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Unidata McIDAS-X/-XCD - v2006 Release Notes

Before Installing McIDAS-X

Please take the time to read this entire document; its important to understand the whole procedure before you begin. If you connect to ADDE remote servers at other sites, contact the site coordinators at those sites. The site coordinators can tell you if any server problems that might affect your system were noted since this upgrade was distributed.

This upgrade procedure is divided into four sections.

• Section I. Supported Software Configurations contains the software versions to use with McIDAS-X 2006.
• Section II. Before Installing McIDAS-X describes the Required and Optional Actions to perform before installing McIDAS-X 2006.
• Section III. Installing McIDAS-X explains how to install McIDAS-X 2006.
• Section IV. McIDAS-X Significant Changes describes the Required and Optional Actions to perform after installing McIDAS-X 2006.

Section I. Supported Software Configurations

Unidata McIDAS-X 2006 is supported on systems running Apple MacOS-X, Compaq Tru64, HP-UX, FreeBSD, IBM AIX, RedHat Linux, SGI IRIX, Sun Solaris, and Microsoft Windows XP with Services for Unix. The software configurations compatible with McIDAS-X 2006 are listed in Chapter 1 of the Unidata McIDAS-X User’s Guide

Section II. Before Installing McIDAS-X

Complete all Required Actions below.

Core Software Changes

Review the changes to core software before installing McIDAS-X 2006. Section IV lists some of the significant changes since the last upgrade. Two ASCII text files, MAY06PRG.TXT and MAY06INQ.TXT, list all software changes made to McIDAS-X since the previous upgrade. A third file, MAY06OPN.TXT, lists all software bugs known at the time this upgrade was distributed. All these three files are provided with the distribution.

Required Action:

See Section IV of this document to review the significant changes made to core software. You can also place the three text files in the ~mcidas directory before installing the upgrade. To do so, complete the instructions in Obtaining McIDAS-X 2006 in Chapter 1 of the Unidata McIDAS-X User’s Guide.

Operating System and Compiler Changes

Beginning with this upgrade, the following changes were made to operating system and compiler versions that McIDAS-X is supported on.

• Apple Mac OS X 10.4 was added as a new operating system that McIDAS-X is supported on. And as before, OS X 10.3 is also supported.
• Fedora Core 5 on 32 and 64 bit systems was added as a newly supported operating system.
• The SGI IRIX version that McIDAS-X is supported on remains at 6.5.21. The vendor compilers’ (SGI Fortran 77 and ANSI C) version changed from 7.4.2m to 7.4.3m; the g77/gcc compilers’ version remain at 3.3.2.

Required Action:

See the table in Section I, Supported Software Configurations, for the complete list of operating system and compiler versions that McIDAS-X 2006 is supported on. We recommend that you update the operating systems and/or compiler versions on your McIDAS-X workstation(s) to those listed in the table.

Compatibility with -X Remote Servers and -XCD

McIDAS-X 2006 can run in a stand-alone mode. However, many commands can access data on other workstations (remote servers). Therefore, your McIDAS-X client workstations and the remote servers they access must be running compatible versions in order for all features to work as expected.

For example, the items below are dependent upon the McIDAS-X version that the client and/or server is running.

• The maximum grid size allowed in -X and -XCD was increased from 400,000 to 2,000,000 points in version 2006. Therefore, you must have version 2006 installed on your -XCD servers to decode grids larger than 400,000 points, and must have version 2006 installed on your -X clients to use grids larger than 400,000 points in the GRD* commands (e.g., GRDDISP and GRDCOPY).
• The 13 gbtbpds001.* (GRIB table) files in McIDAS-X were updated in version 2006 (see Data Files in Section IV of this document). These files are used in McIDAS-X if you create local GRIB datasets (using the DSSERVE command). They are also used in McIDAS-XCD to serve real-time GRIB datasets. Because the updates to these files affect McIDAS-XCD, sites with -XCD workstations should install -XCD 2006 immediately after installing -X 2006 on those workstations.
• Remote server workstations must have port 112 open to allow clients running McIDAS-X 200[456] to access their data. Likewise, ports 500 and 503 must also be open to allow clients running McIDAS-X 2003 to access their data.

Required Action:

Coordinate upgrading your site’s McIDAS-X and -XCD systems according to your needs, considering the compatibility requirements listed above.

Disk Space

McIDAS-X disk space requirements increased, mainly due to the addition of new servers.

The overall disk space requirements for obtaining, building and installing McIDAS-X 2006 listed in the table below have not changed substantially from v2005. The compiler type (vendor or gcc/g77) used for each build are also listed.

