3 <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//Norman Walsh//DTD DocBk XML V3.1.4//EN"
4 "file:///usr/share/xml/docbook/schema/dtd/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
6 <chapter><title>Overview</title>
8 <section><title>Purpose</title>
10 <para>This manual describes program operation and command-line usage for ALE
11 version <ver/>. Features specific to a particular version
12 may be annotated (e.g. [ALE 0.8.1 and later]), but comprehensive coverage of
13 versions other than <ver/> is beyond the scope of this manual.</para>
15 <!-- <para>For more information on ALE, see the <a
16 href="http://auricle.dyndns.org/ALE/">ALE Home Page</a>.</para> -->
19 <section><title>Parameter Meta-syntax</title>
21 <p>When describing parameter syntax, the following conventions are used in this manual:</p>
24 <caption>Parameter Meta-syntax</caption>
26 <td><l><foo></l></td>
27 <td>A required parameter called <meta>foo</meta>.</td>
31 <td><l>[<foo>]</l></td>
32 <td>An optional parameter called <meta>foo</meta>.</td>
35 <td><l>[<foo>]*</l></td>
36 <td>Zero or more parameters <meta>foo</meta>.</td>
41 <section><title>Command-line syntax for Image Processing</title>
43 <para>The following command-line invocation can be used to process a series of
44 frames into an output file:</para>
46 <ll>ale [<option>]* <original-frame> [<supplemental-frame>]* <output-file></ll>
48 <p>Experimental syntax for specifying argument scope is covered in <xref linkend="user-scope"/>.</p>
50 <s><t>Option Arguments</t>
52 <s><t>Default Settings</t>
54 <para>Certain basic modes of operation, emphasizing image quality, speed, or
55 other rendering characteristics, are now established in the form of default
56 settings. For more information, see:</para>
58 <ul><li><xref linkend="user-defaults"/>
63 <s><t>Other options</t>
64 <para>Other options are outlined in subsequent chapters:</para>
66 <ul><li><xref linkend="user-file"/>
67 </li><li><xref linkend="user-rendering"/>
68 </li><li><xref linkend="user-alignment"/>
69 </li><li><xref linkend="user-exclusion"/>
70 </li><li><xref linkend="user-device"/>
71 </li><li><xref linkend="user-ui"/>
72 </li><li><xref linkend="user-chains"/>
73 </li><li><xref linkend="user-psf"/>
74 </li><li><xref linkend="user-3d"/>
82 <para>ALE can be configured at compile time to use one of two different file
83 handlers. Execute 'ale --version' to determine which file handler is being
84 used. The table below outlines the supported formats for each file handler.</para>
87 <caption>Supported image file formats</caption>
88 <tr><th>Version Message</th><th>File Types Supported</th></tr>
90 <ll>File handler: ImageMagick</ll>
94 Input and output files can be any of the <ulink url="http://imagemagick.sourceforge.net/www/formats.html">formats</ulink> supported by
100 <tr><td valign="top">
101 <ll>File handler: PPM</ll>
103 Input files must be PPM, and output files are written as PPM.
107 <para>Note that many external programs, including ImageMagick's <ulink url="http://www.imagemagick.org/">command line utilities</ulink>, can be used to
108 convert between PPM and other formats.</para>
110 <para>See the README included in the source distribution of ALE for more information about
111 compile-time configuration of file handlers.</para>
113 <p>Usage of extended PPM syntax for specifying image metadata is outlined in <xref linkend="user-eppm"/>.</p>
119 <title>Command-line syntax for Version Information</title>
121 <para>The following command-line invocation can be used to print version
122 information and build options:</para>
124 <ll>ale --version</ll>
126 <para>The following is sample output from this invocation:</para>
128 <ll>ALE Version: <ver/>
129 File handler: ImageMagick
131 Coordinate data: SINGLE
134 Optimizations: Enabled
137 <para>The first line of output indicates the version of ALE source code being
138 used; the remaining lines reflect the build options selected at compile
141 <para>For more information about build options, see the README file included in
142 the ALE source distribution.</para>
146 <title>Command-line syntax for Help Output</title>
148 <para>When invoked with no arguments, or an insufficient number of file arguments,
149 ALE outputs a help message specifying command-line usage and available help
150 topics. The following is a sample invocation:</para>
154 <s><t>Help Topics</t>
156 <para>More information about specific help topics can be obtained with an invocation
157 of the following form:</para>
159 <ll>ale <help option></ll>
161 <para>Available help options, and their corresponding help topics, are outlined
165 --hq Default settings.
167 --he Exclusion regions.
168 --ha Alignment (not exposure-related).
169 --hr Rendering (not exposure-related).
171 --ht Transformation data files.
172 --hc Control points. [0.8.1 and later]
173 --hl Filtering (PSFs, rendering chains).
175 --hi User Interfaces.
176 --hv Video stream processing (Experimental).
178 --hz Undocumented options.
179 --hA Concatenate all help pages.