GNU Astronomy Utilities NEWS                          -*- outline -*-


* Noteworthy changes in release 0.5 (library 3.0.0) (2017-12-22) [stable]

** New features

  Manual/Book: An extended tutorial is added showing some general
  applications of almost all the programs. This may be a good place to get
  a feeling of how Gnuastro is intended to be used and some of the
  programs.

  New Program and library: Match is a new program that will match two given
  inputs (currently catalogs). Its output is the re-arranged inputs with
  the same number of rows/records such that all the rows match. The main
  work is also done with the new low-level `gal_match_catalog' library
  function which can also be used in more generic contexts.

  All programs: a value of `0' to the `--numthreads' option will use the
  number of threads available to the system at run time.

  Arithmetic: The new operators `filter-median' and `filter-mean' can be
  used to filter (smooth) the input. The size of the filter can be set as
  the other operands to these operators.

  BuildProgram: The new `--la' option allows the identification of a
  different Libtool `.la' file for Libtool linking information.

  BuildProgram: The new `--deletecompiled' option will delete the compiled
  program after running it.

  CosmicCalculator: all the various cosmological calculations can now be
  requested individually in one line with a specific option added for each
  calculation (for example `--age' or `--luminositydist' for the age of the
  universe at a given redshift or the luminosity distance). Therefore the
  old `--onlyvolume' and `--onlyabsmagconv' options are now removed. To
  effectively use these new features, please review the "Invoking
  CosmicCalculator" section of the book.

  Fits: when an extension/HDU is identified on the command-line with the
  `--hdu' option and no operation is requested, the full list of header
  keywords in that HDU will be printed (as if only `--printallkeys' was
  called).

  MakeCatalog: physical nature agnostic WCS column names. Previously the
  first WCS axis was always assumed to be RA and the second DEC. So for
  example even if you had a spectrum (with X and wavelength as the two WCS
  dimensions), you would have to ask for `--ra' and `--dec'. The new `--w1'
  and `--w2' options are now generic and don't assume any particular type
  only their order in the FITS header. MakeCatalog now also uses the CTYPE
  and CUNIT keywords to set the names and units of its output columns. The
  `--ra' and `--dec' options are now just internal aliases for `--w1' or
  `--w2' which will be determined based on the input's CTYPE keyword. Also
  the new `--geow1', `--geow2', `--clumpsw1', `--clumpsw2',
  `--clumpsgeow1', `--clumpsgeow2' options replace the old options
  `--geora', `--geodec', `--clumpsra', `--clumpsdec', `--clumpsgeora',
  `--clumpsgeodec'. No alias is currently defined for the latter group.

  MakeCatalog: the new `--uprange' option allows you to specify a range for
  the random values around each object. This is useful when the noise
  properties of the dataset vary gradually and sampling from the whole
  dataset might produce biased results.

  NoiseChisel: with the new `--convolved' and `--convolvedhdu' options,
  NoiseChisel will not convolve the input any more and use the given
  dataset instead. In many cases, as the inputs get larger, convolution is
  the most time consuming step of NoiseChisel. With this option, you can
  greatly speed up your tests (to find the best parameters by varying them,
  for a given analysis). See the book for more information and examples.

  NoiseChisel: with the new `--widekernel' option it is now possible to use
  a wider kernel to identify which tiles contain signal. The rest of the
  steps (identifying the quantile threshold on the selected tiles and etc)
  are done on the dataset convolved with `--kernel' as they were
  before. Since it is time consuming, this is an optional feature.

  NoiseChisel: with the new `--qthreshtilequant' option, it is now possible
  to discard high-valued (outlier) tiles before estimating qthresh over the
  whole image. This can be useful in detecting very large diffuse/flat
  regions that would otherwise be detected as background (and effectively
  removed).

  NoiseChisel: the finally selected true detections are now grown based on
  signal contiguity, not by blind dilation. The growth process is the same
  as the growing of clumps to define objects. Only for true detections, the
  growth occurs in the noise. You can configure this growth with the
  `--detgrowquant' and `--detgrowmaxholesize'. With this new feature it is
  now possible to detect signal out to much lower surface brightness limits
  and the detections don't look boxy any more.

  Cosmology library: A new set of cosmology functions are now included in
  the library (declared in `gnuastro/cosmology.h'). These functions are
  also used in the CosmicCalculator program.

  `gal_table_read' can now return the number of columns matched with each
  input column (for example with regular expressions), a new argument has
  been added to allow this feature.