Required Action:

Verify that you have sufficient disk space available to obtain, build, and install McIDAS-X 2006.

Section III. Installing McIDAS-X

If you need assistance with the upgrade please contact Unidata McIDAS Support <support-mcidas@unidata.ucar.edu>.

Required Action:

Obtain and install McIDAS-X 2006 using the instructions in Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring McIDAS-X, in the Unidata McIDAS-X User’s Guide.

Section IV. McIDAS-X Significant Changes

Complete all Required Actions below. Optional Actions are only for your consideration.

ADDE Data Transfer Methods

The v2005 distribution contained the final set of changes for McIDAS ADDE data transfer methods. The changes were required because the ports that were initially used (500 and 503) are registered for uses other than McIDAS. In order to maintain a permanent port for ADDE data transfers, port 112 was registered by Unidata for McIDAS use and phased into McIDAS-X over versions 2003 - 2005.

On the client side:
In McIDAS-X 2003, clients sent their requests for gzip-compressed data to server port 112, compressed data to server port 503, and uncompressed data to server port 500. In McIDAS-X 2004 and later clients send all remote data requests, regardless of the transfer method, to server port 112.

Client workstation users:
If your client workstation accesses data on remote servers you must upgrade it to at least McIDAS-X version 2004, and preferably to v2006 if any of the remote servers it accesses are running versions 2005 or 2006.

New Command

WWDISP Command

Optional Action:

If you have been using WWDISP with PLOT=COUNTY to plot severe thunderstorm and tornado watches (as was suggested in the email message to mcidas-users), you can switch back to PLOT=BOX or NBOX if desired. Note however, that plotting watches by county may be preferable, as the Storm Prediction Center states that the actual watches are defined by the counties rather than the boxes.

GRDLIST Command Output

The GRDLIST command output was modified because another space was required in the LEVEL field. To accommodate the extra space there while keeping the overall output width to 80 characters or less, the DAY, TIME and SRC fields were moved one space to the right, and the FHOUR field was reduced by one character.

Optional Action:

Check your scripts, McBASI programs, etc., to see if they read GRDLIST command output and parse its values. If they do, modify them to accommodate the new output format generated by the McIDAS-X 2006 version of GRDLIST.

McIDAS-X for XP Remote Servers and PAE

Due to a change in the Windows XP service installation, the ADDE remote server installation script (e.g., mcinet2005.sh) no longer works on XP workstations with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later. Therefore, we are NOT including a remote server installation script for McIDAS-X for XP with this 2006 upgrade.

If your McIDAS-X for XP workstation is already running the remote server (e.g., from version 2004 or 2005), you can continue to run it even after installing McIDAS-X for XP version 2006. Please note, however, that if you uninstall it (with a command similar to sh ./mcinet2005.sh uninstall mcadde) you will NOT be able to reinstall it because the failure occurs during the install portion of any version of the mcinet script. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you do NOT uninstall the remote server on your McIDAS-X for XP workstations at any time unless you're sure you will not need to run it again in the future.

Also, three users have reported a problem on their McIDAS-X for XP workstations where McIDAS would not run (it gives a mcimagem: ERROR fork()ing error at startup) if the Windows XP Physical Address Extension (PAE) is enabled. The methods for checking the PAE setting and disabling it were added to Installing McIDAS-X on Windows XP Workstations in Chapter 1 of the Unidata McIDAS-X User's Guide.

Required Action:

If you are currently running an ADDE Remote Server on your McIDAS-X for XP workstation, do NOT uninstall it. If you do so, you will not be able to reinstall it. As noted above, we did not include a 2006 version of the McIDAS-X for XP ADDE remote server because of this problem.

If you install McIDAS-X for XP on a new workstation and McIDAS fails upon startup with a mcimagem: ERROR fork()ing error, you must disable PAE using the instructions in Installing McIDAS-X on Windows XP Workstations in Chapter 1 of the Unidata McIDAS-X User's Guide.

Other Modifications

The modifications below require no special action.

Data Files

The following changes were made to files in the ~mcidas/data directory.

Required Action:

Merge these modifications with all local copies of the data files. Users who intend to create UPPR-schema MD files must also register the schema with command SCHE DCUPPR.

Local Code

Compile and link all local code after installing the upgrade. Listed below are some of the software and structural changes most likely to affect your local code.

• The module ddeservc.c was updated to correct a 64-bit Linux problem where servers were invalidating certain project numbers. This fix is needed for sites using project numbers for accounting or security.
• The number of characters allowed for the INFO= field was increased from 72 to 120 in the module dsserve.pgm.
• The API for variable cid was updated, so is now correctly documented as character*12 in module idinfo.for.
• To facilitate communications with McIDAS-V, the modules listed below were updated to optionally use memory mapped files for User Common and/or add additional information to frame objects.

