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The Unidata Program Center (UPC) is pleased to announce the initial release of a software package for manipulating netCDF data sets in UNIX-like environments. This package consists of three netCDF operators, an associated support library, and documentation. A netCDF operator is an executable program that reads one or more input netCDF data sets, generating one or more output netCDF data sets. The netCDF operators are intended to: * Support the sharing of data by acting as front- and back-end filters to other, more comprehensive data analysis packages; * Perform quick and dirty data analysis and manipulation; and * Provide examples of generic netCDF programs. The netCDF operators in this initial release constitute the "proof of concept" operator set. They are: ncstat Generates statistics of netCDF variables over specified dimensions. ncextr Extracts the specified (or everything but the specified) variables and attributes from a netCDF data set. ncbarne Performs a fast Barnes objective analysis on a netCDF data set in Euclidean space. (Sorry, geographical space isn't supported, yet.) The `ncstat' and `ncextr' operators are written in C. The `ncbarne' program is written in FORTRAN as an example in that language. One feature of the netCDF operators is that they can read an input netCDF data set from standard input and can also write an output netCDF data set to standard output. Thus, the operators can be used in UNIX pipelines (although this is only recommended for small data sets). Other netCDF operators will become available as they are completed and will be announced via the netCDF mailing-list. (Indeed, one such operator, nccut, which extracts a subdomain of a netCDF data set, should be released very soon.) To subscribe to the netCDF mailing-list, email a request to netcdfgroup-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx This netCDF operator package is freely available and can be obtained via anonymous FTP from the UPC in the usual way: host: unidata.ucar.edu [128.117.140.3] file: pub/sdm/ncopers.tar.Z One note of caution: before attempting to build this operator package, you should have the latest versions of the following packages installed on your system: Unidata Package Description & Comments Available as File ------- ---------------------- ----------------- netCDF Unidata netCDF package. pub/netCDF.tar.Z gmake GNU make(1) program. pub/gmake-<cpu>.Z <cpu> depends on the workstation type: Workstation <cpu> ----------- ----- DECstation ds IBM RS6000 rs6000 SGI sgi SPARCstation sparc This is the actual executable program: not source code. Don't forget to do a `chmod +x' on it after uncompressing. Makefile Unidata make(1) package. Should pub/sdm/Makefile.tar.Z be unpacked in the parent directory of the one containing the operator package. Put another way, the Unidata software packages should be in child directories of a Unidata source directory (e.g. /usr/local/unidata/src). udposix Unidata portability package. pub/sdm/udposix.tar.Z udape Unidata miscellaneous function pub/sdm/udape.tar.Z library. You may obtain any of the above via anonymous FTP from the same host. This netCDF operator software package is a peer of other Unidata software packages and should be unpacked and built as such. The following procedure is suggested: 1. Obtain this package (and any other packages you might need or want), placing it (or them) in your Unidata source directory (e.g., /usr/local/unidata/src): % cd /usr/local/unidata/src % ftp unidata.ucar.edu Connected to groucho. 220 groucho FTP server (SunOS 4.1) ready. Name (unidata.ucar.edu:steve): anonymous Password: 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. ftp> binary 200 Type set to I. ftp> cd pub/sdm 250 CWD command successful. ftp> get ncopers.tar.Z 200 PORT command successful. 150 Binary data connection for ncopers.tar.Z (128.117.140.3,3034) (391487 bytes). 226 Binary Transfer complete. local: ncopers.tar.Z remote: ncopers.tar.Z 391487 bytes received in 0.69 seconds (5.5e+02 Kbytes/s) ... ftp> bye % 2. Unpack this package (and any others) in the same Unidata source directory: % zcat ncopers.tar.Z | tar -xf - % This will create the subdirectory `ncopers/' and unpack the netCDF operator package into it. 3. If you haven't installed the latest versions of the above- mentioned, prerequisite packages, then you can build and install them and this package (and every other Unidata package you have!) in one step: % gmake udposix/all udposix/install \ udape/all udape/install \ ncopers/all ncopers/install >& log & % tail -f log Otherwise, if you only want to build and install certain packages -- such as this package and the prerequisite packages -- then use something like the following: % gmake udposix/all udposix/install \ udape/all udape/install \ ncopers/all ncopers/install >& log & % tail -f log NOTES: a. The above commands log the installation process and let you view it at the same time. If case of difficulty, any request to the UPC for assistance should include the log file. b. `gmake' in the above represents the name you have given to the GNU make(1) utility. You should know that this initial package has only been tested on the three UPC-supported platforms: IBM's RS6000 running AIX, SUN's Sparc running SunOS, and DEC's DECstation running ULTRIX. Therefore, although considerable effort has gone into making this package portable, it is possible (indeed likely) that this package cannot be built on some unsupported platforms without manual intervention. The UPC is interested in hearing about such porting issues and problems and may advise such efforts. As always, comments directed to the UPC on this package should be sent to support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. If you feel that your comments have general interest, however, then you may send them to the netCDF mailing-list.
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