  `gal_fits_key_img_blank': returns the value that must be used in the
  BLANK keyword for the given type as defined by the FITS standard.

  `gal_txt_write' and `gal_fits_tab_write' now accept an extension name as
  argument to allow a name for the FITS extension they write.

  `gal_box_bound_ellipse_extent' will return the maximum extent of an
  ellipse along each axis from the ellipse center in floating point.

** Removed features

  Installation: The `--enable-bin-op-*' configuration options that were
  introduced in Gnuastro 0.3 have been removed. By managing the arithmetic
  functions in a better manner (a separate source file for each operator),
  compilation for all types (when done in parallel) takes about the same
  time as it took with the default (only four) types until now.

  MakeCatalog: `--zeropoint' option doesn't have a short option name any
  more. Previously it was `-z' which was confusing because `-x' and `-y'
  were used to refer to image coordinate positions.

  NoiseChisel: The `--dilate' and `--dilatengb' options have been
  removed. Growing of true detections is no longer done through dilation
  but through the `--detgrowquant' and `--detgrowmaxholesize' options (see
  above).

** Changed features

  CosmicCalculator: The redshift is no longer mandatory. When no redshift
  is given, it will only print the input parameters (cosmology) and abort.

  MakeCatalog: when the output is a FITS file, the two object and clumps
  catalogs will be stored as multiple extensions of a single file. Until
  now, two separate FITS files would be created. Plain text outputs are the
  same as before (two files will be created).

  `gal_binary_fill_holes' now accepts a `connectivity' and `maxsize'
  argument to specify the connectivity of the holes and the maximum size of
  acceptable holes to fill.

  `gal_fits_img_read' and `gal_fits_img_read_to_type' now also read the WCS
  structure of the extension/HDU in a FITS file and have two extra
  arguments: `hstartwcs' and `hendwcs'. With these options it is possible
  to limit the range of header keywords to read the WCS, similar to how
  they are used in `gal_wcs_read'.

  `gal_txt_write', `gal_table_write_log', `gal_fits_tab_write' and
  `gal_txt_write' don't have the `dontdelete' argument any more. The action
  they take if the file already exists depends on the file: for FITS, a new
  extension will be added and for text, they will abort with an error.

  `gal_tile_block_write_const_value' and `gal_tile_full_values_write' now
  accept a new `withblank' option to set all pixels that are blank in the
  tile's block to be blank in the check image.

  `gal_wcs_pixel_area_arcsec2' will return NaN (instead of aborting) when
  input is unreasonable (not two dimensions or not in units of degrees).

  `gal_wcs_world_to_img' and `gal_wcs_img_to_world': Until now, these two
  WCS conversion functions would explicitly assume RA and Dec and work
  based on input arrays (so for example it was also necessary to give the
  number of elements and etc). They now accept `gal_data_t' as input for
  the input coordinates, thus their API has been greatly simplified and
  their functionality increased.

** Bug fixes

  ConvertType crash when changing values (bug #52010).

  Arithmetic not accounting for integer blank pixels in binary operators
  (bug #52014).

  NoiseChisel segfault when memory mapping to a file (bug #52043).

  CFITSIO 3.42 and libcurl crash at Gnuastro configure time (bug #52152).

  MakeCatalog crash in upper-limit with full size label (bug #52281).

  NoiseChisel leaving unlabeled regions after clump growth (bug #52327).

  Arithmetic crash with no input tokens (bug #52422).

  Libtool checks only in non-current directory (bug #52427).





* Noteworthy changes in release 0.4 (library 2.0.0) (2017-09-13) [stable]

** New features

  All programs: `.fit' is now a recognized FITS file suffix.

  All programs: ASCII text files (tables) created with CRLF line
  terminators (for example text files created in MS Windows) are now also
  readable as input when necessary.

  Arithmetic: now has a new `--globalhdu' (`-g') option which can be used
  once for all the input images.

  MakeNoise: with the new `--sigma' (`-s') option, it is now possible to
  directly request the noise sigma or standard deviation. When this option
  is called, the `--background', `--zeropoint' and other option values will
  be ignored.

  MakeProfiles: the new `--kernel' option can make a kernel image without
  the need to define a catalog. With this option, a catalog (or
  accompanying background image) must not be given.

  MakeProfiles: the new `--pc', `--cunit' and `--ctype' options can be used
  to specify the PC matrix, CUNIT and CTYPE world coordinate system
  keywords of the output FITS file.

  MakeProfiles: the new `distance' profile will save the radial distance of
  each pixel. This may be used to define your own profiles that are not
  currently supported in MakeProfiles.

  MakeProfiles: with the new `--mcolisbrightness' ("mcol-is-brightness")
  option, the `--mcol' values of the catalog will be interpretted as total
  brightness (sum of pixel values), not magnitude.

  NoiseChisel: with the new `--dilatengb' option, it is now possible to
  identify the connectivity of the final dilation.

  Library: Functions that read data from an ASCII text file
  (`gal_txt_table_info', `gal_txt_table_read', `gal_txt_image_read') now
  also operate on files with CRLF line terminators.

** Removed features

** Changed features

  Crop: The new `--center' option is now used to define the center of a
  single crop. Hence the old `--ra', `--dec', `--xc', `--yc' have been
  removed. This new option can take multiple values (one value for each
  dimension). Fractions are also acceptable.

  Crop: The new `--width' option is now used to define the width of a
  single crop. Hence the old `--iwidth', `--wwidth' were removed. The units
  to interpret the value to the option are specified by the `--mode'
  option. With the new `--width' option it is also possible to define a
  non-square crop (different widths along each dimension). In WCS mode, its
  units are no longer arcseconds but are the same units of the WCS (degrees
  for angles). `--width' can also accept fractions. So to set a width of 5
  arcseconds, you can give it a value of `5/3600' for the angular
  dimensions.

  Crop: The new `--coordcol' option is now used to determine the catalog
  columns that define coordinates. Hence the old `--racol', `--deccol',
  `--xcol', and `--ycol' have been removed. This new option can be called
  multiple times and the order of its calling will be used for the column
  containing the center in the respective dimension (in FITS format).

  MakeNoise: the old `--stdadd' (`-s') option has been renamed to
  `--instrumental' (`-i') to be more clear.

  MakeProfiles: The new `--naxis' and `--shift' options can take multiple
  values for each dimension (separated by a comma). This replaces the old
  `--naxis1', `--naxis2' and `--xshift' and `--yshift' options.

  MakeProfiles: The new `--ccol' option can take the center coordinate
  columns of the catalog (in multiple calls) and the new `--mode' option is
  used to identify what standard to interpret them in (image or
  WCS). Together, these replace the old `--xcol', `--ycol', `--racol' and
  `--deccol'.

  MakeProfiles: The new `--crpix', `--crval' and `--cdelt' options now
  accept multiple values separated by a comma. So they replace the old
  `--crpix1', `--crpix2', `--crval1', `--crval2' and `--resolution'
  options.

  `gal_data_free_contents': when the input `gal_data_t' is a tile, its
  `array' element will not be freed. This enables safe usage of this
  function (and thus `gal_data_free') on tiles without worrying about the
  memory block associated with the tile.

  `gal_box_bound_ellipse' is the new name for the old
  `gal_box_ellipse_in_box' (to be more clear and avoid repetition of the
  term `box'). The input position angle is now also in degrees, not
  radians.

  `gal_box_overlap' now works on data of any dimensionality and thus also
  needs the number of dimensions (elements in each input array).

  `gal_box_border_from_center' now accepts an array of coordinates as one
  argument and the number of dimensions as another. This allows it to work
  on any dimensionality.

  `gal_fits_img_info' now also returns the name and units of the dataset
  (if they aren't NULL). So it takes two extra arguments.

  `gal_wcs_pixel_scale' now replaces the old `gal_wcs_pixel_scale_deg',
  since it doesn't only apply to degrees. The pixel scale units are defined
  by the units of the WCS.

  `GAL_TILE_PARSE_OPERATE' (only when `OTHER' is given) can now parse and
  operate on different datasets independent of the size of allocated block
  of memory (the tile sizes of `IN' and `OTHER' have to be identical, but
  not their allocated blocks of memory). Until now, it was necessary for
  the two blocks to have the same size and this is no longer the case.

** Bug fixes

  MakeProfiles long options on 32bit big endian systems (bug #51341).

  Pure rotation around pixel coordinate (0,0) (bug #51353).

  NoiseChisel segfault when no usable region for sky clumps (bug #51372).

  Pixel scale measurement when dimension scale isn't equal or doesn't
  decrease (bug #51385).

  Improper types for function code in MakeProfiles (bug #51467).

  Crashes on 32-bit and big-endian systems (bug #51476).

  Warp's align matrix when second dimension must be reversed (bug #51536).

