19990416: df.k error in ROUTE PostProcess BATCH invocation

>From: Brian Colle <address@hidden>
>Organization: SUNY Stony Brook
>Keywords: 199904161737.LAA13153 ldm-mcidas McIDAS ROUTE PP BATCH

Brian,

Hi.  Questions related to McIDAS and ldm-mcidas will be answered by me
since I support those packages.  In general, it is better to send
questions directly to Unidata Support and not CC individuals.  Several
of us read the support mail inbox and farm out questions to the
appropriate person(s) who we know are accessible (not on travel,
vacation, etc.).

>My gif mcidas images created using batch.k have the wrong mapping.
>I noticed that I am getting the following error 
>within my batch.log related to df:
>BEGIN TV LOAD PROCESSING FOR FRAME  1
>df.k: Failed to write nav for frame  1
>Processing completed for frame= 1
>MAP: completed frame  1
>Frame saved in /usr/local/ldm/data/mcidas/ir.gif
>
>What exactly does this error mean?

What is most likely going on is that there is a FrameN.M (e.g.
Frame1.0, Frame2.0, etc.) file that is in your MCPATH and is not
writable by the user running the PostProcess BATCH file.  The effect of
this would be that the navigation information for the frame would not
be written and then the map would not be able to be drawn or it would
be drawn using the navigation information in the FrameN.M file.

As the user running the batch file begin the troubleshooting process
by doing the following:

o cd to the first directory you have included in the MCPATH you are
  using in the batch file

o make sure that MCDATA, MCPATH, and PATH are defined the same way
  that they are in your batch script

o find out where the FrameN.M file(s) exist by using the McIDAS dmap.k
  command:

  dmap.k Frame

If the FrameN.M file(s) are located somewhere other than in a directory
under ~user/.mctmp (~user being the home directory of the user running
the test), then it the incorrect file(s) is(are) being accessed and
used, but is(are) probably not updatable.

A really quick way of getting this information is to add a dmap.k
invocation in your batch script before the df.k invocation (syntax the
same as above) and then reviewing the ouput in batch.log.

I assume that the batch script is being run as a ROUTE PostProcess
BATCH invocation, but I since I havn't corresponded with you
previously, I am not sure if we are talking about the same thing.  If
the simple check above does not shed any light on your problem, you
need to include the following in your next email:

o the contents of the batch file that is failing
o who the script is being run as (the user account it is running from)
o the group ID of this user along with the group ID of the user 'mcidas'
  (if they are not one in the same)

Talk to you soon...

Tom Yoksas