[netcdfgroup] NetCDF-3 file format changes

[Joe Sirott]

Hi Roy,

There's still a limit on variable sizes with netcdf 3.6 of 4 GB (though 
not 2GB as I mentioned):

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/faq-lfs.html#Large%20File%20Support10

And I'm also guessing (John C: feel free to correct me) that it's 2GB in 
Java due to the lack of unsigned integers.

Cheers, Joe

Roy Mendelssohn wrote:
> Hi Joe:
>
> See http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/faq.html#Large%20File%20Support0. 
>  It has been possible since netcdf3.6
>
> Regards,
>
> -Roy M
>
>
> On Feb 26, 2008, at 1:11 PM, Joe Sirott wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> In the "classic" netCDF file format (netCDF-3), a variable without a 
>> record dimension cannot be larger than 2GB. This limitation has been 
>> giving me a lot of headaches lately. I know that netCDF-4 is supposed to 
>> solve this problem, but there are a number of reasons why netCDF-4 is 
>> not a good option for me (no Java write support, for one).
>>
>> I could be missing something, but it seems like a very small change to 
>> the netCDF-3 file format would solve this problem. The only requirement 
>> would  be changing the variable size info in the netCDF header from a 32 
>> bit to a 64 bit int (and, of course, updating the version info in the 
>> header).
>>
>> I'm guessing that I'm not the only netCDF user who has run into this 
>> problem and who is also reluctant to move to netCDF-4. Any possibility 
>> that Unidata could make these changes?
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Joe S.
>>
>>
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>
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> Roy Mendelssohn
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> NOAA/NMFS
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>
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