  Reading BZERO for unsigned 64-bit integers (bug #51555).

  Arithmetic with one file and no operators (bug #51559).

  NoiseChisel segfault when detection contains no clumps (bug #51906).

  Correct size checking when allocating gal_data_t (bug #52544).



* Noteworthy changes in release 0.3 (library 1.0.0) (2017-06-01) [stable]

  This is a full re-write of Gnuastro. Most importantly, Gnuastro now has a
  new generic data container (`gal_data_t'). This new container can now
  deal natively with all standard numeric data types, work in RAM or
  HDD/SSD, keep data in any dimensions and has enabled many other very
  useful features. Some of the most prominent of the new features are
  discussed below. It is strongly recommended to review the respective
  section of the Gnuastro manual/book for a better feeling of all the new
  features.

  As discussed below, some program names have changed, if you have a
  previous version of Gnuastro installed from source, it is recommended to
  uninstall it first (with `make uninstall' using the corresponding
  tarball), then install this new version. Building Gnuastro can be slow,
  so please build in parallel with Make's `-j8' option (to build on 8
  threads).

** New programs or library features

  Library functions that deal with datasets now use this generic data
  container for inputs and outputs, significantly simplifying their
  API. Nearly all library functions have been re-written with much more
  clear names, argument lists and individual purpose. Some example library
  functions are shown below, also see the "Library demos" section of the
  book for some complete working example:

     -- `gal_table_read' and `gal_table_write' will read and write data to
        plain text, FITS ASCII and FITS Binary formats.

     -- `gal_fits_img_read' and `gal_fits_img_write' can read a FITS image
        to memory or write a FITS image from memory.

  Gnuastro now defines a simple comment line format to keep basic
  information in a plain text table, see the "Gnuastro text table format"
  section of the book. In short for every column, a comment line like below
  can be used to give a name, units, comments, or a type to a column. This
  allows a FITS binary table for example to be written to plain text and
  converted back to binary without loosing any information (except for very
  small floating point errors if not enough decimals are printed).

      # Column N: NAME [UNIT, TYPE, BLANK] COMMENT

  The new Fits program replaces the old Header program. But besides
  reading/checking FITS header keywords, it can now also work on FITS
  extensions/HDUs. For example with no options, it will list all the HDUs
  in a FITS file along with basic information. It can copy a whole HDU to
  another file, or delete a HDU from a FITS file. To get the previous
  behavior of listing all the keywords in a FITS HDU, you can run it with
  the `-p' option.

  All programs now write data into the second HDU of a FITS file to allow a
  clean first HDU. Note that following CFITSIO, HDU counting still starts
  from zero, so FITS images and tables written by Gnuastro in a new file
  can always be accessed with the `--hdu=1' option (which is now the
  default).

  If any program is run within a Git version controlled directory, a
  `COMMIT' header keyword will be added to the created FITS files, see the
  "Output headers" section of the book for a discussion on the usefulness
  of this new feature.

  BuildProgram: a new program to easily compile, link and run a C program
  you have written with Gnuastro's libraries without having to worry about
  which libraries (Gnuastro dependencies) your program needs. Debugging
  (`-g'), optimizations (`-O'), warnings (`-W'), include search path
  (`-I'), link search path (`-L'), and linked libraries (`-l') compiler
  options are also supported. BuildProgram will greatly facilitate the easy
  usage of Gnuastro's libraries.

** Removed programs or library features

  The following program names have been renamed:

    ImageCrop       --> Crop
    ImageWarp       --> Warp
    ImageStatistics --> Statistics
    Header          --> Fits

  SubtractSky has been removed. The Statistics program now has tools to
  estimate the Sky value and it can be subtracted with Arithmetic.

** New features

  All Gnuastro programs that read and write tables can now do so in plain
  text table format or in FITS ASCII or FITS Binary tables. Depending on
  the filename or with the new `--tableformat' common option to all
  programs.

  The option management system in all Gnuastro programs has been completely
  re-written with many new features, some of the most important ones are
  listed below. For developers, you will notice that there is no more usage
  of macros and adding new options has become much more easier.

     -- All programs will now also look for a `gnuastro.conf' configuration
        file to keep common options for all programs in every directory.

     -- The `--lastconfig' option can be used on the command-line or in any
        configuration file to stop parsing any further configuration files.

     -- The `--config' option can now be used to identify any arbitrary
        file to be parsed as a configuration file. Any file that is given
        to this option is parsed immediately.

