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INFO-DIR-SECTION netCDF scientific data format
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* netcdf-install: (netcdf-install). The NetCDF Installation and Porting Guide
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Top, Next: installing-binaries, Prev: (dir), Up: (dir)

NetCDF Installation and Porting Guide
*************************************

This document describes how to build and install the netCDF library,
version 3.6.3 on Unix and Windows systems. This document was last
updated on 18 May 2008.

Instructions for installing earlier versions of netCDF can be found
at `http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/old_docs'.

For a brief introduction to the netCDF format and utilities see
*Note The NetCDF Tutorial: (netcdf-tutorial)Top.

For a complete description of the netCDF format and utilities see
*Note The NetCDF Users Guide: (netcdf)Top.

Programming guides are available for C (*note The NetCDF C Interface
Guide: (netcdf-c)Top.), C++ (*note The NetCDF C++ Interface Guide:
(netcdf-cxx)Top.), Fortran 77 (*note The NetCDF Fortran 77 Interface
Guide: (netcdf-f77)Top.), and Fortran 90 (*note The NetCDF Fortran 90
Interface Guide: (netcdf-f90)Top.). All of these documents are
available from the netCDF website
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf'.

Separate documentation for the netCDF Java library can be found at
the netCDF-Java website,
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf-java'.

To learn more about netCDF, see the netCDF website
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf'.

* Menu:

* installing-binaries::
* Quick Instructions for Installing NetCDF on Unix::
* Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems::
* Windows::
* If Something Goes Wrong::
* Combined Index::

--- The Detailed Node Listing ---

Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

* Requirements::
* Specifying the Environment for Building::
* Building on 64 Bit Platforms::
* Running the configure Script::
* Running make::
* Testing the Build::
* Installing NetCDF::
* Platform Specific Notes::
* Additional Porting Notes::
* NetCDF Source::

Building and Installing NetCDF on Windows

* Getting Prebuilt DLL::
* Installing the DLL::
* Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus 6::
* Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET::
* Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET::

If Something Goes Wrong

* The Usual Build Problems::
* Troubleshooting::
* Finding Help::
* Reporting Problems::

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: installing-binaries, Next: Quick Instructions for Installing NetCDF on Unix, Prev: Top, Up: Top

1 Installing the NetCDF Binaries
********************************

Perhaps the easiest way to get netCDF is to get a pre-built binary
distribution. To get them, see
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/binaries.html'.

To install the binary distribution, uncompress and unpack the tar
file. You will end up with 4 subdirectories, lib, include, man, and bin.

The lib subdirectory holds the netCDF libraries (C, Fortran, and
C++). The include directory holds the necessary netcdf.h file (for C),
netcdf.inc (for Fortran), netcdfcpp.h (for C++), and the .mod files
(for Fortran 90). The bin directory holds the ncgen and ncdump
utilities, and the man directory holds the netCDF documentation.

You can have these directories anywhere you like, and use netCDF. But
when compiling a netCDF program, you will have to tell the linker where
to find the library (e.g. with the -L option of most C compilers), and
you will also have to tell the C pre-processor where to find the
include file (e.g. with the -I option).

If you are using shared libraries, you will also have to specify the
library location for run-time dynamic linking. See your compiler
documentation. For some general information see the netCDF FAQ "How do
I use shared libraries" at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/faq.html#using_shared_p'.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Quick Instructions for Installing NetCDF on Unix, Next: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems, Prev: installing-binaries, Up: Top

2 Quick Instructions for Installing NetCDF on Unix
**************************************************

Who has time to read long installation manuals these days?

To install netCDF, uncompress and unpack the tar file, then change to
the distribution directory:

gunzip netcdf-3.6.2.tar.gz
tar -xf netcdf-3.6.2.tar
cd netcdf-3.6.2

Now run the usual configure, make check, make install cycle:

./configure
make check
make install

The configure script will try to find necessary tools in your path.
When you run configure you may optionally use the -prefix argument to
change the default installation directory. For example, the following
will install the library in /usr/local/lib, the header file in
/usr/local/include, and the utilities in /usr/local/bin.

./configure --prefix=/usr/local

The default install root is /usr/local (so there's no need to use the
prefix argument if you want the software installed there).

By default the netCDF configuration will build static libraries
only. For shared libraries as well, use the -enable-shared option to
configure.

If all this doesn't work, then you might have to read the next
chapter. Better luck next time!

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems, Next: Windows, Prev: Quick Instructions for Installing NetCDF on Unix, Up: Top

3 Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems
************************************************

The latest version of this document is available at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/netcdf-install'.

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/software/netcdf/binaries.html'.

* Menu:

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Requirements, Next: Specifying the Environment for Building, Prev: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.1 Installation 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.
Compilers and associated tools will only be found if they are in your
path, or if you specify the path and compiler in the appropriate
environment variable. (Example for csh: setenv CC=/some/directory/cc).

If you want to run the large file tests, you will need about 13 GB of
free disk space, as some very large files are created. The created
files are immediately deleted after the tests complete. These large
file tests are not run as part of the normal "make check" step; they
are only run if you use the -enable-large-file-tests option with
configure.

If you wish to build from source on a Windows (Win32) platform,
different instructions apply. *Note Windows::.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Specifying the Environment for Building, Next: Building on 64 Bit Platforms, Prev: Requirements, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.2 Specifying the Environment for Building
===========================================

The netCDF configure script searches your path to find the compilers,
tools, and settings it needs to build netCDF. If you wish to change the
default choices of the configure script, you may do so by setting
environment variables.

Environment variables are a feature of Unix shells, and each shell
may handle them in a slightly different manner. (To see which shell you
are using, type: echo $SHELL).

For users of the C-shell (csh) and derived shells, use the setenv
command to set environment variables. For the Bourne shell (sh), use
the export command to set an environment variable.

For example, to use compilers that can't be found in your path, set
the appropriate CC, CXX, F77, or F90 environment variables. In the
Bourne shell:

export CC=/some/strange/place/cc
export F77=/some/strange/place/f77
./configure
make check

To accomplish the same thing from the C-shell:

setenv CC /some/strange/place/cc
setenv F77 /some/strange/place/f77
./configure
make check

When searching for compilers the configure script will prefer vendor
compilers to GNU compilers. Its not because we don't like GNU, but
because we assume if you purchased a compiler, you want to use it.
Setting CC allows you to over-ride this preference. (Alternatively, you
could temporarily remove the compiler's directories from your PATH.)

