NetCDF 3.6.1 Release Notes
The source distribution for netCDF 3.6.1 is now available in compressed
tar, gzipped tar form. Instructions for installation are available in
the INSTALL file that accompanies the software or online.
Version 3.6.1 includes improved installation scripts, so that it
should install on most systems without the user having to set any
environmental variables.
This version of netCDF ensures that the length of netCDF files can
be determined from information in the file header. Previously,
there were two ways in which the length of netCDF files containing the
same information could differ. First, rewriting a value in a small
file could cause harmless extra zero bytes to be appended to the end
of the file, making it larger than necessary. Second, writing a file
using NOFILL mode (to avoid writing fill values for missing data)
could cause the file not to be padded to a multiple of four bytes, as
it is normally.
Changes Since Version 3.6.0
- Updated installation manual for 3.6.1.
- Changed installation to try to provide correct compiler flags for
compiling in 64-bit mode on Sun, Irix, AIX, and HPUX. (HPUX doesn't
work for me, however). Now run configure with --enable-64bit to get a
64 bit compile.
- Fixed long-standing bug that would cause small netCDF files to be
padded on the end with zero bytes to 4096 bytes when they were opened
and changed. Now small files should stay small after you change a
value.
- Fixed bug in assertions in putget.c that would only be noticed if
you change the manifest constant NC_MAX_DIMS in netcdf.h to be
different from NC_MAX_VAR_DIMS.
- Moved test ftest.F from fortran to nf_test directory, and fixed
bug in ftest.F which caused it to return 0 even if tests failed (no
tests were failing, however). Also renamed some test output files to
make things a little clearer.
- If open for writing, pad with up to 3 extra zero bytes before
close to the correct canonical length, calculated from the header.
Previously files could be short due to not padding when writing in
NOFILL mode.
- Doubled arbitrary limits on number of dimensions, variables,
attributes, and length of names.
- Change name of nc_get_format() to nc_inq_format(). Add analogous
interfaces for nf_inq_format(), nf90_inquire(), and
NcFile::get_format() to f77, f90, and C++ interfaces. Document new
function in texinfo files. Add minimal test to nc_test, nf_test.
- Added function nc_get_format(int ncid, int* formatp) that returns
either NC_FORMAT_CLASSIC or NC_FORMAT_64BIT for a CDF1 or CDF2 file,
respectively.
- Added test to nc_test that detects whether format version was
changed after a file is reopened and define mode is entered.
- Correctly configure for Intel ifort Fortran compiler on Linux.
Providing Feedback
Questions or suggestions about this release may be sent to
<support@unidata.ucar.edu>,
mentioning the platform and version of the software.
Last modified: Wed Feb 14 10:47:50 MST 2007
