Backup and Restore

DS9 now supports Backup and Restore. When a backup is invoked, DS9 will save in a backup save set all files needed to restore DS9 to that state, including geometry, data files, colormaps, catalogs, contours, and regions.

If the user specifies -title Foo, DS9 will use .Foo.bck for automatic backups.

Backup Save Set

A backup save set consists of a text file, called a backup script, and an optional directory, which will contain auxiliary data files needed to restore DS9 to a previous state. The backup file and the auxiliary directory may be moved across file systems, or even platforms, but must remain together in the same directory.

Image data files

By default, all data image files are saved within the backup save set. However, the user has the option, via the Preferences, to save only an absolute pathname to the data file, and not the data file itself. This option will dramatically reduce the size of a backup save set, but will restrict the usage to a particular file system and platform.

Image files that have been loaded into DS9 via XPA, SAMP, or from a URL will always be saved into the save set.

Caveats

There are several caveats in the usage of Backup and Restore. In particular:

Currently, there is no support for masks.
External Analysis menus will not be saved.
Plot Tool windows will not be saved.
IIS frames (IRAF) will not be saved.
SAMP and XPA sessions will not be saved.

And finally, if the image data has been loaded into DS9 via XPA, SAMP, or from a URL, the following complex load operations are not supported:

Open Mosaic IRAF Image
Open Mosaic IRAF Segment Open Mosaic WCS Image
Open Mosaic WCS Segment Open Mosaic WFPC2 Open RGB Fits Image Open RGB Fits Cube Open RGB Array Open Multi Ext Data Cube Open Multi Ext Multiple Frames