     -- The `--printparams' option now also prints the short documentation
        of each option (same description in `--help') after its value.

  It is now possible to choose columns in tables based on column names as
  well as column numbers. It is also possible to search for columns based
  on searching in their units or comments. When using column numbers,
  counting now starts from 1 (one), not 0 (as before). See the new
  "Selecting table columns" section for more on these new features.

  Where relevant, all programs now accept a `--type' option that you can
  use to specify the numerical datatype of the output.

  With the new common option `--minmapsize', you can specify a minimum size
  of an array (in bytes) to store data in SSD/HDD and not in RAM. This can
  be instrumental when you are dealing with large datasets, or even smaller
  ones, but when your RAM is getting full.

  Making a log file is now optional and users have to explicitly ask for it
  with the `--log' option.

  Slower building of Gnuastro: Binary operators (e.g., plus or multiply)
  are now done in the native type of the input dataset. Doing so for all
  the different combinations of types, greatly slows down the initial
  compilation of Gnuastro (after running `make'). So for every type there
  is now a `--enable-bin-op-*' configure time option. When the dataset's
  type isn't compiled (only for the binary operators), it will be converted
  to a compiled type and then converted back in the end.

  Arithmetic: all operations are done in the native data type of the
  dataset. Until now, it would convert the data internally to double
  precision floating point, do the requested operation and write the data
  back in the proper type. So this new implementation is much more
  efficient.

  Arithmetic: two new classes of operators: type conversion operators to
  all standard types and integer-only operators (all C bit-wise operators
  and the modulo operator).

  ConvertType: can also print the input dataset to the command-line
  (`stdout'). To use this feature set the output filename to `stdout'.

  Convolve now has the `--minsharpspec' option to specify the minimum
  spectrum value to use in deconvolution (matching PSFs).

  Crop: when in WCS mode it can still only work on aligned images. However,
  very small floating point errors in writing the WCS (for example 10e-13
  degrees) are now acceptable. Until now these would cause Crop to complain
  and abort.

  Crop: the name of the crop can be pre-determined based on the values in a
  given in a table column. This allows your object's IDs to be directly
  used as the crop's file name for example.

  MakeCatalog now also reports the surface brightness in
  mag/arcsec^2. Until now, MakeCatalog would only print the dataset's
  surface brightness in units of magnitudes/pixel. But that is not nicely
  comparable to other datasets. Hence, using a simple calculation (from the
  pixel projected size, fully derived in the book), it now also reports the
  surface brightness in magnitudes/arcsec^2 also.

  MakeProfiles: Profile codes now start from `1' (until now they started
  from `0').

  MakeProfiles: now accepts the radial function of profiles as
  human-readable strings instead of a code for each profile (which was very
  cryptic, although codes are also still acceptable). For example in the
  profile column you can now write `sersic' instead of the code `1'.

  NoiseChisel: the new `--cleandilated' option will remove dilated objects
  that have a low S/N (it is mainly useful on very clean or mock images).
  For non-clean noise, it will result in a decrease of completeness. With
  this new option, NoiseChisel will also print detection S/N values when
  run with the `--checkdetsn' option.

  Statistics: now reads table columns as well as images and does basic
  operations on them. It can also only work on a certain range of the data
  (instead of the whole set). Alternatively, you can define the range on
  another reference column, but use values of the main column.

  Statistics: all its single-valued measurements can now be done on a
  tessellation (tile grid) over the input dataset.

  Statistics: can now estimate the Sky value on the input dataset using the
  mode's quantile similar to what NoiseChisel does to find its initial
  threshold.

  Statistics: has several new single valued calculations: `--quantile',
  `--quantfunc' (quantile function), `--mode', `--modequant', `--modesym',
  and `--modesymvalue'.

  Warp: align the image with the celestial coordinates using the `--align'
  option.

  Warp: standard modular warpings can now be requested without an input
  matrix, using the following options: `--shear', `--flip', `--project',
  `--rotate', `--scale', `--translate'. Any number of these transformations
  (along with the `--align' option) can be called on the command-line and
  they will be applied in the same order to create one warping matrix. By
  default the WCS will also be corrected.

** Changes in behavior

  Mask image options have been removed from all programs. Instead, all
  programs can work directly on data with blank values. So when some pixels
  must be masked, the Arithmetic program's `where' operator can be used to
  select special pixels and set them to blank. In particular bit-wise
  operations are now available in Arithmetic to use bit-mask
  images. Managing all these different choices in every program would only
  confuse the user (with too many options).

