Installing NetCDF (The latest version of this document is available at http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf/INSTALL.html.) This document contains instructions for building and installing the netCDF package from source on various platforms. Prebuilt binary releases are (or soon will be) available for various platforms from http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf/binaries.html. If you wish to report problems encountered during the installation of this package, see Reporting Problems below. Requirements Depending on the platform, you may need up to 25 Mbytes of free space to unpack, build, and run the tests. You will also need a Standard C compiler. If you have compilers for FORTRAN 77, FORTRAN 90, or C++, the corresponding netCDF language interfaces may also be built and tested. If you wish to build from source on a Windows (Win32) platform, different instructions apply. We have pre-built netCDF 3.5.0 libraries for Win 95/98/NT, available here. To do your own source build, get this zip file (these make files are for Microsoft Visual C 6 and Digital Fortran 6, you will have to modify for a different environment). Read WIN32_README.TXT for more info. Specifying the Environment for Building Select and specify an appropriate build environment. If necessary, set whichever of the environment variables CC, CFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, FC, FFLAGS, CXX, CXXFLAGS, F90, and F90FLAGS are needed to represent that environment. If you don't set an environment variable, the configure script will try to figure out a reasonable value. (See Setting Environment Variables to learn how to set environment variables.) Variable Description Notes If you don't specify this, the CC C compiler configure script will try to find a suitable C compiler such as cc, c89, xlc, or gcc. If you don't specify this, the configure script will try to find a FC Fortran compiler (if suitable Fortran 90 or Fortran 77 any) compiler. Set FC to "" explicitly, if no Fortran interface is desired. If you don't specify this, the configure script will try to find a F90 Fortran 90 compiler (if suitable Fortran 90 compiler. Not any) needed if FC specifies a Fortran 90 compiler. Set F90 to "" explicitly, if no Fortran 90 interface desired. If you don't specify this, the configure script will try to find a CXX C++ compiler suitable C++ compiler. Set CXX to "" explicitly, if no C++ interface is desired. CFLAGS C compiler flags "-O" or "-g", for example CPPFLAGS C preprocessor options "-DNDEBUG" to omit assertion checks, for example FFLAGS Fortran compiler flags "-O" or "-g", for example "-O" or "-g", for example. If you F90FLAGS Fortran 90 compiler don't specify this, the value of flags FFLAGS will be used. CXXFLAGS C++ compiler flags "-O" or "-g", for example ARFLAGS NMFLAGS One or more of these were needed for FPP some platforms, as specified below. M4FLAGS Miscellaneous Unless specified, you should not set LIBS these environment variables, because FLIBS that may interfere with the configure FLDFLAGS script. The section marked Tested Systems below contains a list of systems on which we have built this package, the environment variable settings we used, and additional commentary. Running the configure Script To create the Makefiles needed to build netCDF, you must run the provided configure script. Go to the top-level netCDF src/ directory. Decide where you want to install this package. Use this for the "--prefix=" argument to the configure script below. The default installation prefix is "..", which will install the package's files in ../bin, ../lib, and ../man relative to the netCDF src/ directory. Execute the configure script: ./configure --prefix=whatever_you_decided The "--prefix=..." specification is optional; if omitted, ".." designating the parent directory will be used as a default. The configure script will examine your computer system -- checking for attributes that are relevant to building the netCDF package. It will print to standard output the checks that it makes and the results that it finds. The configure script will also create the file "config.log", which will contain error messages from the utilities that the configure script uses in examining the attributes of your system. Because such an examination can result in errors, it is expected that "config.log" will contain error messages. Therefore, such messages do not necessarily indicate a problem (a better indicator would be failure of the subsequent "make"). One exception, however, is an error message in "config.log" that indicates that a compiler could not be started. This indicates a severe problem in your compilation environment -- one that you must fix. Run "make". This will build one or more netCDF libraries. It will build the basic netCDF library libsrc/libnetcdf.a. If you have Fortran 77 or Fortran 90 compilers, then the Fortran interfaces will be included in this library. If you have a C++ compiler, then the C++ interface