Repeating and saving analyses

As data access is carried out through the observation group (OG), all the ``spi_science_analysis'' script needs to know about the input data is the default name ``og_spi.fits''. All output data files are created with default standard names and they are attached to the OG, so that subsequent tasks can access them through the OG.

It is always possible to repeat an analysis starting from any step. Simply select the tasks you want to execute by clicking on the boxes in front of the ``spi_science_analysis'' buttons. Be careful however, to define a coherent analysis. In other words, do not leave gaps in the succession of the tasks. In such cases the ``spi_science_analysis'' would stop immediately with a ``Incoherence in the succession of tasks'' error.

A concept of analysis level hierarchy has been defined, as indicated in Table . When the pipeline processing proceeds from one step to another, all the data are stamped with the current level. A fresh initial OG starts with the ``DEAD'' level, and then goes trough the ``POIN'', ``BIN_I'', ``BKG_I'', and ``IMA'' (SPE or LC) levels successively in a complete analysis. When ``spi_science_analysis'' is launched, any data with a stamped level ``higher'' than the new starting level is deleted before the actual processing starts again. As a consequence, the outputs from a previous analysis are always overwritten.

The easiest way to save the results of a previous analysis is to copy the complete directory structure before starting again.

cd ..
cp -r analysis_current_dir analysis_saving_dir
cd analysis_current_dir

As all analysis data are part of the OG, you cannot use ``rm'' to delete some of them. This would break the OG and prevent any further (re)processing. If you use ``rm'' by mistake, the safest is to start again at the very beginning with og_create. If you want to delete some data from the OG without using the ``spi_science_analysis'' script, you can use the spi_clean cleaning tool described in Sect. .