README.md

alert_stream

Code to access the ZTF alert stream remotely.

Requires Docker for the usage instructions below.

Usage (single host)

Clone repo, cd into directory, and checkout appropriate branch.

Build docker image

From the alert_stream directory:

$ docker build -t "ztf-listener" .

This should now work:

$ docker run -it --rm ztf-listener python bin/printStream.py -h

You must rebuild your image every time you modify any of the code.

Consume alert stream

To start a consumer for printing all alerts from the host "host-name" in the stream "test-stream" to screen:

$ docker run -it --rm \
      --network=host \
      --name=$(whoami)_printer \
      ztf-listener python bin/printStream.py host-name test-stream

By default, printStream.py will not collect postage stamp cutouts. To enable postage stamp collection, specify a directory to which files should be written with the optional flag --stampDir <directory name>. If run using a Docker container, the stamps and other files written out will be collected within the container.

To collect postage stamp cutouts and output files locally, you can mount a local directory and give the Docker container write access with, e.g., the following command:

$ docker run -it --rm \
      --network=host \
      --name=$(whoami)_printer \
      -v {local path to write stamps}:/home/alert_stream/stamps:rw \
      ztf-listener python bin/printStream.py host-name test-stream --stampDir stamps

Shut down and clean up

Find your containers with docker ps and shut down with docker kill [id].