will be built into the library cxx/libnetcdf_c++.a. This will also build the netCDF utilities ncgen(1) and ncdump(1). Testing and Installing the Release Run "make test" to verify that the netCDF library and executables have been built properly. This will build and run various test programs that test the C, Fortran, and C++ interfaces as well as the "ncdump" and "ncgen" utility programs. Lines in the output beginning with "***" report on success or failure of the tests; any failures will be reported before halting the test. Compiler and linker warnings during the testing may be ignored. To install the libraries and executables, run "make install". Try linking your applications. Let us know if you have problems (see Reporting Problems below). Port the library to other platforms. Share data. Tested Systems The following are environment variable settings that we've used to build netCDF-3 on various systems -- plus commentary. Take your pick if there is more than one set of settings for a particular system. For some platforms we have provided a simple setting for building the library and another setting that uses optimization flags (though optimization may not make much difference for an I/O library). On some platforms compilers emit harmless warning messages, which you can safely ignore unless the tests performed in the "make test" step fail. If you don't find your environment listed here, then try http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/netcdf/other-builds.html for reports of successful builds of this package in environments to which we had no access. * AIX * HP-UX * IRIX and IRIX64 * Linux * MacOSX * OSF1 * Solaris * SunOS4 * UNICOS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AIX AIX gale 3 4 001330614C00 CC=/bin/xlC FC=/bin/xlf F90=/bin/xlf90 F90FLAGS=-qsuffix=f=f90 CXX=/bin/xlC -------- CC=/bin/xlc CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS=-O FC=/bin/xlf FFLAGS=-O F90=/bin/xlf90 F90FLAGS=-qsuffix=f=f90 # Note: no "-O" option CXX=/bin/xlC CXXFLAGS=-O When we added the "-O" option to the Fortran-90 compilation flags, the result was an error message "1501-229 Compilation ended due to lack of space". -------- Carlie Coats reported that the following was necessary on an IBM AIX SP system for 64-bit mode: ARFLAGS='-X 64 cru' NMFLAGS='-X 64' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HP-UX HP-UX robin B.11.00 E 9000/715 2010262449 No Fortran90 compiler was available for testing. CC=/bin/c89 CPPFLAGS=-D_HPUX_SOURCE FC=/opt/fortran/bin/fort77 FFLAGS=-w FLIBS=-lU77 # needed to obtain getarg_ CXX=/bin/CC -------- CC=/bin/c89 CPPFLAGS='-D_HPUX_SOURCE -DNDEBUG -w' CFLAGS=-O FC=/opt/fortran/bin/fort77 # might be /usr/bin/fort77 instead FFLAGS='-O2 -w' # "-O3" causes ncgen test to fail FLIBS=-lU77 # needed to obtain getarg_ CXX=/usr/bin/CC CXXFLAGS=-O The above resulted in ignorable errors involving "Redefinition of macro FD_ISSET." Also, we don't have an f90 compiler for HP-UX yet, so we haven't tested that interface. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ IRIX and IRIX64 IRIX chevy 6.5 01101244 IP22 IRIX64 flip 6.5 10120105 IP30 IRIX f90 Note: On IRIX 6.x platforms with version 7 compilers, the f90 compiler accepts 'integer*1', while f77 accepts both 'integer*1' and 'byte'. Using FC=f90 forces the configure script to select 'integer*1'. The resulting *.inc files and test configurations will then work with either compiler. CC=/bin/c89 FC=/bin/f90 # builds both f77 and f90 interfaces CXX=/bin/CC -------- CC=/bin/c89 CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS=-O FC=/bin/f90 # f77 also works FFLAGS=-O F90=/bin/f90 F90FLAGS=-O CXX=/bin/CC CXXFLAGS=-O -------- CC=/bin/c89 CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS='-O -o32' FC=/bin/f77 FFLAGS='-O -o32 -nocpp' CXX=/bin/CC CXXFLAGS='-O -o32' FPP='/bin/cc -E' -------- CC=/bin/c89 CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS='-O -n32' FC=/bin/f90 FFLAGS='-O -n32' CXX=/bin/CC CXXFLAGS='-O -n32' -------- # requires IRIX64 CC='/bin/cc -64' CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS=-O FC='/bin/f90 -64' FFLAGS=-O F90='/bin/f90 -64' CXX='/bin/CC -64' CXXFLAGS=-O ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Linux Linux imogene 2.2.16-22enterprise #1 SMP EDT 2000 i686 unknown CC=/usr/bin/egcs CPPFLAGS=-Df2cFortran FC=/usr/bin/g77 FFLAGS=-Wno-globals CXX=/usr/bin/g++ -------- CC=/usr/bin/egcs CPPFLAGS='-DNDEBUG -Df2cFortran' CFLAGS=-O FC=/usr/bin/g77 FFLAGS="-O -Wno-globals" CXX=/usr/bin/g++ -------- CC=/usr/bin/egcs CPPFLAGS="-DNDEBUG -Df2cFortran" CFLAGS=-O FC=/opt/bin/fort77 # uses f2c FFLAGS="-O -Nx400 -w" # "-Nx400" permits many EXTERNAL statements CXX=/usr/bin/g++ Linux sunshine 2.4.2-2smp #1 SMP Sun Apr 8 20:21:34 EDT 2001 i686 CC=/usr/bin/gcc CPPFLAGS='-DNDEBUG -DpgiFortran' CFLAGS=-O FC=/opt/pgi/linux86/bin/pgf90 FFLAGS="-O -w" CXX=/usr/bin/g++ Linux aqua 2.2.5-16 #1 Tue Apr 27 04:55:03 EDT 1999 alpha unknown The following was reported to work on an Alpha Linux