For example, on an AIX system, configure will first search for xlc,
the AIX compiler. If not found, it will try gcc, the GNU compiler. To
override this behavior, set CC to gcc (in sh: export CC=gcc). (But
don't forget to also set CXX to g++, or else configure will try and use
xlC, the AIX C++ compiler to build the netCDF C++ API.)

By default, the netCDF library is built with assertions turned on. If
you wish to turn off assertions, set CPPFLAGS to -DNDEBUG (csh ex:
setenv CPPFLAGS -DNDEBUG).

If GNU compilers are used, the configure script sets CPPFLAGS to "-g
-O2". If this is not desired, set CPPFLAGS to nothing, or to whatever
other value you wish to use, before running configure.

3.2.1 Variable Description Notes
--------------------------------

CC C compiler If you don't specify this, the configure
script will try to find a suitable C
compiler such as cc, c89, xlc, or gcc.
FC Fortran If you don't specify this, the configure
compiler (if script will try to find a suitable Fortran
any) 90 or Fortran 77 compiler. Set FC to ""
explicitly, or provide the -disable-f77
option to configure, if no Fortran
interface is desired.
F90 Fortran 90 If you don't specify this, the configure
compiler (if script will try to find a suitable Fortran
any) 90 compiler. Not needed if FC specifies a
Fortran 90 compiler. Set F90 to ""
explicitly, or use the -disable-f90 option
to configure, if no Fortran 90 interface
is desired. For a vendor F90 compiler,
make sure you're using the same vendor's
F77 compiler. Using Fortran compilers from
different vendors, or mixing vendor
compilers with g77, the GNU F77 compiler,
is not supported and may not work.
CXX C++ compiler If you don't specify this, the configure
script will try to find a suitable C++
compiler. Set CXX to "" explicitly, or use
the -disable-cxx configure option, if no
C++ interface is desired. If using a
vendor C++ compiler, use that vendor's C
compiler to compile the C interface. Using
different vendor compilers for C and C++
may not work.
CFLAGS C compiler "-O" or "-g", for example. If you don't
flags set this, configure may set it based on
your platform's needs (unless you have
used the -disable-flag-setting option is
used with configure).
CPPFLAGS C "-DNDEBUG" to omit assertion checks, for
preprocessor example. If you don't set this, configure
options may set it based on your platform's needs
(unless you have used the
-disable-flag-setting option is used with
configure).
FFLAGS Fortran "-O" or "-g", for example. If you don't
compiler flags set this, configure may set it based on
your platform's needs (unless you have
used the -disable-flag-setting option is
used with configure).
F90FLAGS Fortran 90 "-O" or "-g", for example. If you don't
compiler flags specify this, the value of FFLAGS will be
used. Configure may set it based on your
platform's needs (unless you have used the
-disable-flag-setting option is used with
configure).
CXXFLAGS C++ compiler "-O" or "-g", for example. If you don't
flags set this, configure may set it based on
your platform's needs (unless you have
used the -disable-flag-setting option is
used with configure).
ARFLAGS, Miscellaneous One or more of these were needed for some
NMFLAGS, FPP, platforms, as specified below. Unless
M4FLAGS, specified, you should not set these
LIBS, FLIBS, environment variables, because that may
FLDFLAGS interfere with the configure 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.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Building on 64 Bit Platforms, Next: Running the configure Script, Prev: Specifying the Environment for Building, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.3 Building on 64 Bit Platforms
================================

Some platforms support special options to build in 64-bit mode.

NetCDF 3.6.3 has been tested as 64-bit builds on SunOS, Irix, and
AIX. The options needed to build in 64-bit mode on these platforms are
described below.

`AIX'
Set -q64 option in all compilers, and set NMFLAGS to -X64, and
ARFLAGS to '-X64 cru'. Alternatively, set environment variable
OBJECT_MODE to 64 before running configure.

`IRIX'
Set the -64 option in all compilers.

`SunOS'
Use the -xarch=v9 flag on all compilers. This is not supported on
the x86 platform.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Running the configure Script, Next: Running make, Prev: Building on 64 Bit Platforms, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.4 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 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 "/usr/local," which will install the package's
files in usr/local/bin, usr/local/lib, and usr/local/man. The default
can be overridden with the -prefix argument to configure.

(Note that this is a new default location for version 3.6.2 of
netCDF. Previous versions used the directory in which netCDF was built
as the default install directory).

Here's how to execute the configure script with a different
installation directory:

./configure --prefix=/whatever/you/decided

The above would cause the netCDF libraries to be installed in
/whatever/you/decided/lib, the header files in
/whatever/you/decided/include, the utilities (ncdump/ncgen) in
/whatever/you/decided/bin, and the man pages in
/whatever/you/decided/man.

There are other options for the configure script. The most useful
ones are listed below. Use the -help option to get the full list.

`--prefix'
Specify the directory under which netCDF will be installed.
Subdirectories lib, bin, include, and man will be created there,
if they don't already exist.

`--enable-shared'
Build shared libraries (as well as static) on platforms which
support them.

`--enable-docs-install'
If this option is used, the netCDF distribution will install all
documentation. NetCDF documents are provided in PDF, HTML,
postscript, info, and ASCII text.

You can change the directory that documents are installed to. Run
./configure -help for more information.

The this option does not affect the netCDF man pages, which are
always installed. This option applies only to the texinfo
documentation files in the man directory (netcdf.texi,
netcdf-c.texi, and so on).

The latest documentation is also available on-line at the the
netCDF website. `http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf'.

Installing the documentation does not cause the documentation to be
built from source; it causes the documentation which was shipped
with the distribution to be installed.

Users who wish to contribute to the documentation development are
urged to make any suggested changes to the documentation source
files, which have the .texi filename extension (netcdf.text,
netcdf-c.texi, etc.). Building the netCDF documentation from
source requires recent versions of the open-source tools sed, m4,
texinfo, and tex.

