To maintain a tidy organization of files being generated in the course of data processing, the following procedure is recommended.

• Make a new directory using a name that is related to your crystal for easy reference to the original lab notes.
• Move to the new directory and plant a symbolic link to the directory which contains your rotation data images; for example,
  ln -s path_to_image_directory images abbreviates a possibly long path name by "images".
• Make a subdirectory to collect the results of processing your images with XDS. Usually, the name of the subdirectory bears some relationship to the subset of images you are going to process now; for example you could name it xds_high if the subdirectory will contain the results of processing your high resolution images.
• Move to this subdirectory you have just created.
• Download the appropriate template file, say XDS-MARCCD.INP if you collected your images on a MARCCD, from the list below and save as XDS.INP in the current subdirectory.
• Edit XDS.INP to describe your actual data collection experiment. Consult the documentation for details of the meaning of the input parameters in XDS.INP.
• Type xds or xds_par to invoke the program. XDS will read the file XDS.INP you have just edited and starts processing your data. If processing was successful, the main results, namely the integrated reflection intensities, are saved in the file XDS_ASCII.HKL.

XDS.INP file templates for various detectors

 
Templates for other programs of the package