# Metadata translator command-line updates

**URL:** <https://www.rubin.community/t/metadata-translator-command-line-updates/9707>\
**Category:** DM Notifications\
**Created:** [January 13, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/metadata-translator-command-line-updates/9707 "2025-01-13T21:18:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![timj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/timj/32/10_2.png) [@timj](https://www.rubin.community/u/timj)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/metadata-translator-command-line-updates/9707/1 "2025-01-13T21:18:47Z")

</div>

I just merged a change to the metadata translation command line which should make things a little easier. Previously, when you wanted to translate an LSSTCam header you would have to say:

```auto
$ astrometadata -p lsst.obs.lsst.translators translate *.fts

```

The `-p` option can be a bit laborious to type and gets even harder if you are wanting to use the fiber spectrograph or generic camera. With the new changes you can now type:

```auto
$ astrometadata -p obs_lsst translate *.fits

```

and hopefully that is easier to remember (similarly for `obs_fiberspectrograph` and `obs_rubinGenericCamera`).

Furthermore, if you forget what you should type you can use the new `--list-plugins` option:

```auto
$ astrometadata --list-plugins
Builtin translators:
- DECam
- HSC
- MegaPrime
- SDSS
- SuprimeCam
Available translator plugins grouped by label (use '-p <label>' to activate):
* obs_fiberspectrograph:
  - FiberSpectrograph
* obs_lsst:
  - LSSTCam
  - LSST_LATISS
  - LSSTComCam
  - LSSTComCamSim
  - LSSTCamSim
  - LSSTCam-imSim
  - LSST-UCDCam
  - LSSTCam-PhoSim
* obs_rubinGenericCamera:
  - StarTrackerNarrow
  - StarTrackerWide
  - StarTrackerFast

```

I considered pre-loading all the translators behind the scenes but this would have significantly impacted performance for non-LSST translations since it takes quite a long time (multiple seconds) to load the `obs_lsst` packages.