Unidata - To provide the data services, tools, and cyberinfrastructure leadership that advance Earth system science, enhance educational opportunities, and broaden participation. Unidata
         
  advanced  
 
Table of contents Previous: Building and Installing McIDAS-X Next: Installing the McIDAS-X ADDE Remote Server

Configuring the mcidas Account

NOTE: The mcidas account is intended to be used only for supervisory activities. Changes made by mcidas to configuration files in the $McINST_ROOT/data directory will affect all McIDAS-X users, so changes should be made judiciously. As you might imagine, this feature can be very useful or extremely harmful.

The 5 tasks needed to configure the mcidas account and are described in sections below:

  1. Defining the XCDDATA Output Directory and Copying Needed Files
  2. Locating Files in McIDAS
  3. Defining ADDE Datasets
  4. Locating ADDE Datasets
  5. Define environment variables needed for the ADDE remote server

To simplify the configuration process, the script mcxconfig has been included in the Unidata McIDAS-X distribution. mcxconfig will lead the installer through the configuration steps giving advice when necessary. mcxconfig is run as follows:


The following sections describe the steps that mcxconfig leads the user through.

  1. Defining the XCDDATA Output Directory and Copying Needed Files

    Define the McIDAS string XCDDATA to be the fully qualified directory name where ldm-mcidas decoders will write McIDAS compatible data files created from the IDD UNIWISC, FSL2, and NLDN datastreams. It will also be the the directroy in which XCD decoders will write their output data files if you choose to run McIDAS-XCD.

    XCDDATA must be defined before you do the next steps!

    If the directory defined in XCDDATA does not exist, create it:

    Copy files from the distribution to the XCDDATA directory:

    Finally, set the read/write permissions on the files just copied:

  2. Locating Files in McIDAS

    McIDAS uses two methods to locate files: the Unix MCPATH environment variable and file redirections.

    As will be seen in Configuring Configuring a New User Account, each user must specify a MCPATH for their environment. MCPATH defines a list of directories that McIDAS will look through when looking for data and ancillary data files.

    File redirections are specifications of locations of files by name. File locations specified through file redirections take precedence over the MCPATH mechanism. It is our experience that it is much more desirable to locate data files (e.g. images, grid files, files of surface and upper air data, etc.) through file redirections and ancillary data files (e.g. map databases, image enhancements, graphic palettes, etc.) through MCPATH.

    The first supervisory task mcidas needs to complete is setting up a set of file redirections that allows users to access the various McIDAS data files (e.g. AREA, GRID, MDXX, TEXT, etc.). File redirections are defined by invocations of the REDIRECT command.

    In Unidata McIDAS-X we provide an ASCII redirection template file, EXAMPLE.NAM. EXAMPLE.NAM contains pairs of data file name patterns and associated directory locations. After installation, EXAMPLE.NAM will be located in the $McINST_ROOT/data directory.

    mcidas should make a copy of this file:

    and then modify the copy to match the local McIDAS-X setup.

    The regular expressions for the data file names follow Bourne Shell-style patterns; the directory portion of the pairs must be fully qualified names of existing disk directories. For instance:

    tells McIDAS to look for all files beginning with AREA006 in the /data/ldm/mcidas directory.

    File name patterns may match multiple files and multiple patterns may match the same file(s). The REDIRECTion that will be used in the latter case is the one that is the most specific. For instance:

    both match the file named AREA0061, but since the second pattern is more specific than the first, it will be used to look for, find, or create AREA0061 in /data/mydata.

    After modifying REDIRECT settings in LOCAL.NAM, make them active in a McIDAS.

    Start a McIDAS-X session:

    From the McIDAS-X Command Window, first make the redirections in LOCAL.NAM active.

    This restores the redirections defined in LOCAL.NAM to memory and also saves them in the file LWPATH.NAM in the /home/mcidas/workdata directory. LWPATH.NAM will be read each time mcidas starts a McIDAS session, so the REDIRECT sequence above only needs to be run once.

    Verify that you setup the redirections correctly. Again, from the McIDAS-X Command Window:

    At a minimum, you should see files with names like AREA9000, AREA9010, etc.:

    DMAP AREA
    PERM      SIZE LAST CHANGED FILENAME DIRECTORY
    ---- --------- ------------ -------- ---------
    -rw-   9341360 Apr 01 16:20 AREA9000 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-   1503728 Apr 01 16:21 AREA9010 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-   1503728 Apr 01 16:21 AREA9011 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-   1543904 Apr 01 16:23 AREA9012 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-   1003728 Apr 01 16:23 AREA9013 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-   1003728 Apr 01 16:24 AREA9014 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-    897680 Apr 01 16:24 AREA9015 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-    608288 Apr 01 16:25 AREA9016 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-    565512 Apr 01 16:25 AREA9017 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-    311008 Apr 01 16:25 AREA9018 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-    714288 Apr 01 16:26 AREA9019 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-       768 Nov 25  1996 AREA9982 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-       768 Nov 25  1996 AREA9983 /home/mcidas/data
    -rw-      2816 Jun 02  1998 AREA9995 /home/mcidas/data
    46229344 bytes in 18 files
    

    If you don't see a file listing similar to this, there is most likely a problem with your REDIRECT definitions in $McINST_ROOT/data/LOCAL.NAM, and you should go back and correct the mistake(s) and rerun the REDIRECT REST sequence above.

  3. Defining ADDE Datasets

    McIDAS comprises a client-server architecture referred to as the Abstract Data Distribution Environment (ADDE). McIDAS ADDE applications make requests to server applications for data in named datasets. It is the user mcidas' responsibility to supply the definitions for supported data sets and their associated names.

    Unidata McIDAS-X contains a BATCH file, DSSERVE.BAT, that defines a recommended set of ADDE dataset contents and associated names.

    DSSERVE.BAT runs the DSSERVE commands that associate data set names with associated data file types and McIDAS file names or cylinder numbers for files that use the standard McIDAS file naming conventions (e.g., MDXXnnnn, GRIDnnnn, and AREAnnnn, where nnnn is a 4 digit number ranging from 0001 to 9999).

    mcidas should make a copy of DSSERVE.BAT:

    Modify dataset definitions to match your McIDAS data configuration in LSSERVE.BAT.

    Since the user interfaces we provide with Unidata McIDAS rely on particular data sets being available, we recommend that you do not change the data set names in LSSERVE.BAT.

    Activate the ADDE data set name definitions contained in LSSERVE.BAT in the McIDAS session started in step 2 above:

    This saves the ADDE data set definitions in the file RESOLV.SRV in the /home/mcidas/workdata directory.

    Next, verify that you setup the data set names correctly (note that the following depends on file redirections having been setup correctly):

    If you have images in McIDAS AREA format ingested from the Unidata-Wisconsin datastream available on your disk, try using IMGLIST to list information on them and IMGDISP to display them.

  4. Locating ADDE Datasets

    Each user's McIDAS-X session needs to know where to route ADDE requests for data. This routing information is stored in a client routing table, the default name of which is MCTABLE.TXT. Entries in the client routing table are managed by the DATALOC command.

    McIDAS supports the concept that user-specific and site-wide routing tables can be used in conjunction with each other. Access to the user and site client routing tables is controlled by the environment variables MCTABLE_READ and MCTABLE_WRITE that need to be defined in each user's McIDAS-X session. The site-wide routing table should be created and maintained by the user mcidas; the user routing table will be created and maintained by individual users.

    In order to simplify the process for generating the site-wide client routing table, we have included a template file, DATALOC.BAT in the distribution. The user mcidas should make a copy of this file in the $McINST_ROOT/data directory as follows:

    mcidas should then edit LOCDATA.BAT and change all instances of fully_qualified_host_identifier to the fully qualified hostname or IP address of their local ADDE server machine. The site client routing table will be created from this template in the next section.

    Next, create the ADDE site client routing table defined in LOCDATA.BAT:

    From within a McIDAS-X session do the following:

    If you defined the environment variable MCTABLE_WRITE to point at $McINST_ROOT/data/ADDESITE.TXT, running BATCH LOCDATA.BAT will create the file ADDESITE.TXT in the directory $McINST_ROOT/data.

    If you did not define MCTABLE_WRITE the above step will create the file MCTABLE.TXT in $McINST_ROOT/workdata. This file should be moved to mcidas' data directory, $McINST_ROOT/data and renamed to ADDESITE.TXT:

    From the Unix prompt:

  5. Define environment variables needed for the ADDE remote server

    Define environment variables needed for the McIDAS ADDE remote server in the file /home/mcidas/.mcenv. This is accomplished by copying the contents of:

    to $HOME/.mcenv and make sure that the file has group read and write permissions:

    You are done configuring the mcidas account. You should EXIT your McIDAS-X session:


Table of contents Previous: Building and Installing McIDAS-X Next: Installing the McIDAS-X ADDE Remote Server
 
 
  Contact Us     Site Map     Search     Terms and Conditions     Privacy Policy     Participation Policy
 
National Science Foundation (NSF) UCAR Office of Programs University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)   Unidata is a member of the UCAR Office of Programs, is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, and is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
P.O. Box 3000     Boulder, CO 80307-3000 USA     Tel: 303-497-8643     Fax: 303-497-8690