`--disable-flag-setting'
By default the configure script may change some compiler flags to
allow netCDF to build on your platform. If you wish to specify
compiler flags which conflict with the ones added by the configure
script, then use this option to instruct configure not to attempt
to set any compiler flags. It is then the responsibility of the
user to correctly set CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS, etc. (Note that this flag
does not affect some setting of flags by configure for GNU
platforms; it just turns off any special netCDF flags).

`--disable-largefile'
This omits OS support for large files (i.e. files larger than 2
GB).

`--disable-f77'
This turns off building of the F77 and F90 APIs. (The F90 API
cannot be built without the F77 API). This also disables some of
the configure tests that relate to fortran, including the test of
the F90 compiler. Setting the environment variables FC or F77 to
NULL will have the same effect as -disable-f77.

`--disable-f90'
This turns off the building of the F90 API. Setting the environment
variable F90 to null for configure will have the same effect.

`--disable-cxx'
This turns off the building of the C++ API. Setting the environment
variable CXX to null for configure will have the same effect.

`--disable-v2'
This turns of the V2 API. The V2 API is completely replaced with
the V3 API, but is usually built with netCDF for backwards
compatibility, and also because the C++ API depends on the V2 API.
Setting this has the effect of automatically turning of the CXX
API, as if -disable-cxx had also been specified.

`--disable-utilities'
This turns off the building (and testing) of the netCDF utilities
ncgen and ncdump. This option is helpful when debugging library
build problems, but probably not of much use to the average user.

`--enable-c-only'
This turns off the building (and testing) of everything except the
core netCDF-3 C library. This option is helpful when debugging
library build problems, but probably not of much use to the
average user.

`--enable-large-file-tests'
Turn on tests for large files. These tests create files over 2 GB
in size, and need about 13 GB of free disk space to run. These
files are deleted after the test successfully completes. They will
be created in the netCDF nc_test directory, unless the
-with-temp-large option is used to specify another location (see
below).

`--with-temp-large'
Normally large files are not created during the netCDF build, but
they will be if -enable-large-file-tests is specified (see above).
In that case, this configure parameter can be used to specify a
location to create these large files, for example:
-with-large-files=/tmp/ed.

`--disable-fortran-compiler-check'
Normally the netCDF configure checks the F77 and F90 compilers with
small test programs to see if they work. This is very helpful in
supporting netCDF installations on different machines, but won't
work with cross-compilation. Use the
-disable-fortran-compiler-check to turn off the fortran compiler
tests, and just assume that the compilers will work.

`--disable-fortran-type-check'
Normally configure checks the size of fortran types. This option
turns off those tests, and uses default values.

`--disable-compiler-recover'
Normally, if the netCDF configure finds a F90 compiler, and it
fails to build the test program described in -disable-f90-check,
it will print a warning, and then continue to build without the
F90 API, as if the user has specified -disable-f90. With the
-disable-compiler-recover option set, it will not continue, but
will just stop if the fortran 90 compiler doesn't work. This is
useful for automatic testing, where we want the tests to fail if
something causes the fortran compiler to break.

`--disable-examples'
Starting with version 3.6.2, netCDF comes with some examples in the
"examples" directory. By default, the examples are all built during
a "make check" unless the -disable-examples option is provided.
Note that the examples are not built for "make install", just for
"make check". As far as netCDF is concerned, the examples are
extra tests.

`--enable-separate-fortran'
This will cause the Fortran 77 and Fortran 90 APIs to be built into
their own separate library, instead of being included in the C
library. This is useful for supporting more than one fortran
compiler with the same netCDF C library. This is turned on by
default for shared library builds.

`--disable-extreme-numbers'
In some netCDF test programs (nc_test.c and nf_test.F) there are
tests which use numbers at or just beyond the extreme number that
can be used for a type. (For example, using MAX_INT + 1 as an int
type). This causes problems on Solaris 386 systems. For that
reason, the extreme numbers are not used, by default, on Solaris
386 systems. This option gives the user control to override the
default. This affects only netCDF test programs, not the netCDF
library itself.

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.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Running make, Next: Testing the Build, Prev: Running the configure Script, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.5 Running make
================

Run "make". This will build one or more netCDF libraries. It will build
the basic netCDF library libnetcdf.a. If you have Fortran 77 or Fortran
90 compilers, then the Fortran library will also be built
(libnetcdff.a). If you have a C++ compiler, then the C++ interface will
be built (libnetcdf_c++.a.)

A "make" will also build the netCDF utilities ncgen(1) and ncdump(1).

Run make like this:
make

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Testing the Build, Next: Installing NetCDF, Prev: Running make, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.6 Testing the Build
=====================

Run "make check" to verify that the netCDF library and executables have
been built properly (you can instead run "make test" which does the
same thing).

A make check 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.

Run the tests like this:

make check

If you plan to use the 64-bit offset format (introduced in version
3.6.0) to create very large files (i.e. larger than 2 GB), you should
probably specify the -enable-large-file-tests to configure, which tests
the large file features. You must have 13 GB of free disk space for
these tests to successfully run.

If you are running the large file tests, you may wish to use the
-with-temp-large option to specify a temporary directory for the large
files. (You may also set the environment variable TEMP_LARGE before
running configure).

The default is to create the large files in the nc_test subdirectory
of the netCDF build.

Run the large file tests like this:

./configure --enable-large-file-tests --with-temp-large=/home/ed/tmp
make check

All of the large files are removed on successful completion of
tests. If the test fails, you may wish to make sure that no large files
have been left around.

If any of the the large file tests test fail, check to ensure that
your file system can handle files larger than 2 GiB by running the
following command:

dd if=/dev/zero bs=1000000 count=3000 of=$(TEMP_LARGE)/largefile

If your system does not have a /dev/zero, this test will fail. Then
you need to find some other way to create a file larger than 2 GiB to
ensure that your system can handle them.

*Note If Something Goes Wrong::.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Installing NetCDF, Next: Platform Specific Notes, Prev: Testing the Build, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.7 Installing NetCDF
=====================

To install the libraries and executables, run "make install". This will
install to the directory specified in the configure step.

