= FITS =

[https://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_home.html FITS] is the standard data format used in Astronomy.
It is endorsed by NASA and the International Astronomical Union.

GDAL provides basic support of FITS via the [https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/fitsio/fitsio.html CFITSIO] library (see the [http://gdal.org/frmt_various.html#FITS FITS driver documentation]).

= Building with CFITSIO =

== Linux ==

=== From source ===

* Install CFITSIO headers from your distro (eg,  cfitsio-devel on Fedora; libcfitsio-dev on Debian-Ubuntu)
* Download the GDAL source in a gdal directory

{{{
    $ cd gdal/gdal

    $ ./autogen.sh

    $ ./configure

    $ make -j8 -s

    $ sudo make install
}}}

Your config.log will contain the following (depending on your distribution and install):

{{{
EXTRA_INCLUDES='-I/usr/include/cfitsio '

LIBS='-lcrypto -lexpat -ljasper -ljpeg -lgeotiff -ltiff -lpng -lcfitsio -lz -lpthread -lm -lrt -ldl  -lpcre'
}}}

=== From distro (tested on Fedora and Debian-Ubuntu) ===

* Install CFITSIO headers from your distro (eg,  cfitsio-devel on Fedora; libcfitsio-dev on Debian-Ubuntu)
* Install GDAL from your distro (eg gdal-libs on Fedora; libgdal on Debian-Ubuntu)

CFITSIO is automatically detected and linked (sometimes a reboot is needed).

==== NOTA BENE ====

If you are interested in using GDAL in python be aware that some users report conflicts between the conda gdal installation and the compilation from source on linux.

== Mac OS X ==

GDAL installation on Mac OS X is described [https://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/BuildingOnMac here].
The [http://www.kyngchaos.com/software/frameworks#gdal_complete last version of the .dmg] is not linked against CFITSIO.

=== From source ===

(''thanks to Susan Borda'')

* Install CFITSIO as described in the [https://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio_macosx.html official documentation]
* Download the GDAL source in a gdal directory

{{{
    $ cd gdal/gdal

    $ ./autogen.sh

    $ ./configure

    $ make -j8 -s

    $ sudo make install
}}}