  Since its introduction in 1962, the Newman-Penrose formalism has been widely
used in analytical and numerical studies of Einstein's equations, like for
example for the Teukolsky master equation, or as a powerful wave extraction
tool in numerical relativity. Despite the many applications, Einstein's
equations in the Newman-Penrose formalism appear complicated and not easily
applicable to general studies of spacetimes, mainly because physical and gauge
degrees of freedom are mixed in a nontrivial way. In this paper we approach the
whole formalism with the goal of expressing the spin coefficients as functions
of tetrad invariants once a particular tetrad is chosen. We show that it is
possible to do so, and give for the first time a general recipe for the task,
as well as an indication of the quantities and identities that are required.