  Arithmetic: the `x' letter is now used to represent the multiplication
  operator. Previously it was `*' which needed quotation and was thus very
  inconvenient.

  Convolve: the old `--frequency' and `--spatial' options have been removed
  and are replaced by `--domain' which accepts values of `frequency' and
  `spatial'.

  Convolve: the old `--viewfreqsteps' was changed to `--checkfreqsteps' to
  fit with the general style of such check images in all Gnuastro's
  programs.

  Crop: `--section' syntax is now inclusive in both bounds.

  Crop: only checks if the center of a crop is filled when the crop was
  defined by its center (for example with `--ra' and `--dec'). The verbose
  outputs of Crop are also not cryptic 0s or 1s. The are human readable
  text.

  Crop: doesn't have separate `--imgmode' and `--wcsmode' options any
  more. There is now a single `--mode' option which accepts values of `img'
  or `wcs'.

  MakeProfiles: the old `--inputascanvas' is now called `--clearcanvas'.

  MakeProfiles: until now, it would abort with an error when the input
  columns had blank values. But for masking, it might happen that you set a
  blank magnitude. So this check has now been removed when reading the
  magnitude column.

  NoiseChisel: default value of the `--minskyfrac' option (new name for the
  old `--minbfrac') is now 0.7 as opposed to 0.5. This will allow much
  better estimation of noise properties (by default). It may be slightly
  too high for a crowded field, but the users can change it on the
  command-line (or in a configuration file) for such datasets.

  NoiseChisel: when it is run with any of the `--check' options, it will
  abort after all the check images have been created. This is very useful
  for checking your parameters until each step and not be distracted (or
  have to wait) for later steps to finish.

  Statistics: will not make a histogram and cumulative frequency files, or
  calculate sigma-clipped results by default (with no options). It will
  just print some basic information.

  Table: Previously, if a column was requested, the `-i' option would be
  ignored. But it often happens that the users forget a column name after
  already typing several of their desired columns. So the opposite behavior
  is preferred. Because when more than a couple of columns are needed, you
  will probably forget the column identifiers of the last few and having to
  retype everything is very frustrating. Something like how `--help' takes
  precedence over all other options.

  Table: to select column(s) by regular expression searching, the name now
  has to be put in `/ /' (similar to AWK). If a value isn't in `/ /', the
  programs will only select a column with the exact match.

  Warp: when a 2 by 2 matrix is given, the FITS pixel positions (which
  define the center of a pixel as an integer) are automatically implemented
  internally, see "Invoking Warp" in the manual for more.

  Warp: the old `--nofitscorrect' option has been changed to
  `--centeroncorner' to be more clear. The new option is now more general
  than before and also works on warping with a matrix, not just on modular
  warpings.

  Warp: the old `--nowcscorrection' option has been given a more clear name
  of `--keepwcs'. With this option, Warp will not apply the warp the
  input's WCS structure.

  Warp: the old `--maxblankfrac' option has been changed to
  `--coveredfrac'. Until now, Warp would only look for the fraction of
  input blank/NaN pixel area over the output pixel. But this would be
  useless on the edges of the image. So the new `--coveredfrac' option
  takes the acceptable fraction of output pixel area that must be covered
  by input pixels in order to give that output pixel a value. You can use
  this to set edge pixels that are not fully covered in the new grid to
  blank and have a flat warped image.

** Bug fixes

  Using `%zu' to print `size_t' variables for clean build on 32-bit
  systems.

  Crash in Table for some operating systems due to memory is now fixed (bug
  #49347).

  Table's man-page is now created and installed (bug #49418).

  Fixes in the documentation (sr #109170, bug #49419).

  Check for malloc returning valid pointer (bug #49459).

  Segfault in mesh interpolation corrected (bug #49588).

  Corrected bad status usage in calls to wcsp2s and wcss2p (bug #49752).

  Stricter checking in Crop's polygon point list (bug #48978).

  Correction in alignment and getting pixel scale (bug #50072).

  Decomposing PCi_j and CDELTi matrices in output WCS (bug #50073).

  Using image naxes[n] when checkcenter is larger (bug #50099).

  Memory leak in MakeCatalog corrected (bug #51118).

  Fix copy-paste error in MakeCatalog flag arrays (bug #51130).





* Noteworthy changes in release 0.2 (library 0.0.0) (2016-10-03) [stable]

** Bug fixes

  Linker errors on some operating systems have been fixed (bug #48076).

