Loading spectro data (plates)

For each plate, cd to the plates data directory and find the MJD(s) that need to be loaded by looking at the filenames in the data directory (there's usually only one MJD). For each valid MJD (i.e. for which the data is good), do the following:

1.

Make sure there is no other SX loader or server running for that SX. In particular, if the "startsx" script is running for that SX, you need to shut it down first and then the SX server if it is running. If you try to load a plate when there is another process accessing that database (especially a loader, which opens the database in update mode), it might CORRUPT THE DATABASE BEYOND REPAIR!

2.

Run sxLoadPlate: cd $SXLOADER_DIR/bin, or make sure that your "sxLoadPlate" is the correct one (in $SXLOADER_DIR/bin) by doing a "which sxLoadPlate". run the loadplate command as follows (example for data directory /data/spectro, plate 275, MJD 51910):
sxLoadPlate /data/spectro/1d_10/0275/1d 275 51910
Specify the full path of the spectro data directory (where the spSpec files are) as the first parameter.

sxLoadPlate will take a couple of minutes to finish. It will list each fiber# as it completes loading it, and at the end say "Commit ... done".

When there are many plates to load, the best thing is to write a shell script containing all the sxLoadPlate commands and run that.