Run the installation like this:

make install

The install will put files in the following subdirectories of the
directory you provided as a prefix, creating the subdirectories if
needed:

`lib'
Libraries will be installed here. If static libraries are built,
without separate fortran libraries, then libnetcdf.a and
libnetcdf.la will be installed. If the C++ API is built,
libnetcdf_c++.a and libnetcdf_c++.la will be added. If separate
fortran libraries are built, libnetcdff.a and libnetcdff.la will
also be added.

Static library users should ignore the .la files, and link to the
.a files.

Shared library builds will add some .so files to this directory, as
well.

`include'
Header files will be installed here. The C library header file is
netcdf.h. If the C++ library is built, ntcdfcpp.h, ncvalues.h and
netcdf.hh will be installed here. If the F77 API is built,
netcdf.inc will be copied here. If the F90 API is built, the
netcdf.mod and typesizes.mod files will be copied here as well.

`bin'
Utilities ncdump and ncgen will be installed here.

`man'
The ncdump/ncgen man pages will be installed in subdirectory man1,
and the three man pages netcdf.3, netcdf_f77.3, and netcdf_f90.3
will be installed in the man3 subdirectory.

`share'
If the configure is called with the -enable-install-docs option,
the netCDF documentation set will be built, and will be installed
under the share directory, under the netcdf subdirectory. This
will include postscript, PDF, info and text versions of all netCDF
manuals. These manuals are also available at the netCDF web site.

Try linking your applications. Let us know if you have problems
(*note Reporting Problems::).

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Platform Specific Notes, Next: Additional Porting Notes, Prev: Installing NetCDF, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.8 Platform Specific Notes
===========================

The following platform-specific note may be helpful when building and
installing netCDF. Consult your vendor manuals for information about
the options listed here. Compilers can change from version to version;
the following information may not apply to your platform.

Full output from some of the platforms of the test platforms for
netCDF 3.6.3 can be found at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/builds'.

3.8.1 AIX
---------

We found the vendor compilers in /usr/vac/bin, and included this in our
PATH. Compilers were xlc, xlf, xlf90, xlC.

The F90 compiler requires the qsuffix option to believe that F90 code
files can end with .f90. This is automatically turned on by configure
when needed (we hope):
F90FLAGS=-qsuffix=f=f90

We had to use xlf for F77 code, and xlf90 for F90 code.

To compile 64-bit code, set the correct environment variables for
your platform (documented below).

The environment variable OBJECT_MODE can be set to 64, or use the
-q64 option on all AIX compilers by setting CFLAGS, FFLAGS, and
CXXFLAGS to -q64.

The following is also necessary on an IBM AIX SP system for 64-bit
mode:

ARFLAGS='-X64 cru'
NMFLAGS='-X64'

There are thread-safe versions of the AIX compilers. For example,
xlc_r is the thread-safe C compiler. The NetCDF configure script
ignores these compilers. To use thread-safe compilers, override the
configure script by setting CC to xlc_r; similarly for FC and CXX.

For large file support, AIX requires that the macro _LARGE_FILES be
defined. The configure script does this using AC_SYS_LARGEFILES.
Unfortunately, this misfires when OBJECT_MODE is 64, or the q64 option
is used. The netCDF tries to fix this by turning on _LARGE_FILES anyway
in these cases.

The GNU C compiler does not mix successfully with the AIX fortran
compilers.

3.8.2 Cygwin
------------

Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. NetCDF builds under
Cygwin tools on Windows just as with Linux. For more information see
the Cygwin web site: `http://www.cygwin.com'.

Building under Cygwin will yield a DLL on windows (as long as
-enable-shared is used with configure). However this DLL will not work
without the Cygwin POSIX emulation DLL as well. For a stand-alone DLL,
use MinGW (below).

3.8.3 MinGW
-----------

MinGW, or Minimalist GNU for Windows, is a set of GNU Unix tools ported
to Windows. The NetCDF C and Fortran APIs builds under MinGW tools on
Windows just as with Linux.

Those diving into netCDF and MinGW should be familiar with the
information at the web page "Different Ways of Building Woe32 DLLs" at:
`http://www.haible.de/bruno/woe32dll.html', the MinGW FAQ at:
`http://www.mingw.org/mingwfaq.shtml', and the peculiarities of the
win32 environment as explained by this helpful Red Hat document at:
`http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/gnu-linker/win32.html'.

The netCDF C++ API does not (yet) build DLLs cleanly under MinGW. Any
knowledgeable user who can make this work should send results to the
netCDF support email address: support@unidata.ucar.edu.

Using MinGW it is possible to produce stand-alone windows DLLs. First
build netCDF in the usual way, with -enable-shared and -enable-dll as
configure options.

This builds the DLL for compatibility with g77. Set FC to the command
line invocation of your fortran compiler. To build for other fortran
compilers (i.e. ones you don't have), change the config.h file to
select another fortran and recompile (without rerunning configure).

The fortran tests will not, of course, work for these other fortrans,
because you don't have the compiler to compile the test program!

FC=g77 ./configure --enable-dll --disable-cxx --enable-shared
make check

Due to the magic of libtool, the output files are found in the
libsrc/.libs directory.

To get a MS compatible export library, open an MS DOS window, change
directory to libsrc/.libs and run the following command:

lib /machine:i386 /def:libnetcdf.def

The above command uses the Microsoft LIB tool, which comes with
Visual C++.NET, and perhaps other Microsoft development tools. (To get
this in my path, I open the "Visual Studio 2003 Command Prompt" in my
Windows program menu.)

This command creates the .lib file, the import library, needed (or at
least used) by MicroSoft (and other) build environments on Windows.

For more information about MinGW, see the MinGW web site:
`http://www.mingw.org'. For more information about producing
stand-alone windows DLLs with MinGW, see the MinGW FAQ:
`http://www.mingw.org/mingwfaq.shtml'.

3.8.4 HPUX
----------

For the c89 compiler to work, CPPFLAGS must include -D_HPUX_SOURCE.
This isn't required for the cc compiler.

Our HPUX machine has two C compilers. Only the one in /opt/ansic/bin/
works for netCDF.

For large file support, HP-UX requires _FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64. The
configure script sets this automatically.

