Config Input

Input Types

The input field indicates where to find any files that you want to use in building the images or how to set up any objects that require initialization.

The input fields defined by GalSim are:

• catalog defines an input catalog that has values for each object. Connected with Catalog value type described below.
  • file_name = str_value (required) The name of the file with the input catalog.
  • dir = str_value (default = '.') The directory the file is in.
  • file_type = str_value (default = automatically determined from extension of file_name) Valid options are:
    • 'ascii' Read from an ASCII file.
      • comments = str_value (default = '#') The character used to indicate the start of a comment in an ASCII catalog.
    • 'fits' Read from a FITS binary table.
      • hdu = int_value (default = 1) Which hdu to use within the FITS file. Note: 0 means the primary HDU, the first extension is 1.
• dict defines an input dictionary, such as a YAML or JSON file. Connected with Dict value type described below.
  • file_name = str_value (required) The name of the dictionary file.
  • dir = str_value (default = '.') The directory the file is in.
  • file_type = str_value (default = automatically determined from extension of file_name) Valid options are:
    • 'yaml' Read from a YAML file.
    • 'json' Read from a JSON file.
    • 'pickle' Read from a python pickle file.
  • key_split = str_value (default = '.') For specifying keys below the first level of the dictionary, use this string to split the key value into multiple strings. e.g. If key_split = '.' (the default) then key : galaxy_constants.redshift would be parsed as dict['galaxy_constants']['redshift']. Usually '.' is an intuitive choice, but if some of your key names have a '.' in them, then this would not work correctly, so you should pick something else.
• fits_header lets you read from the header section of a FITS file. Connected with 'FitsHeader' value type described below.
  • file_name = str_value (required) The name of the FITS file.
  • dir = str_value (default = '.') The directory the file is in.
  • compression = str_value (optional) The kind of compression if any. The default is to base the compression on the file extension. e.g. 'blah.fits.fz' implies Rice compression. But it can also be specified explicitly. Supported values are 'none', 'rice', 'gzip', 'bzip2', 'gzip_tile', 'hcompress', 'plio'.
  • hdu = int_value (optional) Which HDU to read from the input file. Default is 0 (the primary HDU), unless the compression implies that the first extension should be used.
  • text_file = bool_value (default = False) Whether the input file is actually a text file, rather than a binary FITS file. Normally the file is taken to be a FITS file, but if this is True, then it will read it as a text file containing the header information, such as the .head file output from SCamp.
• real_catalog defines a catalog of real galaxy images. Connected with RealGalaxy profile described above.
  • file_name = str_value (optional) The name of the file with the input catalog. If omitted, it will try to use the standard catalog in the $PREFIX/share/galsim directory. You can download the COSMOS catalog to that directory with the executable galsim_download_cosmos.
  • dir = str_value (optional) The directory the file is in.
  • image_dir = str_value (default = dir) The directory containing the real galaxy images.
  • noise_dir = str_value (default = dir) The directory containing the noise files.
  • preload = bool_value (default = False) Whether to preload all the header information from the catalog fits file into memory at the start. If preload=True, the bulk of the I/O time happens at the start of the processing. If preload=False, there is approximately the same total I/O time (assuming you eventually use most of the image files referenced in the catalog), but it is spread over the various RealGalaxy objects that get built.
• cosmos_catalog defines an input catalog that has values for each object. Connected with COSMOSCatalog profile described above.
  • file_name = str_value (optional) The name of the file with the input catalog. If omitted, it will try to use the standard catalog in the $PREFIX/share/galsim directory. You can download the COSMOS catalog to that directory with the executable galsim_download_cosmos.