  Several memory allocation, checks or redundancies have been fixed: bugs
  #48453, #48516, #48603, #48611, #48571, #48650, #48657, #48692, #48770,
  #47866, #48899, #49049, #49007.

  ImageCrop no longer crashes with very long output file names (bugs #46241
  and #45380).

** New programs or headers

  Table: a new utility to read and write FITS binary and ASCII tables. It
  can also print the column information or select columns using regular
  expressions (task #13579).

  Shared libraries and headers are now installed. The libraries can be used
  in C and C++ programs. This release includes the following headers:
  `gnuastro.h', `array.h', `box.h', `fits.h', `linkedlist.h', `mesh.h',
  `polygon.h', `qsort.h', `spatialconvolve.h', `statistics.h', `threads.h',
  `wcs.h', `txtarray.h' (task #13765).

  Gnuastro now comes with a script in its top source directory
  (`tmpfs-config-make') to configure and build it in the tmpfs (on the
  RAM), for those systems that have it. See the new "Configure and build in
  RAM" section in the book for more (task #14100).

** New features

  MakeProfiles also accepts WCS positions (task #13566).

  Flat profiles in MakeProfiles can be given a profile specific value. The
  new `--mforflatpix' option MakeProfile will use the value in the
  magnitude column as a fixed value for each pixel. This can be very useful
  in defining a mask, or creating segmentation maps or labeled images (task
  #14115).

  MakeProfiles can now use input image as canvas. Instead of specifying the
  WSC and image size parameters manually. With the new `--inputascanvas'
  option, MakeProfiles will get this information (along with blank pixels)
  from an already existing image (task #14116).

  Type of output in MakeProfiles and Arithmetic can be specified with the
  `--type' option.

  Magnitude error column in MakeCatalog with the `--magnitudeerr' option.

  Arithmetic now has new conditional (task #13870) and logical operators
  (task #14153) along with an operator for actions only when conditions are
  true: `where'. The new `isblank' operator will also enable you to select
  blank, or masked, pixels (task #14146).

  The `--noerodequant' in NoiseChisel enables it to detect small and
  sharper profiles by disabling erosion on pixels above a certain quantile
  (task #14139).

  MakeCatalog can also calculate the upper limit magnitude for each given
  object in the image by randomly positioning the object's footprint over
  undetected regions of the image (task #14167).

  The source tarball is now also distributed with Lzip for a much better
  compression ratio and more robust archival file format.

** Changes in behavior

  The two MakeProfiles options `--setconsttonan', `--setconsttomin' have
  been removed (see `--mforflatpix' above for their alternative).

  MakeCatalog makes clump catalog only when asked (when the `WCLUMPS'
  header exists in the objects HDU). This can be very useful in cases like
  aperture photometry, when the object labels are not generated by
  NoiseChisel and so a clump image doesn't exist (task #14122).

  Default cosmological parameters in CosmicCalculator set to Plank 2015
  results: A&A (2016), 594, A13 (arXiv 1502.01589).

  The `--envseed' option (to read random number generator type and seed
  from the environment) to MakeProfiles and MakeNoise can also be given in
  the configuration files.





* Noteworthy changes in release 0.1 (2016-05-30) [stable]

** Bug fixes

  MakeCatalog's problem in checking the sizes of all input images is now
  fixed.

  NoiseChisel's problem with reading the `--kernel' option is now
  corrected (bug #46750).

  lib/mesh.c's problem in correctly calculating the mesh sizes was
  corrected (bug #47611).

  `make check' will not look into system utility configuration files. In
  the previous release, if Gnuastro was already installed, the
  configuration files already present on the system would also be read. Now
  only configuration files in the tested package are used (bug #47833).

  Ghostscript's version is now checked at configure time after its
  existence. ConvertType uses the `-dPDFFitPage' option to Ghostscript
  which was introduced in version 9.10, so older versions would pass
  configure but at `make check' time, the PDF test would fail. Now this
  test is skipped (bug #47868).

  Most tests would fail when `make check -jN' was run (to do the checks on
  N threads). A dependency structure has now been defined to fix this
  problem and greatly speed up the testing process (bug #47957).

** New utilities

  Arithmetic: For arithmetic operations on the pixels of input images. With
  this utility, it is now possible to add multiple images with each other,
  or easily calculate a median image. It as a large set of other arithmetic
  operations and some functions which can be done on the input image(s). An
  unlimited number of input images can be given, the images will only be
  loaded when necessary and will be freed as soon as they are no longer
  necessary.