The HPUX C++ compiler (on our machine) doesn't work on netCDF code.
It's too old for that. So either use GNU to compile netCDF, or skip the
C++ code by setting CXX to " (in csh: setenv CXX "), or using the
-disable-cxx option.

Building a 64 bit version may be possible with the following
settings:
CC=/bin/cc
CPPFLAGS='-D_HPUX_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64' # large file support
CFLAGS='-g +DD64' # 64-bit mode
FC=/opt/fortran90/bin/f90 # Fortran-90 compiler
FFLAGS='-w +noppu +DA2.0W' # 64-bit mode, no "_" suffixes
FLIBS=-lU77
CXX='' # no 64-bit mode C++ compiler

Sometimes quotas or configuration causes HPUX disks to be limited to
2 GiB files. In this cases, netCDF cannot create very large files.
Rather confusingly, HPUX returns a system error that indicates that a
value is too large to be stored in a type. This may cause scientists to
earnestly check for attempts to write floats or doubles that are too
large. In fact, the problem seems to be an internal integer problem,
when the netCDF library attempts to read beyond the 2 GiB boundary. To
add to the confusion, the boundary for netCDF is slightly less than 2
GiB, since netCDF uses buffered I/O to improve performance.

3.8.5 Irix
----------

A 64-bit version can be built by settin the appropriate environment
variables.

Set CFLAGS, FCFLAGS, FFLAGS, and CXXFLAGS to -64.

On our machine, there is a /bin/cc and a /usr/bin/cc, and the -64
option only works with the former.

3.8.6 Linux
-----------

The f2cFortran flag is turned on by the configure script when GNU
fortran is used.

CPPFLAGS=-Df2cFortran

For Portland Group Fortran, set pgiFortran instead:
CPPFLAGS=-DpgiFortran

Portland Group F90/F95 does not mix with GNU g77.

The netCDF configure script should notice which fortran compiler is
being used, and set these automatically.

For large file support, _FILE_OFFSET_BITS must be set to 64. The
netCDF configure script should set this automatically.

3.8.7 Macintosh
---------------

The f2cFortran flag is required with GNU fortran
(CPPFLAGS=-Df2cFortran). The NetCDF configure script should and set
this automatically.

For IBM compilers on the Mac, the following may work (we lack this
test environment):
CC=/usr/bin/cc
CPPFLAGS=-DIBMR2Fortran
FC=xlf
F90=xlf90
F90FLAGS=-qsuffix=cpp=f90

For the g95 compiler, you must set LIBS to -lSystemStubs before
running configure.

3.8.8 OSF1
----------

NetCDF builds out of the box on OSF1.

3.8.9 SunOS
-----------

PATH should contain /usr/ccs/bin to find make, nm, ar, etc.

For large file support, _FILE_OFFSET_BITS must be 64. Configure will
turn this on automatically.

Large file support doesn't work with c89, unless the -Xa option is
used. The netCDF configure script turns this on automatically where
appropriate.

To compile in 64-bit mode, set -xarch=v9 on all compilers (i.e. in
CFLAGS, FFLAGS, and CXXFLAGS).

When compiling with GNU Fortran (g77), the -Df2cFortran flag is
required for the Fortran interface to work. The NetCDF configure script
turns this on automatically if needed.

3.8.10 Handling Fortran Compilers
---------------------------------

The first thing to try is to set nothing and see if the netCDF
configure script finds your fortran compiler, and sets the correct
flags automatically.

If it doesn't find the correct fortran compiler, you can next try
setting the FC environment variable to the compiler you wish to use,
and then see if the configure script can set the correct flags for that
compiler.

If all that fails, you must set the flags yourself.

3.8.10.1 Intel Fortran
......................

Intel has provided a helpful web page on "Building netCDF with the Intel
compilers" at
`http://www.intel.com/support/performancetools/sb/CS-027812.htm',
providing configuration and set-up information, and instructions for
building netCDF on Linux and Mac OS.

As an alternative, netCDF can be built successfully with CPPFLAGS set
to pgiFortran. Configure can handle this automatically if your fortran
compiler is named "ifort."

3.8.10.2 Portland Group Fortran
...............................

The Portland Group fortran compiler requires that netCDF be built with
the pgiFortran flag. It will be automatically turned on by configure if
your fortran compiler is named "pgf90."

The Portland Group also has a "PGI Guide to NetCDF" at
`http://www.pgroup.com/resources/netcdf/netcdf362_pgi71.htm'.

3.8.10.3 GNU Fortran
....................

The GNU Fortran 77 compiler (g77) requires that netCDF be built with
the f2cFortran flag. This is turned on automatically by configure.
Since g77 can't build Fortran 90 code, the F90 API will not be built if
g77 is the only available fortran compiler.

The version 4 series of gcc, the GNU Compiler Collection, offers a
F95 compiler, usually called gfortran. NetCDF requires the pgiFortran
flag to build with gfortran, and this is turned on automatically by
configure.

3.8.10.4 g95
............

g95 is a Fortran 95 compiler which is different from the Free Software
Foundation's gfortran. The netCDF configure script sets the f2cFortran
flag when g95 is used.

Some g95 users recommend instead setting the following, which handles
the underscores differently, and reportedly works better when
integrating with other packages or libraries:

CC=gcc
FC=g95
CPPFLAGS=-DpgiFortran
FFLAGS=-fno-second-underscore
FCFLAGS=-fno-second-underscore

If this approach is taken, all fortran programs which use netCDF must
be compiled with the -fno-second-underscore flag.

One the Macintosh, g95 requires environment variables LIBS and FLIBS
to be set to -lSystemStubs.

3.8.10.5 g++
............

Older versions of the GNU C++ compiler don't handle large files well. A
version 3.2 installation of g++ fails to build for me without
-disable-largefile. This turns off the ability of netCDF to handle
files larger than about 2 GiBytes. Users should upgrade their g++, or
learn to live with small files.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Additional Porting Notes, Next: NetCDF Source, Prev: Platform Specific Notes, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.9 Additional 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.