  • dir = str_value (optional) The directory the file is in.
  • image_dir = str_value (default = dir) The directory containing the real galaxy images.
  • noise_dir = str_value (default = dir) The directory containing the noise files.
  • preload = bool_value (default = False) Whether to preload all the header information from the catalog fits file into memory at the start. If preload=True, the bulk of the I/O time happens at the start of the processing. If preload=False, there is approximately the same total I/O time (assuming you eventually use most of the image files referenced in the catalog), but it is spread over the various RealGalaxy objects that get built.
  • use_real = bool_value (default = True) Whether load the RealGalaxy catalog. If this is True, you can request either real or parametric galaxies from the catalog. But if you are only going to use parametric galaxies, then you may set this to False, and it will not bother to load the real galaxies.
  • exclude_fail = bool_value (default=True) Whether to exclude galaxies that had some sort of failure in the parametric fits. Often these galaxies have some sort of problem in the image, so they are usually worth excluding regardless of whether you will be using real or parametric galaxies.
  • exclude_bad = bool_value (default=True) Whether to exclude galaxies that have some evidence that the fit is a bad fit. These are not as egregious problems as the "fail" galaxies, but they are generally still worth excluding.
  • max_hlr = float_value (optional) Exclude galaxies whose fitted half-light-radius is larger than this value. This is merely an optimization, since large galaxies take longer to render, so it can be a good idea to limit how large the galaxies can be.
• nfw_halo defines an NFW halo. Connected with NFWHaloShear and NFWHaloMagnification value types described below.
  • mass = float_value (required) The mass of the halo in units of (Msolar / h).
  • conc = float_value (required) The concentration parameter, defined as the virial radius / scale radius.
  • redshift = float_value (required) The redshift of the halo.
  • halo_pos = pos_value (default = 0,0) The position of the halo in world coordinates relative to the origin of the world coordinate system. (Typically you would want to to set wcs.origin to 'center' to get the halo in the center of the image.)
  • omega_m = float_value (default = 1-omega_lam)
  • omega_lam = float_value (default = 1-omega_m or 0.7 if neither is specified)
• power_spectrum defines a lensing power spectrum. Connected with PowerSpectrumShear and PowerSpectrumMagnification value types described below.
  • e_power_function = str_value (at least one of e_power_function and b_power_function is required) A string describing the function of k to use for the E-mode power function. e.g. 'k**2'. Alternatively, it may be a file name from which a tabulated power spectrum is read in.
  • b_power_function = str_value (at least one of e_power_function and b_power_function is required) A string describing the function of k to use for the B-mode power function. e.g. 'k**2'. Alternatively, it may be a file name from which a tabulated power spectrum is read in.
  • delta2 = bool_value (default = False) Whether the function is really Delta^2(k) = k^2 P(k)/2pi rather than P(k).
  • units = str_value (default = 'arcsec') The appropriate units for k^-1. The default is to use our canonical units, arcsec, for all position variables. However, power spectra are often more appropriately defined in terms of radians, so that can be specified here to let GalSim handle the units conversion. Other choices are arcmin or degrees.
  • grid_spacing = float_value (required for 'Scattered' image type, automatic for 'Tiled') The distance between grid points on which the power spectrum shears are instantiated.
  • interpolant = str_value (default = 'Linear') What to use for interpolating between pixel centers. Options are 'Nearest', 'Linear', 'Cubic', 'Quintic', 'Sinc', or 'LanczosN', where the 'N' after 'Lanczos' should be replaced with the integer order to use for the Lanczos filter.

