20000516: Recovering McIDAS-XCD configuration

>From: Mike Leuthold <address@hidden>
>Organization: University of Arizona
>Keywords: 200005162046.e4GKkq423547 McIDAS-XCD XCD.BAT XCDDEC.BAT DMAP

Mike,

>       I've somehow partially broken my xcd-mcidas decoding. (McIDAS 7.6,
>IRIX 6.5.7)  I backed up and restored my /home/mcidas/workdata disk where
>the data was being decoded to and now it isn't working quite right.

Are you decoding data into /home/mcidas/workdata?  I recommend that the
decoded data be put elsewhere so that it can be easily accessed by
all users of McIDAS.  (I recommend that users other than
'mcidas', 'mcadde', and 'ldm' do not have any access to the ~mcidas/workdata
directory or its contents).

>Data
>is being decoded, but some of it is invalid.  For example, a surface plot
>shows most stations decoding ok, but some are not and the bad ones will
>have all the same values.

I have seen this before.  It typically indicates that the rapid access
portion of the surface decoding (the *.RAP and *.RAT files) are not
setup correctly.

>Also, I'm getting a core file in the workdata
>directory too.  I 'think' it might be from startxcd.k.

I have been getting a 'core' file in ~mcidas/workdata of late as well.
The one on our XCD system is from dmmisc.k.  I havn't found that this
creates any surface/upperair/synoptic/etc. decoding errors, so I have
chosen to ignore it pending the release of McIDAS-XCD 7.7 (due to
be released by SSEC to MUG members (e.g., Unidata) any day now).

>I've done
>something to screw it up, and have been trying to figure this out for the
>last day or two (double checked paths, protections, ownership, etc).

This is a mysterious one indeed, but I think I know why it is caused.

>Anything come to mind?

Yes.  Here is what I would do:

<as 'ldm'>

o stop the LDM

<as 'mcidas'>

o login and start a McIDAS-X session
o find out where the *.RAP and *.RAT files exist; you would do this
  by using DMAP:

  DMAP *.R*

  You should end up with a list that is something like:

PERM      SIZE LAST CHANGED FILENAME     DIRECTORY
---- --------- ------------ ------------ ---------
-rw-    142596 May 16 21:12 FOUS14.RAP   /export/data/ldm/mcidas
-rw-  33554180 May 16 21:12 FOUS14.RAT   /export/data/ldm/mcidas
-rw-   6617092 May 17 08:31 RAOB.RAP     /export/data/ldm/mcidas
-rw-  33554260 May 17 08:31 RAOB.RAT     /export/data/ldm/mcidas
-rw-  26088580 May 17 08:32 SAOMETAR.RAP /export/data/ldm/mcidas
-rw-  33554260 May 17 08:32 SAOMETAR.RAT /export/data/ldm/mcidas
-rw-   6364676 May 17 08:13 SYNOPTIC.RAP /export/data/ldm/mcidas
-rw-  33554260 May 17 08:13 SYNOPTIC.RAT /export/data/ldm/mcidas
-rw-   4896388 May 17 08:33 TERMFCST.RAP /export/data/ldm/mcidas
-rw-  33554260 May 17 08:33 TERMFCST.RAT /export/data/ldm/mcidas
211880552 bytes in 10 files

  The difference in your list and mine will be the DIRECTORY location
  of the files.

o if the *.RAP and *.RAT files are not found by DMAP, then this really is
  your decoding problem.  If they are found and do not have current
  time stamps, then again this is your problem.

  Remove the *.RAP and *.RAT files.  This is probably moste easily done
  from the Unix shell:

  cd <directory where *.RA* files exist or should exist)
  rm *.RAP *.RAT

o check the method by which you are locating the *.RAP and *.RAT files
  (e.g., by REDIRECTions or by MCPATH; I recommend REDIRECTions)

o check to see that you have the McIDAS string XCDDATA defined in your
  string table:

  TL XCDDATA

  If XCDDATA is not defined, then define it:

  TE XCDDATA "<directory where you want XCD decoded files to be put>

o resetup the XCD decoding:

  BATCH XCD.BAT
  BATCH XCDDEC.BAT

  This should (re)build the *.RAP and *.RAT files.  To make sure, check
  with DMAP:

  DMAP *.R*

<back as 'ldm'>

o star the LDM

The configuring of XCD decoding is presented in:

Building, Installing, and Configuring McIDAS-XCD
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx/mcidas-xcd.html
  McIDAS-XCD Software Installation 
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx/xcd_install.html
    Installation procedures 
    http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx/xcd_install_procs.html
      Configuring the Unidata McIDAS-XCD files
      http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx/xcd_config.html

You might want to review this to check and make sure that I didn't leave
out a crutial step.

>Otherwise, I'll reinstall and reconfigure
>xcd-mcidas, but that is a last resort.  Thanks!

You shouldn't have to reinstall unless the ~mcidas/bin and/or
~mcidas/data directories got munged.  Also, I am assuming that the
restore of the files in the ~mcidas/workdata diretory was successful in
that all of the files that should be there (the ones that get installed
there) are there.

Please let me know the results of your XCD resetup.

Tom

>From address@hidden Wed May 17 10:03:57 2000
>Subject: Re: 20000516: Recovering McIDAS-XCD configuration

re: if the *.RAP and *.RAT files are not found by DMAP, then this really is
    your decoding problem.  

>It was this simple.  These files didn't get restored.  Thanks for the
>answer and sorry that it was such a bonehead thing on my part.