Instruction for building netCDF on other platforms can be found at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/other-builds.html'. If you
build netCDF on a new platform, please send your environment variables
and any other important notes to support@unidata.ucar.edu and we will
add the information to the other builds page, with a credit to you.

If you can't run the configure script, you will need to create
config.h and fortran/nfconfig.inc. Start with 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.

Note that we have not had a Cray to test on for some time. In
particular, large file support is not tested with ffio.c.

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 in-lining 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.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: NetCDF Source, Prev: Additional Porting Notes, Up: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems

3.10 Contributing to NetCDF Source Code Development
===================================================

Most users will not be interested in working directly with the netCDF
source code. Rather, they will write programs which call netCDF
functions, and delve no further. However some intrepid users may wish
to dig into the netCDF code to study it, to try and spot bugs, or to
make modifications for their own purposes.

To work with the netCDF source code, several extra utilities are
required to fully build everything from source. If you are going to
modify the netCDF source code, you will need some or all of the
following Unix tools.

`m4'
Macro processing language used heavily in libsrc, nc_test.
Generates (in these cases) C code from m4 source. Version 1.4
works fine with release 3.5.1 through 3.6.2.

`flex and yacc'
Used in ncgen directory to parse CDL files. Generates C files from
.y and .l files. You only need to use this to modify ncgen's
understanding of CDL grammar.

`makeinfo'
Generates all documentation formats (except man pages) from texinfo
source. I'm using makeinfo version 4.8, as of release 3.6.2. If you
have trouble with makeinfo, upgrade to this version and try again.
You only need makeinfo if you want to modify the documentation.

`tex'
Knuth's venerable typesetting system. The version I am running (for
netCDF release 3.6.2) is TeX 3.141592 (Web2C 7.5.4). I have found
that some recent installations of TeX will not build the netCDF
documentation - it's not clear to me why.

The user generally will just want to download the latest version of
netCDF documents at the netCDF website.
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs'.

`autoconf'
Generates the configure script. Version 2.59 or later is required.

`automake'
Since version 3.6.2 of netCDF, automake is used to generate the
Makefile.in files needed by the configure script to build the
Makefiles.

`libtool'
Since version 3.6.2 of netCDF, libtool is used to help generate
shared libraries platforms which support them. Version 2.1a of
libtool is required.

`sed'
This text processing tool is used to process some of the netCDF
examples before they are included in the tutorial. This is only
needed to build the documentation, which the user generally will
not need to do.

NetCDF has a large and enterprising user community, and a long
history of accepting user modifications into the netCDF code base.
Examples include the 64-bit offset format, and the F90 API.

All suggested changes and additions to netCDF code can be sent to
support@unidata.ucar.edu.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Windows, Next: If Something Goes Wrong, Prev: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems, Up: Top

4 Building and Installing NetCDF on Windows
*******************************************

NetCDF can be built and used from a variety of development environments
on Windows. The netCDF library is implemented as a Windows dynamic link
library (DLL). The simplest way to get started with netCDF under
Windows is to download the pre-built DLL from the Unidata web site.

Building under the Cygwin port of GNU tools is treated as a Unix
install. *Note Platform Specific Notes::.

Instructions are also given for building the netCDF DLL from the
source code using Microsoft's Visual Studio and VC++.NET.

VC++ documentation being so voluminous, finding the right information
can be a chore. There's a good discussion of using DLLs called "About
Dynamic-Link Libraries" at (perhaps)
`http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dllproc/base/dynamic_link_libraries.asp'.

From the .NET point of view, the netCDF dll is unmanaged code. As a
starting point, see the help topic "Consuming Unmanaged DLL Functions"
which may be found at
`http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpconConsumingUnmanagedDLLFunctions.asp',
unless the page has been moved.

* Menu:

* Getting Prebuilt DLL::
* Installing the DLL::
* Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus 6::
* Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET::
* Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET::

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Getting Prebuilt DLL, Next: Installing the DLL, Prev: Windows, Up: Windows

4.1 Getting Prebuilt netcdf.dll
===============================

We have pre-built Win32 binary versions of the netcdf dll and static
library, as well as ncgen.exe and ncdump.exe (dll and static versions).
You can get them from
`ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/netcdf/contrib/win32/netcdf-3.6.1-beta1-win32dll.zip'.
(Note: we don't have a C++ interface here).

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Installing the DLL, Next: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus 6, Prev: Getting Prebuilt DLL, Up: Windows

4.2 Installing the DLL
======================

Whether you get the pre-built DLL or build your own, you'll then have
to install it somewhere so that your other programs can find it and use
it.

To install a DLL, you just have to leave it in some directory, and
(possibly) tell your compiler in which directory to look for it.

A DLL is a library, and functions just like libraries under the Unix
operating system. As with any library, the point of the netCDF DLL is
to provide functions that you can call from your own code. When you
compile that code, the linker needs to be able to find the library, and
then it pulls out the functions that it needs. In the Unix world, the
-L option tells the compiler where to look for a library. In Windows,
library search directories can be added to the project's property
dialog.

Similarly, you will need to put the header file, netcdf.h, somewhere
that you compiler can find it. In the Unix world, the -I option tells
the compiler to look in a certain directory to find header files. In
the Windows world, you set this in the project properties dialog box of
your integrated development environment.

Therefore, installing the library means nothing more than copying the
DLL somewhere that your compiler can find it, and telling the compiler
where to look for them.

The standard place to put DLLs is Windows\System32 folder (for
Windows2000/XP) or the Windows\System folder (for Windows 98/ME). If
you put the DLL there, along with the ncgen and ncdump executables, you
will be able to use the DLL and utilities without further work, because
compilers already look there for DLLs and EXEs.

Instead of putting the DLL and EXEs into the system directory, you
can leave them wherever you want, and every development project that
uses the dll will have to be told to search the netCDF directory when
it's linking, or, the chosen directory can be added to your path.

On the .NET platform, you can also try to use the global assembly
cache. (To learn how, see MSDN topic "Global Assembly Cache", at
`www.msdn.microsoft.com').

