[netCDF #SEZ-677429]: what minimum files are needed to build C++

Hi Dennis,

> Do you -- or NO ONE -- at UCAR know what files are needed to build the
> interface?

Sorry, but some of the files that are needed to build the interface
are generated at build time, depending on properties of the platform
that are derived at build time by programs run by the configure script.

That means there is no minimal set of files we can give you that can
be used to build the C++ library on any platform, without running a
script such as configure.  There are many benefits to using autoconf
to generate a configure script that generates Makefiles that build the
libraries.  There are also disadvantages to this approach, and you have
discovered one of them: it is not easy to build the libraries without
using the build infrastructure on which the package depends.  It would
be possible to determine all the files that are accessed in just
building the netCDF C++ interface by running something like

  configure --disable-f77 --disable-examples --disable-utilities \
            --disable-fortran-type-check \
            --disable-fortran-compiler-check

and then checking file access times, deleting all files that weren't
accessed during the build.  But I suspect that the configure script
would still run tests that are not strictly necessary for generating
the C++ interface, so you would still not end up with a minimal set
of files.  Also, there are functions in the C library not used by the
C++ interface, but eliminating those functions from the C library is
not trivial.

It takes significant effort to try to determine the minimum files
needed for a specific application, such as integrating netCDF into
ROOT.  The fact that it's been done for FITS and HDF5 is not
evidence that it should be easy for netCDF.

Other users of netCDF have integrated it into other applications, so
it may be useful to ask your question to the netcdfgroup mailing list.
You can join that list by sending email to

  address@hidden

or by filling in the web form for the netcdfgroup mailing list here:

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/mailinglist/mailing-list-form.html

--Russ




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



Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: SEZ-677429
Department: Support netCDF
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed