Can I use an XSPEC save file (.xcm) with Sherpa?

XSPEC can save the current state as an ASCII file using the XSPEC save command. The CIAO contributed script convert_xspec_script may be able to convert such a file into the equivalent Sherpa commands. Note that the output should be reviewed as the behavior of Sherpa and XSPEC are not identical, and not all XSPEC commands are supported.

The output file created by convert_xspec_script can be loaded into a Sherpa session with the %run -i command, so if you had run

% convert_xspec_script orig.xcm converted.py

then you would load it into Sherpa with

sherpa> %run -i converted.py

Note

Please contact the CXC Helpdesk if you find there are XSPEC scripts which can not be converted, or where the results do not appear to match XSPEC.