workstation: CC=ccc # Compaq C compiler CPPFLAGS='-DNDEBUG -Df2cFortran' FC=fort # Compaq Fort F77/F90 Compiler F90=fort CXX=/usr/bin/c++ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MacOSX Darwin Kernel Version 1.2 No Fortran 90 compiler was available for testing. If no Fortran interface is required: CC=/usr/bin/cc CXX=/usr/bin/c++ FC="" M4FLAGS="" # m4 doesn't handle the -B10000 argument -------- If f2c is installed for use with the Fortran interface: CPPFLAGS=-Df2cFortran FC=/bin/fc M4FLAGS="" FFLAGS=-w FPP="cc -E -C" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OSF1 OSF1 ernie V4.0 1091 alpha NB: Use of "g++" in the following might require that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable be set to reference the directory that contains the "g++" sharable library, e.g. export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/gnu/lib CC=/bin/c89 FC=/bin/f77 F90=/bin/f90 CXX=g++ -------- CC=/bin/c89 CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS=-O FC=/bin/f77 FFLAGS=-O F90=/bin/f90 CXX=g++ CXXFLAGS=-O ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Solaris SunOS 5.7 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-2 SunOS 5.8 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-2 SunOS 5.8 i86pc i386 CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/c89 # also works with cc FC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/f90 # also works with f77 FFLAGS=-w # disables an ignorable warning CXX=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/CC -------- CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/c89 CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS=-O FC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/f77 FFLAGS="-O -w" F90=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/f90 F90FLAGS="-O -w" CXX=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/CC CXXFLAGS=-O -------- CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/c89 CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS=-O FC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/f90 FFLAGS="-O2 -w" # "-O" causes "ncgen -f" test to fail CXX=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/CC CXXFLAGS=-O -------- CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/c89 CFLAGS="-xarch=v9" # 64-bit SPARC binary FC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/f90 FFLAGS="-w -xarch=v9" CXX=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/CC CXXFLAGS="-xarch=v9" -------- CC=gcc CPPFLAGS=-Df2cFortran # necessary for Fortran API FC=g77 F90='' CXX=g++ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SunOS4 SunOS gummo 4.1.4 11 sun4m No Fortran 90 compiler was available for testing. CC=/usr/lang/acc FC=/usr/lang/f77 FFLAGS=-w CXX=/usr/lang/CC -------- CC=/usr/lang/acc CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS=-O FC=/usr/lang/f77 FFLAGS='-O -w' CXX=/usr/lang/CC CXXFLAGS=-O -------- CC=gcc CPPFLAGS='-DNDEBUG -D__USE_FIXED_PROTOTYPES__' CFLAGS=-O FC=/usr/lang/f77 FFLAGS='-O -w' CXX=g++ LIBS='-L/usr/lang/SC3.0.1/lib -lansi' # To obtain memmove(). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ UNICOS UNICOS Before executing make, manually copy the file "libsrc/ncx_cray.c" to file "libsrc/ncx.c". See the commentary at the top of this file for more information. CC=/opt/ctl/bin/cc CPPFLAGS= CFLAGS=-O3 # -g works as well FC=/opt/ctl/bin/f90 FFLAGS="-g -F -dp" # "-F" enables macro substitution in code. # "-dp" enables DOUBLEPRECISION/double # equivalence. CXX=/opt/ctl/bin/CC CXXFLAGS= # "-h char" may be necessary with older C++ F90="" # Fortran-90 interface will be fixed in 3.5.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Porting Notes The configure and build system should work on any system which has a modern "sh" shell, "make", and so on. The configure and build system is less portable than the "C" code itself, however. You may run into problems with the "include" syntax in the Makefiles. You can use GNU make to overcome this, or simply manually include the specified files after running configure. If you can't run the configure script, you will need to create libsrc/ncconfig.h and fortran/nfconfig.inc. Start with libsrc/ncconfig.in and fortran/nfconfig.in and set the defines as appropriate for your system. Operating system dependency is isolated in the "ncio" module. We provide two versions. posixio.c uses POSIX system calls like "open()", "read()" and "write(). ffio.c uses a special library available on CRAY systems. You could create other versions for different operating systems. The program "t_ncio.c" can be used as a simple test of this layer. Numerical representation dependency is isolated in the "ncx" module. As supplied, ncx.m4 (ncx.c) supports IEEE floating point representation, VAX floating point, and CRAY floating point. BIG_ENDIAN vs LITTLE_ENDIAN is handled, as well as various sizes of "int", "short", and "long". We assume, however, that a "char" is eight bits. There is a separate implementation of the ncx interface