20020219: Setup McIDAS XCD on a RedHat Linux 7.2

>From: Eirh-Yu Hsie <address@hidden>
>Organization: Aeronomy Laboratory/NOAA/DOC
>Keywords: 200202192145.g1JLjcx00537 McIDAS-X LDM BATCH PostProcess

Hsie,

>I am try to move LDM server from Sun Sparc to a Linux machine.  I can
>not figure out why the CI, CV, CW, and N1 - N8 are not generated:
>
>hsielinux:[78]% route.k LIST
>S Pd         Description         Range       Last      Received  Post Process 
> C
>- -- ------------------------- --------- ------------ ---------- ------------ 
> -
>  CA Cloud Top Pressure        1100-1109 AREA1109     02050 2115 CTP.BAT      
> 3
 ...
>  CI GOES-E/W IR Composite       80-89       none        none       none     3
>  CV GOES-E/W VIS Composite      90-99       none        none       none     3
>  CW GOES-E/W H2O Composite      70-79       none        none       none     3
 ...

There are two parts to getting the PostProcessing working to create these
and the topographic composites:

1) the pqact.conf entry that runs the PNG decoder/unpacker, pnga2area,
   has to be setup to use McIDAS routing table concepts.  Here is one
   example of this:

# CIMSS and UW Products decoded into AREA files using McIDAS routing table
MCIDAS  ^pnga2area Q. (..) (.*) (.*) (.*) (.*) (........) (....)
        PIPE    -close
        pnga2area -vl /usr/local/ldm/logs/ldm-mcidas.log
        -d /data/ldm/mcidas -r \1,\2

   The flag that tells pnga2area to use the routing table is
   '-r \1,\2'.  The directory where pnga2area will decode images AND where
   the routing table, ROUTE.SYS, and System Key Table, SYSKEY.TAB, must
   be found is specified by the '-d' flag.  Also, ROUTE.SYS and
   SYSKEY.TAB must be both readable and writable by the user running
   the LDM (typically 'ldm').

2) the Bourne shell script, batch.k, must be copied to a directory in
   the PATH of the user running the LDM; must be set to be executable
   by the user running the LDM; and must be edited to set several
   McIDAS environment variables.

3) file REDIRECTions in McIDAS must be setup to be able to find/read/write
   the output AREA files for the various products:

   CI -> AREA0080 - AREA0089
   CV -> AREA0090 - AREA0099
   CW -> AREA0070 - AREA0079

   in the directory specified by the '-d' flag used by pnga2area:

   REDIRECT ADD AREA006* "/data/ldm/mcidas
   REDIRECT ADD AREA007* "/data/ldm/mcidas
   REDIRECT ADD AREA008* "/data/ldm/mcidas

4) in order for pnga2area to properly work, it must be able to find
   the files SATANNOT and SATBAND.  These are distributed with the
   ldm-mcidas decoders and are part of the McIDAS-X distribution.
   If the user 'mcidas' is setup so that its HOME directory is
   /home/mcidas, and its data directory is /home/mcidas/data, then
   pnga2area will be able to find these files with no problems.
   If the HOME directory of McIDAS is different from /home/mcidas,
   then it is best to copy SATANNOT and SATBAND to the ~ldm/etc
   directory and then tell pnga2area to look for them there:

MCIDAS  ^pnga2area Q. (..) (.*) (.*) (.*) (.*) (........) (....)
        PIPE    -close
        pnga2area -vl /usr/local/ldm/logs/ldm-mcidas.log
        -a /usr/local/ldm/etc/SATANNOT
        -b /usr/local/ldm/etc/SATBAND
        -d /data/ldm/mcidas -r \1,\2

Finally, as an aid in understanding the PostProcess, the sequence is:

 1) the LDM requests images in the MCIDAS stream
 2) a product is received and placed in the LDM queue
 3) pnga2area is run by pqact
 4) the pqact.conf action for pnga2area tells pqact to use McIDAS routing
    table concepts to name output files.  This is basically done by
    specifying the '-r' flag in the pqact.conf action.
 5) the directory specified by the -d flag in the pnga2area entry in
    pqact.conf contains the files ROUTE.SYS and SYSKEY.TAB and both
    are writable by the user running the LDM
 6) pnga2area reads the routing table and discovers that it needs to
    run a PostProcess BATCH file upon receipt of the GOES-East/West
    VIS, IR, and WV products
 7) pnga2area runs batch.k, but instead of running the real McIDAS
    executable, it runs the Bourne shell script instead
 8) the Bourne shell script batch.k sets up the correct McIDAS environment
    and then runs the real McIDAS batch.k executable
 9) the real batch.k knows where to write output files created by
    compositing processes by virtue of file REDIRECTions
10) the output files are created and ROUTE.SYS and SYSKEY.TAB are updated
    with information showing that composites have been created.

Sorry to be so verbose, but this makes it easy for someone to get a
good picture of the process from reading the message from the support
inquiry tracking system.

Tom

>From address@hidden Tue Feb 19 16:41:34 2002
>Subject: Re: 20020219: Setup McIDAS XCD on a RedHat Linux 7.2

Hello, Tom:

> Sorry to be so verbose, but this makes it easy for someone to get a
> good picture of the process from reading the message from the support
> inquiry tracking system.

Verbose is good.  The whole package is getting more and more
complicated.

Thank you very much.  Noew I can see those (CI, CV, CW, N1 ~ N8)
products.

Hsie

-------------------------
Eirh-Yu Hsie
Aeronomy Laboratory/NOAA
325 Broadway, R/AL4
Boulder, CO  80305-3328
voice:  303-497-3275
fax:    303-497-5373