  CosmicCalculator: For doing cosmological calculations at a given
  redshift.

** New features

  All the utilities that would produce a log file now have a `--nolog'
  option to avoid printing a log file.

  The tiled image compression convention (.fits.fz, created with `fpack')
  files can now be used as input in the utilities.

  ImageCrop can now also crop a polygon from the input image. The polygon
  vertices can be given in the world or image coordinates. The simple
  `--polygon' option will keep the insides of the polygon while the
  `--outpolygon' will keep the outside of the polygon.

  ImageCrop and ImageWarp can now read the WCS information of a FITS header
  from a specific region with the `--hstartwcs' and `--hendwcs'. In some
  older FITS images, when the WCS distortions were not as standardized as
  now, there were cases which would confuse WCSLIB.

  NoiseChisel can now save the grown clumps image instead of the original
  clumps image in the output with the `--grownclumps' option.

  Convolve can now do deconvolution with the `--makekernel' option.

  MakeProfiles now has a `--setconsttonan' option which will fill the
  constant profiles with a NaN (blank) value, not a number, allowing the
  creations of elliptical masked regions for example.

  Header can now import a keyword directly from a string with the `--asis'
  option.

  MakeCatalog can now output the geometric (average position independent of
  pixel flux value) positions of the objects too.

  MakeCatalog can now produce the object's elliptical parameters (for
  example semi-major axis, semi-minor axis, and position angle). This can
  also be done both in standard flux weighted and geometric methods too.

  MakeCatalog now has a `--threshold' function to only use pixels above a
  given threshold in each object or clump. This is useful to avoid diffuse
  regions in calculations.

  MakeCatalog now has a `--noriverbrightness' option. With this option it
  is possible to calculate the clump flux without subtracting the river
  pixels on its circumference.

  The number of CPU threads is no longer a configuration option, it is now
  determined at run-time for each program. Therefore it is now easily
  possible to built Gnuastro on one system to use on another (commonly done
  in the GNU/Linux package managers). Therefore ./configure no longer has a
  `--with-numthreads' option.

  Every commit in Gnuastro's history (after implementing this feature) can
  now be given a unique version number. Since the version number is printed
  in possible outputs, this feature can help reproducibility, even when the
  an official/stable release isn't used.

  The AUTHORS file is now automatically generated from the version
  controlled history. Also all the authors that have contributed to
  Gnuastro are included in the second (copyright) page of the PDF book.

  All the bootstrapped directories are now moved with a new `bootstrapped'
  directory in the top source directory. This significantly cleans up this
  directory, allowing users to more easily find the hand-written Gnuastro
  source files they like.

  A `bug-gnuastro' Info page was created so users can easily go to that
  page for information on how to submit bug reports. It is accessible on
  the command line with the command `info bug-gnuastro'.

** Changes in behavior

  The separate utilities no longer have a separate version number. With the
  introduction of unofficial version numbers generated from each commit in
  Gnuastro's history, the utility version numbers would cause confusion.

  MakeProfiles will now add a suffix to the individual images and put them
  in the output directory if specified.

  NoiseChisel and MakeCatalog now use the median mesh standard deviation to
  define the over-all depth of the image. Previously they used the maximum
  value (or the least depth).

  NoiseChisel no longer outputs a sky subtracted image. This job can now be
  done with the new Arithmetic utility.

  NoiseChisel's `--segsnhistnbins' option was renamed to
  `--clumpsnhistnbins'.

** Improvements

  NoiseChisel's default quantiles were changed to 0.95 from 0.99. Since the
  old value was too severe.

  NoiseChisel's S/N thresholds are now found from the distribution of
  pseudo-detections and clumps from the full image, not within each large
  mesh. This was done to increase the accuracy of the S/N threshold. There
  were commonly not enough points in large mesh sizes and this would add
  scatter. With ImageCrop's polygon capabilities, it is now easily possible
  to cut out the region that has uniform noise properties (depth and
  correlated noise). Therefore the old `--checkdetectionsn' and
  `checkclumpsn' options are no longer present.

  When building from the version controlled source, the whole bootstrapping
  process is done with one script. In the previous version, all the
  separate operations should have been done by hand (as instructed in the
  old manual).

  All the build steps now report what was done and suggest the next
  step. This feature can be disabled with the `--disable-guide-message' at
  configure time.