Another feature of the input field is that it may optionally be a list. So you can have multiple input catalogs for instance; one for object parameters and one for overall image parameters perhaps. When using values with the type 'InputCatalog', you would specify which catalog to use with num. If you only have a single item for one of the inputs, you can omit the num parameter when you are using it.

Custom Input Types

To define your own input type, you will need to write an importable Python module (typically a file in the current directory where you are running galsim, but it could also be something you have installed in your Python distro) with a class that will be used to load whatever information you want loaded.

class MyInputData(object):
    """A class that knows how to load some information from a file or maybe build some
    structure in advance that will be used repeatedly in the simulation.
    """
    def __init__(self, ...):
        pass

Next you need to write a Loader class that is a subclass of galsim.config.InputLoader, which the config code will use to build your input object with the right initialization kwargs.

class CustomInputLoader(galsim.config.InputLoader):

    def __init__(self, init_func, has_nobj=False, file_scope=False):
        """
        You probably don't want to override the base class constructor, but you will need to
        understand what it does.  It takes three parameters:

        init_func   The class or function that will be used to build the input object.

        has_nobj    Whether the object can be used to automatically determine the number of
                    objects to build for a given file or image.  For example, a galsim.Catalog has
                    a specific number of rows in it.  In many cases, you will just want to run
                    through the whole catalog for each output file.  So the number of objects to
                    build will just be the number of objects in the input catalog. [default: False]

                    If this is True, the constructed input object must have a `getNObjects()`
                    method.  It must also take a construction kwarg, `_nobjects_only` that tells
                    it to only do enough initialization to efficiently determine nobjects.

        file_scope  Whether the input object might be relevant at file scope when the file and
                    image is initially being set up. [default: False]

                    If this is False, then the input object won't be loaded until after the
                    initial file setup.  For example, you might store the file names you want
                    to use for the output files in a YAML file, which you plan to read in as a
                    dict input object. Thus, dict is our canonical example of an input type for
                    which this parameter should be True.
        """
        # This is the base class implementation.
        self.init_func = init_func
        self.has_nobj = has_nobj
        self.file_scope = file_scope

    def getKwargs(self, config, base, logger):
        """Parse the config dict and return the kwargs needed to build the input object.

        The default implementation looks for special class attributes called:

            _req_params     A dict of required parameters and their types.
            _opt_params     A dict of optional parameters and their types.
            _single_params  A list of dicts of parameters such that one and only one of
                            parameter in each dict is required.
            _takes_rng      A bool value saying whether an rng object is required.

        See galsim.Catalog for an example of a class that sets these attributes.

        In addition to the kwargs, we also return a bool value, safe, that indicates whether
        the constructed object will be safe to keep around for multiple files (True) of if
        it will need to be rebuilt for each output file (False).

        @param config       The config dict for this input item
        @param base         The base config dict
        @param logger       If given, a logger object to log progress. [default: None]

        @returns kwargs, safe
        """
        # This is the base class implementation for reference.
        req = self.init_func._req_params
        opt = self.init_func._opt_params
        single = self.init_func._single_params
        kwargs, safe = galsim.config.GetAllParams(config, base, req=req, opt=opt, single=single)
        if self.init_func._takes_rng:
            if 'rng' not in config:
                raise ValueError("No config['rng'] available for %s.type"%key)
            kwargs['rng'] = config['rng']
            safe = False
        return kwargs, safe

    def setupImage(self, input_obj, config, base, logger):
        """Do any necessary setup at the start of each image.

        In the base class, this function does not do anything.  But see PowerSpectrumLoader
        for an example that does require some setup at the start of each image.

        @param input_obj    The input object to use
        @param config       The configuration dict for the input type
        @param base         The base configuration dict.
        @param logger       If given, a logger object to log progress.  [default: None]
        """
        # Do any setup operations, if necessary.

The main thing you might want to override is the getKwargs function to determine what kwargs you want to pass to your initialization function or class based on the parameters in the config dict. The base class, gasim.config.InputLoader uses special class attributes, which most GalSim classes have defined (for precisely this purpose). If you want to follow that same model, and there is no special setup to do at the start of each image, then you can just use the InputLoader itself rather than defining your own subclass.

In either case, in your Python module, you need to register this function with some name, which will be the name of the attribute in the input field that triggers the use of this Loader object.

galsim.config.RegisterInputType('CustomInput', CustomInputLoader(MyInputData))

or

galsim.config.RegisterInputType('CustomInput', InputLoader(MyInputData))

In the above functions, the base parameter is the original full configuration dict that is being used for running the simulation. The config parameter is the local portion of the full dict that defines the object being built, which would in this case be base['input']['CustomInput'].

Finally, to use this custom type in your config file, you need to tell the config parser the name of the module to load at the start of processing. e.g. if this function is defined in the file my_custom_input.py, then you would use the following top-level modules field in the config file:

modules:
    - my_custom_input

This modules field is a list, so it can contain more than one module to load if you want. Then before processing anything, the code will execute the command import my_custom_input, which will read your file and execute the registration command to add the buidler to the list of valid input types.