How do I Change the Name of Source Extractor's Output Catalog?

Question

I'm going to be running multiple instances of Source Extractor at once, so I need the output file to have a distinct label (rather than just test.cat). I've tried specifying the output file on the command line:

sex ImageV1.fits -c CATALOG_NAME testV1.cat

But I get an error:

----- SExtractor 2.19.5 started on 2023-06-26 at 13:19:57 with 1 thread

> Setting catalog parameters
> WARNING: ID_PARENT catalog parameter unknown

Fitting model: Sersic spheroid
> Reading detection filter
> *Error*: cannot open testV1.cat

Adjusting the CATALOG_NAME parameter in default.sex doesn't fix the issue either, though that wouldn't be a feasible solution in any case.

Answer 1

You can try this command:

sex ImageV1.fits -c default.sex -CATALOG_NAME testV1.cat