Following Windows conventions, the netCDF files belong in the
following places:

File(s) Description Location
netcdf.dll C and Fortran function in DLL Windows\System
(98/ME) or
Windows\System32
(2000/XP)
netcdf.lib Library file Windows\System
(98/ME) or
Windows\System32
(2000/XP)
ncgen.exe, NetCDF utilities Windows\System
ncdump.exe (98/ME) or
Windows\System32
(2000/XP)
netcdf-3 netCDF source code Program
Files\Unidata

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus 6, Next: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET, Prev: Installing the DLL, Up: Windows

4.3 Using netcdf.dll with VC++ 6.0
==================================

When using the netCDF DLL, you should set the preprocessor flag
DLL_NETCDF. Do this in the properties window for your project in visual
studio.

To use the netcdf.dll:

1. Place these in your include directory: netcdf.h C
include file netcdf.inc Fortran include file

2a. To use the Dynamic Library (shared) version of the netcdf
library: Place these in a directory that's in your PATH:
netcdf.dll library dll ncgen.exe uses the dll
ncdump.exe uses the dll

Place this in a library directory to link against: netcdf.lib library

2b. Alternatively, to use a static version of the library

Place this in a library directory to link against: netcdfs.lib library

Place these in a directory that's in your PATH:
ncgens.exe statically linked (no DLL needed)
ncdumps.exe statically linked (no DLL needed)

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET, Next: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET, Prev: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus 6, Up: Windows

4.4 Building netcdf.dll with VC++.NET
=====================================

To build the netCDF dll with VC++.NET open the win32/NET/netcdf.sln
file with Visual Studio. Both Debug and Release configurations are
available - select one and build.

The resulting netcdf.dll file will be in subdirectory Release or
Debug.

The netCDF tests will be built and run as part of the build process.
The Fortran 77 interface will be built, but not the Fortran 90 or C++
interfaces.

The quick_large_files test program is provided as an extra project,
however it is not run during the build process, but can be run from the
command line or the IDE. Note that, despite its name, it is not quick.
On Unix systems, this program runs in a few seconds, because of some
features of the Unix file system apparently not present in Windows.
Nonetheless, the program does run, and creates (then deletes) some very
large files. (So make sure you have at least 15 GiB of space
available). It takes about 45 minutes to run this program on our
Windows machines, so please be patient.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET, Prev: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET, Up: Windows

4.5 Using netcdf.dll with VC++.NET
==================================

Load-time linking to the DLL is the most straightforward from C++. This
means the netcdf.lib file has to end up on the compile command line.
This being Windows, that's hidden by a GUI.

In Visual Studio 2003 this can be done by modifying three of the
project's properties.

Open the project properties window from the project menu. Go to the
linker folder and look at the general properties. Modify the property
"Additional Library Directories" by adding the directory which contains
the netcdf.dll and netcdf.lib files. Now go to the linker input
properties and set the property "Additional Dependencies" to netcdf.lib.

Finally, still within the project properties window, go to the C/C++
folder, and look at the general properties. Modify "Additional Include
Directories" to add the directory with the netcdf.h file.

Now use the netCDF functions in your C++ code. Of course any C or C++
file that wants to use the functions will need:

#include <netcdf.h>

When using the netCDF DLL, you should set the preprocessor flag
DLL_NETCDF. Do this in the properties window for your project in visual
studio.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: If Something Goes Wrong, Next: Combined Index, Prev: Windows, Up: Top

5 If Something Goes Wrong
*************************

The netCDF package is designed to build and install on a wide variety
of platforms, but doesn't always. It's a crazy old world out there,
after all.

* Menu:

* The Usual Build Problems::
* Troubleshooting::
* Finding Help::
* Reporting Problems::

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: The Usual Build Problems, Next: Troubleshooting, Prev: If Something Goes Wrong, Up: If Something Goes Wrong

5.1 The Usual Build Problems
============================

5.1.1 Taking the Easy Way Out
-----------------------------

Why not take the easy way out if you can?

Pre-compiled binaries for many platforms can be found at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/binaries.html'. Click on
your platform, and copy the files from the bin, include, lib, and man
directories into your own local equivalents (Perhaps /usr/local/bin,
/usr/local/include, etc.).

5.1.2 How to Clean Up the Mess from a Failed Build
--------------------------------------------------

If you are trying to get the configure or build to work, make sure you
start with a clean distribution for each attempt. If netCDF failed in
the "make" you must clean up the mess before trying again. To clean up
the distribution:

make distclean

5.1.3 Platforms On Which NetCDF is Known to Work
------------------------------------------------

At NetCDF World Headquarters (in sunny Boulder, Colorado), as part of
the wonderful Unidata organization, we have a wide variety of
computers, operating systems, and compilers. At night, house elves test
netCDF on all these systems.

Output for the netCDF test platforms can be found at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/builds'.

Compare the output of your build attempt with ours. Are you using the
same compiler? The same flags? Look for the configure output that lists
the settings of CC, FC, CXX, CFLAGS, etc.

On some systems you have to set environment variables to get the
configure and build to work.

For example, for a 64-bit IRIX install of the netCDF-3.6.2 release,
the variables are set before netCDF is configured or built. In this
case we set CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, FCFLAGS, and FFLAGS.

flip% uname -a
IRIX64 flip 6.5 07080050 IP30 mips
flip% setenv CFLAGS -64
flip% setenv CXXFLAGS -64
flip% setenv FFLAGS -64
flip% setenv FCFLAGS -64
flip% make distclean;./configure;make check

5.1.4 Platforms On Which NetCDF is Reported to Work
---------------------------------------------------

If your platform isn't listed on the successful build page, see if
another friendly netCDF user has sent in values for environment
variables that are reported to work:
(`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/other-builds.html').

If you build on a system that we don't have at Unidata (particularly
if it's something interesting and exotic), please send us the settings
that work (and the entire build output would be nice too). Send them to
support@unidata.ucar.edu.

5.1.5 If You Have a Broken Compiler
-----------------------------------

For netCDF to build correctly, you must be able to compile C from your
environment, and, optionally, Fortran 77, Fortran 90, and C++. If C
doesn't work, netCDF can't compile.

What breaks a C compiler? Installation or upgrade mistakes when the C
compiler was installed, or multiple versions or compilers installed on
top of each other. Commercial compilers frequently require some
environment variables to be set, and some directories to appear ahead
of others in your path. Finally, if you have an expired or broken
license, your C complier won't work.

