[netCDF #FRL-611318]: Building/Installing netCFD

Jaafar,

If you only need netCDF for WRF3, I would recommend installing netCDF version
3.6.3, because WRF3 does not use any of the features in netCDF-4, as far as I
know.  Also netCDF-3 is easier to install, because it does not require HDF5.

> While I was reading the installation guidlines, I noted that NetCFD
> has not yet been tested in 64bit on any platform.

The installation guide is out of date about 64-bit platforms.  Thanks for
pointing out the problem.  We have corrected it and checked in a fix.

NetCDF has been tested on several 64-bit platforms, including a RedHat Linux
platform with a PGI compiler.  For version 3.6.3, see the Linux 64-bit PGI
test output linked from here:

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/netcdf/builds/3_6_3/index.jsp

or for version 4, see the Linux 64-bit PGI test output linked from here:

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/builds/4_0/index.jsp

Also the gfortran compiler is 64-bit by default, and the released netCDF
versions work fine with gfortran on Linux.

> Do you recommend me to use binary version instead of
> source code to save time?

A binary installation of netCDF-3 (versions 3.6.1, 3.6.2, or 3.6.3) should
work fine with WRF3, but binary versions don't provide a way to check that
the installation is complete and correct.  If you need such a check, then
you would need to build from source and run "make check" to test the
built software, before running "make install" to install it.

If your compilers are working OK, a binary installation doesn't save much
time, compared to a source installation, because running configure,
make check, and make install only takes a few minutes on a Linux system.

--Russ


--Russ


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



Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: FRL-611318
Department: Support netCDF
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed