[gembud] Having Trouble Compiling/Installing GEMPAK On Mac OS X

• To: gembud@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: [gembud] Having Trouble Compiling/Installing GEMPAK On Mac OS X
• From: Blake Hogle <bhogle01@xxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 02:07:13 -0400

Greetings all GEMPAK users and experts,

I'm writing to you today in hopes of receiving help/advice on installing
GEMPAK on my 2011 intel MacBook Pro..  I have been trying to now for going
on almost 48 hours trying to get past step four (4) in the GEMPAK 6.6.0
instructions for Mac OS X..  I'm not a complete newbie to installing
programs from source on my computer.  I have done it several times, albeit
with general instructions.  But without instructions I'm lost when it comes
to the process.  Usually it's just a few quick commands in Terminal and
it's over, maybe the occasional Fink or MacPort dependency to download, but
nothing to complicated.

Now step four (4) of the instructions state: "Extract the GEMPAK tarball
archive obtained from the *GEMPAK
Downloads*<http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/downloads/gempak/nawips-6.6.0/source/index.jsp>page
and modify Gemenviron or Gemenviron.profile depending on your shell so
that the environmental variable $NAWIPS is set to the correct directory
path. Then cd into the $NAWIPS directory (this is the parent directory of
the GEMPAK/N-AWIPS directory tree). "...
Up to this point I have followed the instructions completely, even deleting
my copy of Fink to use MacPorts as the instructions refer to numerous
times.  I have followed all these instructions to a T!  I downloaded the
GEMPAK file and extracted the tarball file.  Because the Terminal on my Mac
uses the "Bash" shell, I navigated to the Gemenviron.profile file with in
the GEMPAK-6.6.0 folder and opened in text editor.  Now, I moved the
extracted GEMPAK folder that was created after extracting the tarball file
around a few times first migrating it to a hidden gempak directory that I
created within my Home user directory..  I also had it in a visible
directory in the same Home directory.  What is hanging me up is the
instructions are really kind of vague for a "Terminal" dummy like me..  I
opened the file, I found the line which the instructions and file both say
to change, but I don't know WHAT the correct path would be..  Everything
that is stated in the directions leading up to this step has most
everything located in the .../opt/local/... directory or somewhere within
it.

So, I guess my first question would be - 1.) Is this where I should put the
resulting GEMPAK 6.6.0 folder that is created during the tarball
extraction?  2.) What is the "correct directory path" as it's put in step
four (4)?  3.) After this it says to change directory (cd) into the $NAWIPS
directory (this is the parent directory of the GEMPAK/N-AWIPS directory
tree).  Almost directly after this statement it says to, "Be sure you are
cd'd into the top level GEMPAK6.6.0 directory at this time."...  What is
the top level directory that they're referring to, the actual GEMPAK folder
that was extracted from tarball or the directory within which GEMPAK will
be located?  (I know basic file structure, and the concepts are fairly
similar across the board for all OS's..  At least in the sense that most
OS's have a hierarchical file system, wherein lower levels of folders and
files are stored within higher level folders/directory.)  4.) Where is this
bloody NAWIPS folder/directory that keeps getting referred to besides in
the gemenviron files? It can't be found anywhere.  Numerous hours of
looking fervently have turned up nothing! 5.) After the "Be sure you're in
the NAWIPS top directory..." it says to type "make > make.out", but when I
do Terminal just tells me that "make: *** /: Is a directory.  Stop." and
thats it (I tried this after I though I had everything in order and ready
to start compiling...  But nothing ever happened, except it just made an
additional file in the GEMPAK 6.6.0 directory created after extracting the
tarball with absolutely nothing in the file it created.)

Any help that anybody could give me, especially anybody with expertise in
installing GEMPAK on Mac OS X 10.6, would be GREATLY appreciated!!!  As I
stated earlier, I've been trying now for over 48 hours straight trying to
get the program to compile and install..  I thought I was doing a good job
following the instructions exactly to the letter, and figured I wouldn't
have a single problem because of following the directions so strictly...
But I'm still nowhere near having it installed, I fear, and am beginning to
have my doubts that I'll ever have a successful installation on my
computer...  Thank you all who help for your time!

Sincerely,
Blake H.