  Graphics.c	m0shmat.c	m0shmget.c
  mcenv.cp	m0cmgra.c	m0glue.h
  mcline.c	mcenh_.c

  Developers must relink local code that draw graphics, write to the image window, or modify the frame color table.
• The routine convdlmf.f , which processes calibration and navigation .dlm files, was updated so programmers can write case insensitive code.
• The modules listed below were updated for the new GRIB server and implementation of the MySQL database.

  database.c	daytime.c	gbtbpds001.2v1
  gbtbpds001.2v128	gbtbpds001.2v2	gbtbpds001.2v3
  gbtbpds001.av1	gbtbpds001.bv1	grdcopy.pgm
  grddisp.pgm	grdinfo.pgm	grdlist.pgm
  gribfunc.c	gribgdir.cp	gribgget.cp
  gridparm.inc	m0fhrnge.for	m0gserv.c
  m0gsort.for	m0instr.c	m0parstr.for
  mcfndgrd.for	mcgrib.h	mcidas.h
  mcncdf.h	ncdffunc.c	readsort.for
  xcdgrib.c

• Changes to the modules listed below were made to increase the maximum number of grid points allowed to 2,000,000; memory usage was optimized by placing larger arrays into common blocks.

  ctourf.for	ggetserv.fp	gputserv.fp
  grdcopy.pgm	grddisp.pgm	grdimg.pgm
  grdinfo.pgm	grdlist.pgm	gridparm.inc
  igg.pgm	igget.for	m0readgfin.for
  mcfbarn.for	mcgget.for	mcgrdcon.for
  mcidas.h	mcigghed.for	mcprghed.for
  ptcon.pgm

• The install and compilation scripts, mcinst.sh and mccomp.sh, were updated to link to the MySQL libraries. A change was also made to mcinst.sh to use ‘single job mode’ when building McIDAS-X on Linux workstations. This change prevents undefined references when compiling on fast workstations.
• The arrays containing the number of columns for a schema was increased from 7,000 to 10,000 in module txt2md.pgm.
• The modules mcterm.c and mcterm.w were updated to correct problems with cutting and pasting text.
• Updates to the modules listed below were required to support the Fink version of g77 installs of McIDAS-X on Mac OS X version 10.4. Note: mcwish.osx is distributed as a binary, built under Mac OS X version 10.3.

  mccomp.sh	mcinst.sh	mcwish.osx
  xcdgrib.c

• To correct problems with the annotation line not updating, the function calls to tvsat in module imgdisp.pgm were changed to m0tvtosatcoords.
• File locking was updated in the module ddeservf.for to include the fully qualified path name of RESOLV.SRV .

McIDAS-XCD v2006

The McIDAS-XCD upgrade procedure is divided into four sections.

• Section I. Before Installing McIDAS-XCD describes the actions to be performed before installing McIDAS-XCD 2006.
• Section II. Installing McIDAS-XCD describes the installation procedure for McIDAS-XCD 2006.
• Section III. McIDAS-XCD Post-Upgrade Procedures describes the actions to be performed immediately after upgrading to McIDAS-XCD 2006 from a previous version.
• Section IV. McIDAS-XCD Changes lists the McIDAS-XCD software changes that have been made since the last upgrade.

Section I. Before Installing McIDAS-XCD

Complete all Required Actions below.

Compatibility with McIDAS-X

Required Action:

Section II. Installing McIDAS-XCD

If you need assistance with the installation, please contact Unidata McIDAS Support <support-mcidas@unidata.ucar.edu>.

The GRIB Server is now available in v2006 with the use of a MySQL database (which requires the -mysql flag during -X and -XCD builds). As mentioned in the DSSERVE command documentation, only GRIB files from the NOAAPORT data stream have been tested and are fully supported.

Required Action:

1. Obtain and install McIDAS-X 2006. Upgrade with additional modifications for the installation of McIDAS with the MySQL database.

   If you are planning on using the new GRIB server with -XCD, you must install MySQL on the -XCD machine, and then build and install McIDAS-X v2006 with the -mysql flag.

Section III. McIDAS-XCD Post-Upgrade Procedures

This section lists the actions to be performed immediately after upgrading to McIDAS-XCD 2006 from a previous version. If you are installing McIDAS-XCD for the first time on a workstation then everything in this section will have been done during the installation procedure.

