Re: [netcdfgroup] ncdump mismatch between 4.2 and 4.2.1, netcdf DAP

• To: netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: Re: [netcdfgroup] ncdump mismatch between 4.2 and 4.2.1, netcdf DAP
• From: Russ Rew <russ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:33:40 -0600

Hi,

Two users (Marco Atzeri and Henry Butowsky) have reported the same bug
in netCDF version 4.2.1.  When ncdump is used on a large remote file
(one whose total size in bytes is more than about 2.14GB), the symptom
is an error message after the ncdump output:

  NetCDF: One or more variable sizes violate format constraints
  Location: file .../ncdump.c; line 2509

Another symptom is a significant performance degradation in accessing
large remote files via DAP, due to a bug in ncdump's use of the new
diskless feature, causing allocation of all available memory on close of
the file.  This makes it appear as if ncdump hangs and your machine
becomes unresponsive.

These problems are serious enough that we will be releasing a patch
later today or tomorrow to fix them.  Following the patch, we'll
announce a new source release 4.2.1.1 incorporating the fixes, followed
shortly by new Windows binaries.

In the meantime, if you make use of DAP for accessing data subsets of
large remote files, you should wait to build from the 4.2.1.1 release
rather than building and installing version 4.2.1.

Sorry for the inconvenience ...

--Russ
--Dennis