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### B.40.1 Usage

The usage of `votcopy` is

       stilts <stilts-flags> votcopy version=1.0|1.1|1.2|1.3|1.4
                                     charset=<xml-encoding> cache=true|false
                                     href=true|false nomagic=true|false
                                     base=<location>
                                     [in=]<location> [out=]<location>
                                     [format=]TABLEDATA|BINARY|BINARY2|FITS

If you don't have the `stilts` script installed, write "`java -jar stilts.jar`" instead of "`stilts`" - see Section 3. The available `<stilts-flags>` are listed in Section 2.1. For programmatic invocation, the Task class for this command is `uk.ac.starlink.ttools.task.VotCopy`.

Parameter values are assigned on the command line as explained in Section 2.3. They are as follows:

`base = <location>` (String)
  Determines the name of external output files written when the `href` flag is true. Normally these are given names based on the name of the output file. But if this flag is given, the names will be based on the `<location>` string. This flag is compulsory if `href` is true and `out=-` (output is to standard out), since in this case there is no default base name to use.
`cache = true|false` (Boolean)
  Determines whether the input tables are read into a cache prior to being written out. The default is selected automatically depending on the input table; so you should normally leave this flag alone.
`charset = <xml-encoding>` (Charset)
  Selects the Unicode encoding used for the output XML. The available options are dependent on your JVM, use `help=charset` for a full listing. Setting the value null will use the JVM's system default.

  [Default: `UTF-8`]

`format = TABLEDATA|BINARY|BINARY2|FITS` (uk.ac.starlink.votable.DataFormat)
  Determines the encoding format of the table data in the output document. If `null` is selected, then the tables will be data-less (will contain no DATA element), leaving only the document structure. Data-less tables are legal VOTable elements.

  The `BINARY2` format is only available for `version`=`1.3`

  [Default: `TABLEDATA`]

`href = true|false` (Boolean)
  In the case of BINARY or FITS encoding, this determines whether the STREAM elements output will contain their data inline or externally. If set false, the output document will be self-contained, with STREAM data inline as base64-encoded characters. If true, then for each TABLE in the document the binary data will be written to a separate file and referenced by an href attribute on the corresponding STREAM element. The name of these files is usually determined by the name of the main output file; but see also the `base` flag.
`in = <location>` (String)
  Location of the input VOTable. May be a URL, filename, or "-" to indicate standard input. The input table may be compressed using one of the known compression formats (Unix compress, gzip or bzip2).

  [Default: `-`]

`nomagic = true|false` (Boolean)
  Eliminate the `null` attributes of `VALUES` elements where they are no longer required. In VOTable versions <=1.2, the only way to specify null values for integer-type scalar columns was to use the `null` attribute of the `VALUES` element to indicate an in-band magic value representing null. From VOTable v1.3, null values can be represented using empty `<TD>` elements or flagged specially in `BINARY2` streams. In these cases, it is recommended (though not required) not to use the `VALUES`/`null` mechanism.

  If this parameter is set true, then any `VALUES`/`null` attributes will be removed in VOTable 1.3 BINARY2 or TABLEDATA output. If this results in an empty `VALUES` element, it too will be removed.

  This parameter is ignored if the output VOTable version is lower than 1.3 or if `format`=BINARY/FITS.

  [Default: `true`]

`out = <location>` (String)
  Location of the output VOTable. May be a filename or "-" to indicate standard output.

  [Default: `-`]

`version = 1.0|1.1|1.2|1.3|1.4` (uk.ac.starlink.votable.VOTableVersion)
  Determines the version of the VOTable standard to which the output will conform. If null (the default), the output table will have the same version as the input table.

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STILTS - Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library Tool Set
Starlink User Note256
STILTS web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/stilts/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Mailing list: topcat-user@jiscmail.ac.uk