Grid Parameter Definition Changes

Changes were made to the GRID parameter definitions and scaling factors between McIDAS-X versions 2005 and 2006. In version 2005, there were many parameters that had identical parameter abbreviations, even though the actual parameters had very different meanings. For example in version 2005, PAR=Z could mean ICAO Standard Atmosphere Ref Height (GRIB parameter ID number 5), Geopotential height (par 7), Geometrical height (par 8), Geopotential height anomaly (par 27), or 5-wave geopotential height (par 222). One model (e.g. GFS) could contain more than one of these "Z" parameters, and when that occurred, it was difficult to differentiate between Z=geopotential height and the other "Z" grids within the same model. In version 2006, we reduced the number of these parameter abbreviations with multiple definitions. In most cases, NCEP's Office Note 388 was used to redefine the parameter abbreviations.

In addition to the parameter abbreviation changes, the scaling factor for some parameters also changed. The reason for this is that in version 2005, the scaling factor of pressure defaulted to 2. Version 2006 now uses the scaling factor in gbtbpds001.2v2 when creating McIDAS Grid files and when populating the real-time GRIB database. Because the scaling factor is now set in this data file to the same value as the previous default value, users should see no changes in the resulting Grid files or display output.

See the Grid Parameter Definition Changes page for the complete set of parameter definition and scaling factor changes.

Required Actions:

1. Notify users of parameter name changes
2. Update scripts and commands where the affected parameters are used

Local Copies of GRIB Table Files

In version 2005, the gbtbpds001.* GRIB table files were moved from McIDAS-XCD to McIDAS-X for use with the GRIB decoder. These files now reside in ~mcidas/data and several files have extensive updates in 2006.

If your -XCD workstations have any local copies in ~mcidas/mcidas/data, they should be removed so that the updated files in McIDAS-X 2006 (located in ~mcidas/data) are used.

Required Actions:

1. Search for local copies of the gbtbpds001.* files and remove them
2. If any files were removed, you will need to stop and restart -XCD for the changes to take effect.

Additional Grid Datasets

New datasets coming across the NOAAPORT data stream were identified over the past year.  These are the Eastern North Pacific Wave Model (ENPW) and the North Pacific Hurricane Wave Model (NPHW).  If you are serving McIDAS Grid files, complete the following steps to add the ENP and NPH datasets to the RTGRIDS ADDE group to accommodate these data. If you choose not to complete this procedure, then these grids will continue to be filed into the RTGRIDS/OVERFLOW dataset. If you are switching to the new GRIB server, these datasets will be added with the new XCDGRIB.BAT script.

Optional Actions:

1. Log on to the McIDAS-XCD workstation as user mcidas
2. Open the file ~mcidas/workdata/RTMODELS.CFG for editing
3. Add the following lines to the file

   #ENPW-ALL
   ENPW= 2 73001
   
   # NPH-ALL
   NPHW= 2 72001

4. From a McIDAS-X session running under the mcidas account on your -XCD workstation, add the RTGRIDS/ENP-ALL and RTGRIDS/NPH-ALL datasets to your machine.

Type: DSSERVE ADD RTGRIDS/ENP-ALL GRID 73001 74000 RT=Y "ENP - All Eastern North Pacific Regional Wave Model grids

Type: DSSERVE ADD RTGRIDS/NPH-ALL GRID 72001 73000 RT=Y "NPH - All North Pacific Hurricane Wave Model grids

5. In order for the RTMODELS.CFG changes to take effect, you must stop and restart the LDM.

GRIB Server Set-up

The GRIB server is now available in McIDAS-X 2006. You may continue to serve McIDAS GRID files as you always have, but may want to switch to the new GRIB server for faster data transfers and less disk space usage. The real-time GRIB server utilizes a MySQL database. Only GRIB files from the NOAAPORT data stream have been tested and are fully supported. See the Unidata McIDAS User's Guide for all of the information about configuring -XCD for the new GRIB server.

Optional Actions:

1. Install McIDAS-X version 2006 using the -mysql flag.
2. See Configuring the GRIB Decoders section of the Unidata McIDAS-X User's Guide for information on creating the MySQL mcrtgrib database with the gribadmin command, and activating the DMBIN GRIB Decoder.

Section IV. McIDAS-XCD Changes

This section lists the changes made to McIDAS-XCD source, data, script, and batch files since the last upgrade (version 2005).

Source Modules Changes

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-XCD source modules since the previous upgrade (version 2005).

