Re: 20051116:Install on Mac OX 10.2.8

>To: address@hidden
>From: "John Sorensen" <address@hidden>
>Subject: netCDF General - installation
>Organization: UCAR/Unidata
>Keywords: 200511162230.jAGMUReN015892

Hi John,

> Institution: University of Minnesota Duluth
> Package Version: 3.6.0-p1
> Operating System: Mac OX 10.2.8
> Hardware Information: 1 Ghz G4 512 MB RAM   40 GB free drive
> Inquiry: How do I install netCDF on my Mac?
> I have never used this software before and will need detailed help.

You could first try installing the binary version of the software,
which requires that you visit this FTP directory in your browser:

  ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/binary/darwin_7.8-power_macintosh/

and then click and hold the link to the netcdf-3.6.0-p1.pkg.zip file,
selecting the "Save Link As ..." menu entry in the resulting popup
menu.  Alternatively, just download this file:

  
ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/binary/darwin_7.8-power_macintosh/netcdf-3.6.0-p1.pkg.zip

It's easiest if you download the file into a new empty folder, but you
can put it anywhere you want.

Now double-click on the icon of the netcdf-3.6.0-p1.pkg.zip file and
it will get unzipped to create a package file in the same directory
named "netcdf-3.6.0-p1.pkg" that has an icon that looks like an open
cardboard box.  Just double-click on this file icon and you can follow
the resulting instructions to install the netCDF library.  It installs
the libraries in /usr/local/lib/, the ncdump and ncgen utility
programs in /usr/local/bin/, the man page documentation in
/ur/local/man/, and the include files like netcdf.h in
/usr/local/include/. 

I'm not positive this will work for you, because I don't know if
MacOSX 10.2.8 corresponds to version 7.8 or later of Darwin.  You can
find out if you run the command "uname -a" in a terminal, which should
give you output something like:

  $ uname -a
  Darwin mort.local 8.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 8.3.0: Mon Oct  3 20:04:04 PDT 
2005; root:xnu-792.6.22.obj~2/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh powerpc

(That's what I get with Mac OS X 10.4.3.)  If you see Darwin version
7.8 or later, the installation should work fine.  If you have an
earlier version of the Darwin kernel corresponding to Mac OS 10.2.8,
I'm not sure whether it will work.  If not, you will either need to
update your Mac OS X, download a different version of the binary
distribution of netCDF (using "fink", for example), or build netCDF
from source.

Building netCDF from source on Mac OS X is not difficult, but you will
need to have installed the Apple Developer Tools, so you have a C
compiler and "make".  Just download the source distribution from 

  ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/netcdf.tar.gz

and follow the installation instructions in 

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/netcdf-install/

The output you see while building should appear something like this:

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/builds/Mac_3_6_0.txt

Things could get complicated if you need the Fortran interface and
have a commercial Fortran compiler such as Absoft.  In that case, you
might want to check the Mac-specific notes in this document on "Other
Builds of the netCDF Package":
  
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/other-builds.html

If you run into problems, feel free to email your symptoms to
address@hidden, and we'll try to help.

--Russ

_____________________________________________________________________

Russ Rew                                         UCAR Unidata Program
address@hidden                     http://www.unidata.ucar.edu