available as ncx_cray.c which contains optimizations for CRAY vector architectures. Move the generic ncx.c out of the way and rename ncx_cray.c to ncx.c to use this module. By default, this module does not use the IEG2CRAY and CRAY2IEG library calls. When compiled with aggressive inlining and optimization, it provides equivalent functionality with comparable speed and clearer error semantics. If you wish to use the IEG library functions, compile this module with -DUSE_IEG. Setting Environment Variables If you don't know what environment variables are or how to set them, then read this section; otherwise, you may safely skip it. An environment variable is a named parameter that is managed by a user's shell program and which the shell makes available to the utilities that it executes (for example, a configure script). The following are examples of typical environment variables: NAME EXAMPLE VALUE ---- ------------- USER steve HOME /home/steve PATH /bin:/usr/bin:/home/steve/bin You may obtain a listing of your environment variables by executing the command "env". The way in which an environment variable is defined and set depends upon the shell the user is using. A user of a csh-like shell (e.g. csh, tcsh) might do the following: % setenv CC c89 % setenv CPPFLAGS "-O -DNDEBUG" whereas, the user of the standard UNIX shell (e.g. sh, ksh, bash) might, equivalently, do the following: $ export CC=c89 $ export CPPFLAGS="-O -DNDEBUG" In both cases, the quotes above are necessary to delimit a value that contains embedded whitespace. They do not, however, become part of the value. A user of a standard shell has an additional, shorthand method for defining and setting environment variables for just a single command. Environment variables can be defined and set on the command-line and take effect for only that command. For example $ export FOO=foo $ env | grep FOO FOO=foo $ FOO=bar env | grep FOO FOO=bar $ env | grep FOO FOO=foo For tested systems, environment variables and their values are given as if listed by the "env" utility. Users of the standard UNIX shell may use the syntax directly; whereas, users of a csh-like shell should convert the syntax to that expected by the shell. For example, a standard shell user might do the following (taken from the SunOS 5.6 example): $ CC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/c89 CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG CFLAGS=-O \ FC=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/f77 FFLAGS="-O -erroff=WDECL_LOCAL_NOTUSED" \ CXX=/opt/SUNWspro/bin/CC ./configure >configure.log 2>&1 whereas a csh-like shell user would, equivalently, do the following: % setenv CC /opt/SUNWspro/bin/c89 % setenv CPPFLAGS "-DNDEBUG" % setenv CFLAGS -O % setenv FC /opt/SUNWspro/bin/f77 % setenv FFLAGS "-O -erroff=WDECL_LOCAL_NOTUSED" % setenv CXX /opt/SUNWspro/bin/CC % ./configure >&! configure.log More information on environment variables can be found in the manual page for your shell (e.g. "man csh", "man ksh"). Reporting Problems If you have a problem with the installation and wish to report it, then please do the following: 1. Read this INSTALL document -- especially the examples and commentary relevant to your system. 2. Go to the top-level netCDF source directory, src/ (the directory containing the VERSION file). 3. Execute the command "make distclean". Don't worry if it fails. 4. Remove the file "config.cache" if it exists. 5. Set your environment variables as described above. 6. Re-execute the configure script. Redirect its standard output and standard error to the file "configure.log". If this step fails -- which is indicated by error messages (not warnings) in "configure.log" (not "config.log") -- then stop and send items A through E below to . 7. Execute the command "make". Redirect its standard output and standard error to the file "make.log". If this step fails, then stop and send items A through F below to . 8. Execute the command "make test". Redirect its standard output and standard error to the file "test.log". If this step fails, then stop and send items A through G below to . 9. Execute the command "make install". Redirect its standard output and standard error to the file "install.log". If this step fails, then stop and send items A through H below to . The following items help us diagnose installation problems. PLEASE SEND THEM AS INCLUDED PLAIN TEXT IN YOUR EMAIL AND NOT AS ATTACHMENTS. A. The standard output of the command "uname -a". B. The contents of the file VERSION, which is in the top-level source directory. C. The absolute pathnames of all compilers (C, Fortran, C++) used in the build process (use the type(1) or which(1) utility to determine this). D. The file "configure.log" from step 6 above. E. The file "config.log", which is created in the top-level source directory by the configure script during step 6 above. F. The file "make.log" from step 7 above. G. The file "test.log" from step 8 above. H. The file "install.log" from step 9 above.