20001222: McIDAS X 7.7 on i386-linux (cont.)

>From: Eirh-Yu Hsie <address@hidden>
>Organization: CU/CIRES
>Keywords: 200012212111.eBLLBAo05506 McIDAS-X 7.70 ADDE

Hsie,

>>MCTABLE_READ=/home/hsie1/mcidas/data/MCTABLE.TXT;/export/home/mcidas/data/ADDESITE.TXT
>>semi-colon instead of colon

>I think colon is the right syntax for csh.

Yes, but it is not the syntax that McIDAS is expecting, and McIDAS is the
one that parses the contents of MCTABLE_READ and MCTABLE_WRITE.

>BTW, I do not have ADDESITE.TXT in all my systems (Sun Solaris and linux).

If one follows all of the installation instructions for the 'mcidas'
account, then the MCTABLE_WRITE variable for that account will have
'mcidas' write to ~mcidas/data/ADDESITE.TXT.  By doing this, a site's
'mcidas' user can setup DATALOCs that can be used by all McIDAS users
that include ~mcidas/data/ADDESITE.TXT in their MCTABLE_READ variable.

Each Unix workstation running McIDAS-X can be setup to run the remote
ADDE server.  This means that other workstations running McIDAS (Unix
and Windows NT 4.0) could ask those workstations for data for display
and analysis.  The example that I sent along was meant to demonstrate
this idea.

The way the ADDE routines of McIDAS work is that each time a routine
goes to access data, it reads the user's client routing table(s) to see
where to go to get that data.  The user's client routing table(s) are
defined is his/her MCTABLE_READ unix environment variable.  In your
case (and in cases where sites follow the installation/configuration
instructions), the application would first look in
~hsie1/mcidas/data/MCTABLE.TXT to see if it has an entry that specifies
an entry that contains the group portion of the dataset.

For example, in your MCTABLE.TXT, the dataset whose group name is
RTIMAGES would be specified to be found on the machine ADDE.UCAR.EDU
(IP address 128.117.13.119):

ADDE_ROUTE_RTWXTEXT=140.172.240.32
ADDE_ROUTE_RTGRIDS=140.172.240.32
ADDE_ROUTE_RTPTSRC=140.172.240.32
ADDE_ROUTE_MYDATA=LOCAL-DATA
HOST_ADDE.UCAR.EDU=128.117.13.119
ADDE_ROUTE_RTIMAGES=ADDE.UCAR.EDU

If your client routing table did not have an entry for RTIMAGES, then
the global client routing table, ~mcidas/data/ADDESITE.TXT, would have
been searched.  If neither of these tables had such an entry, then the
data would be assumed to be LOCAL-DATA, and the ADDE routines that find
and server the data would have been run in your own account.  In order
to find the data files that make up the dataset, your account would
have had to been setup to understand what files comprise the various
datasets.

Back to remote ADDE services.  So, if you ran:

IMGDISP RTIMAGES/GW-IR STA=KDEN EU=IMAGE REFRESH='EG;MAP H'

your MCTABLE.TXT would inform IMGDISP that it needed to go to
ADDE.UCAR.EDU to find the data that was being requested.  If that
machine is running the McIDAS remote ADDE server and it had the data
that was being requested, it would send back the data that was
requested.  This is especially useful when you are not
ingesting/decoding/storing the data that you want to look at.

Here is another example:

DATALOC ADD RTGINI ADDE.UCAR.EDU
IMGDISP RTGINI/GW1KVIS STA=KASE MAG=-2 REFRESH='EG;MAP H'

You tell your McIDAS routines to ask ADDE.UCAR.EDU for data from the
RTGINI/GW1KVIS dataset group/descriptor, and, since it has the data
and the ADDE remote server is running on it, it fulfills the request.

Note that ADDE is not _just_ for displaying data.  You can copy the data
from a remote machine to your own machine:

IMGCOPY RTGINI/GW1KVIS MYDATA/IMAGES.1234

This will copy data from whatever machine your are requesting RTGINI
data from to the machine that has the MYDATA dataset defined.  If you
followed all of the installation instructions, then MYDATA would be
already setup as a local dataset.  If not, you can define it by using
the DSSERVE command:

DSSERVE ADD MYDATA/IMAGES AREA 1 9999 "All images in AREA file format

To make life easier, I included a BATCH file in the distribution that
will setup this dataset with all of its components, MYDATA.BAT.

If you run MYDATA.BAT:

BATCH MYDATA.BAT

Then your session will have several dataset group/descriptor definitions
setup:

MYDATA/IMAGES
MYDATA/GRIDS
MYDATA/PTSRCS
MYDATA/TOPO

After you have this dataset setup to be local to your machine/account,
you can successfully complete the IMGCOPY example from above.

Here is another one to try:

<login as 'mcidas'>
cd data
ftp ftp.unidata.ucar.edu
  <user> anonymous
  <pass> your email address
  cd pub/mcidas
  binary
  get AREA9000
  quit
<logout as 'mcidas'>

<login as yourself and start McIDAS>
DMAP AREA9000                      <- to make sure that your account sees
                                      the file you just FTPed

DATALOC ADD RTGRIDS ADDE.UCAR.EDU
CFILLCLP RTGRIDS/ETA T SFC #Y 12 0 LAMB MYDATA/IMAGES.1234 Y Y

The last line is the running of a McBASI script that I include in the
distribution as an example of stringing together McIDAS GRD* and IMG*
routines with the effect of displaying a model grid visualized as an
image that is clipped at land/water boundaries.  Give it a try!

>I only install mcx in the Linux PC. DOo I need xcd to run as ADDE client?

If you want to ingest and decode McIDAS data, then one machine in your
shop will need to have XCD built, installed, and configured.  That
machine should be the same one running your LDM.  You used to have a
machine so setup.

The second part of the question is how does your Linux box access the
data being decoded by the other machine.  The answer involves several
steps:

o setup the machine running the LDM to also run XCD
o setup the dataset definitions in the 'mcidas' account on the machine
  running the LDM and XCD
o setup the McIDAS remote ADDE server on the machine running the LDM
  and XCD

Once all three of these steps have been done, then your McIDAS session
on your Linux box can access it by setting DATALOCs for the various
datasets that were setup on that machine.

How to setup XCD and the remote ADDE server is discussed in the McIDAS
online documentation:

Installing the McIDAS-X ADDE Remote Server 
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/770/mcx/adde_mcx.html

Building, Installing, and Configuring McIDAS-XCD 
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/770/mcx/mcidas-xcd.html

Please give the examples above a try and let me know what you think.

Tom