Last revised on 2002 DEC 06 by B. V. Semenov.
TOBIN is a command-line program that converts transfer format SPK, CK
and EK files to binary format.
TOBIN is a utility program providing command line, or ``batch,''
oriented method for converting portable transfer files into SPICE
binary kernel files. The name ``tobin'' is obviously derived from ``to
binary,'' as in ``convert to binary''.
TOBIN converts a SPICE transfer format file into it's binary format
for use in a particular computing environment. TOBIN requires at least
the name of the input transfer file, which is the first argument on
the command line. Optionally, a name for the output binary file may be
specified as the second argument on the command line. If a name for
the output file is provided it overrides the automatic naming
conventions used by the program.
If only the name of the input transfer file is provided on the command line, TOBIN will generate a name for the output binary kernel file that has the same base name as the input transfer file and an appropriate filename extension, based on the filename extension of the transfer file. If TOBIN does not recognize the filename extension of the input transfer file, or there is no filename extension on the input transfer file, a filename extension of '.bin' will be used as the filename extension of the output binary file. If a file having the same name as the output file already exists, TOBIN signals an error and stops. We assume that it is bad form to overwrite or replace an existing file.
TOBIN recognizes the transfer filename extensions ``.xc'', ``.xee'', ``.xpc'', and ``.xsp'' associated with transfer files for SPICE data products. These are converted to the SPICE binary kernel filename extensions ``.bc'', ``.bee'', ``.bpc'', and ``.bsp,'' respectively. Also recognized are the old transfer file extensions ``.tc'', ``.tee'', ``.tpc'', and ``.tsp,'' which are converted into the appropriate filename extensions for a binary kernel file.
TOBIN requires the name of the file to be converted and, optionally,
the name of the file to be produced, e.g.,
prompt > tobin thisfile.xspand
prompt > tobin thisfile.xsp thisfile.bspwould both produce the file `thisfile.bsp' in the current directory.
In the first example, the name for the binary file produced is derived from the name of the transfer file, using the full base name and replacing the letter `x' in the file name extension with the letter `b', to indicate that the file is a binary file. In the second example, the name for the binary file produced is taken directly from the command line.
> tobin ephem.xsp
> tobin ephem.xsp myephem.bsp
> tobin mydata.ttt
Starting with the N0052 release of the SPICE Toolkit (January, 2002)
certain supported platforms are able to read DAF-based binary files
(SPK, CK and binary PCK) that were written using a different, or
non-native, binary representation. This capability eliminated the need
to use transfer format to move DAF-based files between some of the
platforms. Refer to the Convert User's Guide (convert.ug) to see if
using transfer format files is indeed necessary in your data exchange
path.