The AIPS Update

This page last modified on 08-December-2025

What's an AIPS Update?

Once a year, the master AIPS system in Socorro, NM is updated. This involves creating a new version of AIPS (e.g., 31DEC26), calling it TST, renaming what was TST to be NEW, renaming NEW to OLD, and removing what was OLD. After this, NEW is mostly frozen (``slushy''), and documented in an AIPSLetter. Both the TST and NEW versions are available for download and installation at any times.

New Copyright, Registration

As many of you know, we have converted AIPS to be copyrighted by Associated Universities, Inc. (it already was) but covered by the Free Software Foundation's General Public License (also available in plain text). This means we no longer require the old user agreement, and we are now able to distribute AIPS via anonymous ftp to whomever wants it. As part of this conversion, every single text file in the AIPS system had to be converted from the old style copyright to the new one. This was done for the 15JUL95 version and it applies to all more recent releases.

Status of the Update

The most recent update (where TST became 31DEC26) is over. The NEW version of AIPS (31DEC25) is now frozen and installation testing is finished. The systems on which this testing were performed were Linux (64-bit) and Apple MAC Intel and Apple M1 cpus. It can be obtained via anonymous ftp from ftp.aoc.nrao.edu in the directory /pub/software/aips/. Don't forget to look at the 31DEC26 installation page first.