User guide

Start here to install xstar-tools, configure XSTAR atomic data, run a model, build XSPEC tables, choose an execution backend, or inspect outputs.

• Installation
  • Python package installation
  • Conda packaging
  • Native source builds
  • Optional MPI build
  • Editable development checkout
  • Verify the installation
  • Atomic data is separate
• Windows native installation and usage
  • 1. Install MSYS2 and open UCRT64
  • 2. Install native build dependencies
  • 3. Extract a source release
  • 4. Inspect the Windows build contract
  • 5. Build xstar-cpp
  • 6. Configure XSTAR atomic data
  • 7. Run a small included example
  • 8. Run without a parameter file
  • 9. Run local-process XSTAR2XSPEC
  • 10. Clean and rebuild
  • 11. Common Windows problems
  • 12. Current qualification checks
• Command-line interfaces
  • Unified xstar-tools commands
  • Installed console scripts
• Atomic-data setup
  • Recommended explicit setup
  • Native discovery when explicit paths are omitted
  • HEASoft HEADAS/refdata
  • XSTAR2XSPEC ownership
  • Python data helper
• First run
  • Native xstar-cpp
  • Native XSTAR2XSPEC
  • True MPI XSTAR2XSPEC (0.6.86 accepted)
  • Python API
• Configuration
• Choosing a backend
  • Native platform scope
• Output products
  • XSTAR2XSPEC products
• Reproducibility and provenance
• Performance expectations
  • XSTAR2XSPEC concurrency
• Troubleshooting
  • Data validation fails
  • A C++ mode is unavailable
  • Output directory already exists
  • Package version and science revision differ
  • A comparison reports inventory differences
  • Need development diagnostics
  • xstar-xspec --processes 2 does not create MPI ranks
  • make mpi says mpic++ is missing
  • MPI ranks cannot see the plan, data, or job directories

For Python applications, continue with the Python guide guide. For direct native executables, see C++ and native CLI reference.