RE: Decoders release 2.4.0

On Thu, 23 Jan 2003, HOETH, BRIAN R. (JSC-ZS) (LM) wrote:

> Robb,
>
> I have been plowing through all of the online documentation on
> my.unidata.ucar.edu and I guess I'm slightly overwhelmed?  What are the
> basic steps I should take to install decoders.tar.Z?

Brian,

Here's a url to the old web site, the info is more current there.  Haven't
had time to update new site my.unidata yet

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/decoders/


>
> I guess I need to install netCDF and netCDF perl in order for the
> decoders.tar.Z package to work properly?  I am also wanting to upgrade my

There are 3 packages that need to be install for the decoders packages.
- udunits
- netcdf
- netcdf perl

I would install them in the above order.


> version of LDM to the latest version.  Is there a specific order in which I

I probably install the LDM first.

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/ldm

I would look at these tags on the page:

# LDM Preinstallation Requirements
# LDM Binary Installation Check List
# LDM Source Installation Check List
# LDM Setup

I would install the binary if it's possible.

> should install things (i.e. LDM first, then netCDF, then netCDF perl, then
> decoders.tar.Z) or does it matter?  Also, where do netCDF, netCDF perl, and
> decoders.tar.Z typically get installed?  We have a user account "ldm" where
> our LDM stuff is installed under /home/ldm, is this the ideal place for
> netCDF, netCDF perl, and decoders.tar.Z  to be installed as well or does it
> matter?


A common practise is to install the packages in the LDM home dir. Some
users also make a decoders and util dirs under LDM home where they place
all  the  binaries.  Then ~ldm/decoders ~ldm/util are added  to the PATH
variable so all the ldm programs can find them.

Robb...

>
> Thanks,
> ---------------
> Brian Hoeth
> Spaceflight Meteorology Group
> Johnson Space Center
> Ph: 281-483-3246
> Ops:  281-483-1051
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robb Kambic [mailto:address@hidden]
> Sent: Friday, December 06, 2002 4:40 PM
> To: address@hidden
> Cc: decoders
> Subject: Decoders release 2.4.0
>
>
> Hiya,
>
> I'm pleased to announce the beta release of Decoders 2.4.0.  This
> release includes many changes as well as a new program, 'gribtocdl'.
> Most of the changes are to add parameters and levels for new models
> and grids, such as the AVN model on a 1-degree grid (avn-1.0x1.0.cdl).
> The new 'gribtocdl' program creates a CDL file from GRIB files.  Much
> of the work was contributed by Arild Burud and Terje Reite from the
> Norwegian Service Centre for Climate Modeling at the Norwegian
> Meteorological Institute. I wish to thank these developers on behalf
> of the Unidata community.
>
> Since this is a beta release, I would appreciate help in testing it
> and reporting problems.
>
> A couple of gribtocdl notes:
>
> - Use a representative dataset when creating a CDL file with gribtocdl. If
> the
>   dataset is missing a variable, it will also be missing in the CDL.
>
> - Consider the created CDL as a starting point, minor tweaks are usually
>   needed.
>
> - The external table file feature for variable name override has not
>   been tested much, but needs to be used with gribtocdl as well as
>   gribtonc to override variable names.
>
> - Default variable names follow NUWG conventions.
>
> I would have liked to test the code more exhaustively but did not want
> to further delay the release. If problems are found, please send email
> to address@hidden with information necessary to reproduce
> the problem, error messages, and log messages.
>
> Thanks,
> Robb...
>
>
> Included man page from gribtocdl:
>
> User Commands                                        GRIBTOCDL(1)
>
> NAME
>      gribtocdl - create netCDF CDL-file from GRIB dataset
>
> SYNOPSIS
>      gribtocdl [-v] [-g tabfile] [-q qspecs] gribfiles
>
> DESCRIPTION
>      This program decodes GRIB products and generates  to  stdout
>      the  corresponding  CDL code that can be used in gribtonc(1)
>      to convert the GRIB products to netCDF format.  The  default
>      parameter  translation  is made according to a definition by
>      UCAR, but the user may supply  specific  translations  in  a
>      separate  file  by  the -g tabfile option. The user-supplied
>      translations will override the default ones.
>
> OPTIONS
>      -v   Verbose, reports decoding steps to stderr.
>
>      -g tabfile
>           Use GRIB-netcdf translation defined in this  file.  The
>           format of this file is described below.
>
>      -q qspecs
>           Specification for how to expand so-called quasi-regular
>           or thinned grids into rectangular grids.  This argument
>           is a comma-delimited text  string  that  specifies  the
>           method  of interpolation used (currently lin for linear
>           or cub for cubic), and the latitude and  longitude  in-
>           crements  in  degrees  for  the  resulting  grid  (e.g.
>           dlat=2.5,dlon=5.0).
>
>
> FORMAT OF GRIB TO NETCDF TRANSLATION
>      The format of the translation table  is  as  follows:   Each
>      line contains
>          GRIB parameter number
>          netCDF parameter name
>          netCDF long description
>          netCDF units
>          An optional comment
>
>      These are all separated by semicolon  (";").  To  comment  a
>      whole  line, put any letter or special character (i.e. not a
>      digit) in front of it.  Trailing spaces are  ignored  before
>      each  semicolon,  but  not  after.  The GRIB number may have
>      spaces in front.  Parameters found in the separate file take
>      precedence over the default parameter table, those not list-
>      ed in the separate file are unchanged.  All parameters  will
>      be  named  with  a  level suffix in addition to the name as-
>      signed in the separate file.
>
> EXAMPLE
>      The command
>          gribtocdl -v -g my.tab sst.grib > sst.cdl
>
>      will decode  the  products  in  sst.grib  and  generate  the
>      corresponding  CDL  code  into file sst.cdl. The file my.tab
>      contains a specific conversion table to be used when  naming
>      a  parameter from GRIB. Later the GRIB file may be converted
>      to netCDF by using gribtonc:
>
>          gribtonc -v -g my.tab sst.cdl sst.nc < sst.grib
>
>      The file my.tab looks like this:
>          Grib;netCDF;long name               ;units;comments
>           31 ;CI    ;Sea-ice cover           ;none ;(0-1)
>           34 ;SSTK  ;Sea surface temperature ;K    ;
>          151 ;MSL   ;Mean sea-level pressure ;Pa   ;
>          167 ;T2M   ;2 meter temperature     ;K    ;
>
> SEE ALSO
>      gribdump(1), gribtonc(1), netcdf(3), udunits(3)
>
> DIAGNOSTICS
>      Error messages and log messages are written to stderr.
>
>
>
> ============================================================================
> ===
> Robb Kambic                              Unidata Program Center
> Software Engineer III                    Univ. Corp for Atmospheric
> Research
> address@hidden                   WWW: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
> ============================================================================
> ===
>

===============================================================================
Robb Kambic                                Unidata Program Center
Software Engineer III                      Univ. Corp for Atmospheric Research
address@hidden             WWW: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
===============================================================================