Steve,
Change the compile/link command to gcc -I../netcdf/include create_example.c -L../netcdf/lib -lnetcdfA Library reference must appear after the modules that use it.
That did it. Thanks.
(As an aside, I had some trouble with building the distribution: configure was finding that the size of all my data types was 0 bytes.That is not good. If you still have problems after correcting your command-line and want me to investigate, then please following the reporting instructions near the end of the file INSTALL.html.
I manually edited the ncconfig.h file and it seemed to build ok. Thanks again. Linus