File	Description of Modifications
bufr.h Mcbufrdecoder.c	Modifications for future bufr decoder.
dmbin.pgm dmgrid.pgm Mcgrbbfrdec.c mccmpgrd.for	GRIB decoder updates and changes for filing GRIB and/or Grid files.
dmgrid.pgm mcloadgh.for	Increased the maximum number of grids per grid file to 20,000.
dmraob.pgm dmsyn.pgm M0pt_utils.h Mcrtgdfile.c Mcrtmodels.c m0dcdsfc.for m0grabyt.for m0parobs.for m0rabdec.for m0wmodec.for mcmatgrd.for	Updated comments and/or debug in the code - no functional changes.
ingetext.pgm	Updated to check text products for both line feeds and carriage returns, since some new products only have line feeds.
m0syndec.for	Fixed bug where uninitialized fields caused ceiling and visibility to be incorrectly reported for Antarctic stations.
Mcgrbbfrdec.c	Added perturbation field for certain GFS forecasts.
nmcamt.pgm	Added entry for listing 14912 ECMWF grids.
qrtmdg.pgm	Updated to always remove data for tomorrow's date, which will improve performance at the end of the year

Source Module Changes in -X

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-X source modules since the previous upgrade (version 2005) that are used by -XCD.

File	Description of Modifications
gridparm.inc mcgrib.h mcidas.h xcdgrib.c	GRIB decoder updates and changes for filing GRIB and/or Grid files.
gridparm.inc mcidas.h	Updated MAXGRIDPT to 2,000,000.
mcgrib.h xcdgrib.c mccomp.sh	Changes for -mysql compile flag.
mcgrib.h	Updated GB_MAX_DATA_PTS, GB_MAX_MSG_LEN, GB_MAX_BMS_LEN, and GB_MAX_BDS_LEN parameters so that larger values of these may be processed. GB_MAX_BMS_LEN needed to be increased because of AWC grids. The AWC grids were not being decoded properly because when they were injected into the queue between grids that needed to be stitched, it was causing them not to stitch properly due to its memory being overwritten.
xcdgrib.c	Some ensemble model code changes.

Data File Changes

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-XCD data files since the previous upgrade (version 2005).

File	Description of Modifications
GRIBDEC.CFG	Increased the maximum number of grids per grid file to 20,000.
NBIN.CFG NTXT.CFG	Added FILE=STDIN to replace named pipes.
NOGRIB.CFG	ICA grids with geographic IDs of 218 and 242 are no longer decoded, due to improper file formats. WWF-GLME is also no longer decoded, due to bad geographic parameters.
RTMODELS.CFG	Added Eastern North Pacific grids, ENP-ALL. Added North Pacific Hurricane Wave Model grids, NPH-ALL. ICA-NWME changed to ICA-SHPS to more accurately reflect the dataset. Removed LFM-ALL, NAM-AKPSAWI4, NAM-USLCAWIP, NDF-ALL, and GFS-NWMESSIF entries.

Data File Changes in -X

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-X data files since the previous upgrade (version 2005) that are used by -XCD.

File	Description of Modifications
gbtbpds001.2v1 gbtbpds001.2v128 gbtbpds001.2v2 gbtbpds001.2v3	Updated the grid parameter definitions to eliminate duplicate parameter abbreviations and fix some incorrect scaling factors
gbtbpds001.av1	Added Eastern North Pacific and North Pacific hurricane wave model identifiers.
gbtbpds001.bv1	Updated some incorrect navigation parameters.
STNDB.CORE	Updates to the core station database file.

Script and Batch File Changes

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-XCD scripts and batch files since the previous upgrade (version 2005).

File	Description of Modifications
_mcidasxcd.mk xcd_install Makefile	Installation file changes. Added new files and made changes for -mysql compile flag.
gribadmin	New file - Unix command for managing the MySQL database used by the GRIB server.
xcd_init	Updated version number.
xcdadmin	Fixed to properly kill running processes and updated method for creating log files.
xcdscour	New file - Unix command for deleting real-time GRIB or BUFR files, and their associated database entries.
XCDADDE.BAT	Changed to act as an umbrella batch file to call other ADDE batch files (XCDRTPT.BAT, XCDRTWX.BAT, XCDNEXR.BAT, XCDGRIB.BAT, XCDGRID.BAT)
XCDGRIB.BAT	Batch file to run DSSERVE commands for the new default GRIB datasets.
XCDGRID.BAT	Batch file to run DSSERVE commands for McIDAS GRID datasets.
XCDNEXR.BAT	Batch file to run DSSERVE commands for the default NEXRAD datasets.
XCDRTPT.BAT	Batch file to run DSSERVE commands for the default real-time MD datasets.
XCDRTWX.BAT	Batch file to run DSSERVE commands for the default text datasets.

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