Listing ./python/rnlincor.py ...
Can't list ./python/rnlincor.py
Listing ./python/rnlincor.pyc ...
Can't list ./python/rnlincor.pyc
Listing ./python/sexcatalog.py ...
Can't list ./python/sexcatalog.py
Listing ./python/sexcatalog.pyc ...
Can't list ./python/sexcatalog.pyc
Listing ./python/sextractor.py ...
Can't list ./python/sextractor.py
Listing ./python/sextractor.pyc ...
Can't list ./python/sextractor.pyc
Listing ./python/tran.py ...
Can't list ./python/tran.py
Listing ./python/tran.pyc ...
Can't list ./python/tran.pyc
Listing ./python/tweak.py ...
Can't list ./python/tweak.py
Listing ./python/tweak.pyc ...
Can't list ./python/tweak.pyc

---

Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on May 07, 2009

I rebuilt the as.pcix.gen distribution file for v2.13-BETA2 after the last post, so it would have included the patched hlib$cl.csh script and may explain why things are working.

I haven't got a clue about the python compilation problem, check the Pyraf installation doc again or you can contact the STScI helpdesk at help@stsci.edu

-Mike

---

Last post on May 07, 2009