If you have a broken C compiler and a working C compiler in your
PATH, netCDF might only find the broken one. You can fix this by
explicitly setting the CC environmental variable to a working C
compiler, and then trying to build netCDF again. (Don't forget to do a
"make distclean" first!)

If you can't build a C program, you can't build netCDF. Sorry, but
that's just the way it goes. (You can get the GNU C compiler - search
the web for "gcc").

If netCDF finds a broken Fortran 90, Fortran 77, or C++ compiler, it
will report the problem during the configure, and then drop the
associated API. For example, if the C++ compiler can't compile a very
simple test program, it will drop the C++ interface. If you really want
the C++ API, set the CXX environment variable to a working C++ compiler.

5.1.6 What to Do If NetCDF Still Won't Build
--------------------------------------------

If none of the above help, try our troubleshooting section: *Note
Troubleshooting::.

Also check to see of your problem has already been solved by someone
else (*note Finding Help::).

If you still can't get netCDF to build, report your problem to
Unidata, but please make sure you submit all the information we need to
help (*note Reporting Problems::).

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Troubleshooting, Next: Finding Help, Prev: The Usual Build Problems, Up: If Something Goes Wrong

5.2 Troubleshooting
===================

5.2.1 Problems During Configuration
-----------------------------------

If the ./configure; make check fails, it's a good idea to turn off the
C++ and Fortran interfaces, and try to build the C interface alone. All
other interfaces depend on the C interface, so nothing else will work
until the C interface works. To turn off C++ and Fortran, set
environment variables CXX and FC to NULL before running the netCDF
configure script (with csh: setenv FC ";setenv CXX ").

Turning off the Fortran and C++ interfaces results in a much shorter
build and test cycle, which is useful for debugging problems.

If the netCDF configure fails, most likely the problem is with your
development environment. The configure script looks through your path to
find all the tools it needs to build netCDF, including C compiler and
linker, the ar, ranlib, and others. The configure script will tell you
what tools it found, and where they are on your system. Here's part of
configure's output on a Linux machine:

checking CPPFLAGS... -Df2cFortran
checking CC CFLAGS... cc -g
checking which cc... /usr/bin/cc
checking CXX... c++
checking CXXFLAGS... -g -O2
checking which c++... /usr/local/bin/c++
checking FC... f77
checking FFLAGS...
checking which f77... /usr/bin/f77
checking F90... unset
checking AR... ar
checking ARFLAGS... cru
checking which ar... /usr/bin/ar
checking NM... nm
checking NMFLAGS...
checking which nm... /usr/bin/nm

Make sure that the tools, directories, and flags are set to
reasonable values, and compatible tools. For example the GNU tools may
not inter-operate well with vendor tools. If you're using a vendor
compiler, use the ar, nm, and ranlib that the vendor supplied.

As configure runs, it creates a config.log file. If configure
crashes, do a text search of config.log for thing it was checking before
crashing. If you have a licensing or tool compatibility problem, it
will be obvious in config.log.

5.2.2 Problems During Compilation
---------------------------------

If the configure script runs, but the compile step doesn't work, or the
tests don't complete successfully, the problem is probably in your
CFLAGS or CPPFLAGS.

Frequently shared libraries are a rich source of problems. If your
build is not working, and you are using the -enable-shared option to
generate shared libraries, then try to build without -enable-shared,
and see if the static library build works.

5.2.3 Problems During Testing
-----------------------------

If you are planning on using large files (i.e. > 2 GiB), then you may
wish to rerun configure with -enable-large-file-tests to ensure that
large files work on your system.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Finding Help, Next: Reporting Problems, Prev: Troubleshooting, Up: If Something Goes Wrong

5.3 Finding Help On-line
========================

The latest netCDF documentation (including this manual) can be found at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs'.

The output of successful build and test runs for recent versions of
netCDF can be found at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/builds'.

A list of known problems with netCDF builds, and suggested fixes, can
be found at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/docs/known_problems.html'.

Reportedly successful settings for platforms unavailable for netCDF
testing can be found at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/other-builds.html'. If you
build netCDF on a system that is not listed, please send your
environment settings, and the full output of your configure, compile,
and testing, to support@unidata.ucar.edu. We will add the information
to the other-builds page, with a credit to you.

The replies to all netCDF support emails are on-line and can be
searched. Before reporting a problem to Unidata, please search this
on-line database to see if your problem has already been addressed in a
support email. If you are having build problems it's usually useful to
search on your system host name. On Unix systems, use the uname command
to find it.

The netCDF Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list can be found at
`http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/faq.html'.

To search the support database, see `/search.jsp?support&netcdf'.

The netCDF mailing list also can be searched; see
`/search.jsp?netcdfgroup'.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Reporting Problems, Prev: Finding Help, Up: If Something Goes Wrong

5.4 Reporting Problems
======================

To help us solve your problem, please include the following information
in your email to `support@unidata.ucar.edu'.

Unfortunately, we can't solve build questions without this
information; if you ask for help without providing it, we're just going
to have to ask for it.

So why not send it immediately, and save us both the extra trouble?

1. the exact version of netCDF - see the VERSION file.

2. the *complete* output of "./configure", "make", and "make check.
Yes, it's long, but it's all important.

3. if the configure failed, the contents of config.log.

Although responses to your email will be available in our support
database, your email address is not included, to provide spammers with
one less place to harvest it from.

File: netcdf-install.info, Node: Combined Index, Prev: If Something Goes Wrong, Up: Top

Index
*****

�[index�]
* Menu:

* --disable-compiler-recover: Running the configure Script.
(line 143)
* --disable-cxx: Running the configure Script.
(line 94)
* --disable-examples: Running the configure Script.
(line 153)
* --disable-extreme-numbers: Running the configure Script.
(line 168)
* --disable-f77: Running the configure Script.
(line 83)
* --disable-f90: Running the configure Script.
(line 90)
* --disable-flag-setting: Running the configure Script.
(line 69)
* --disable-fortran-compiler-check: Running the configure Script.
(line 131)
* --disable-fortran-type-check: Running the configure Script.
(line 139)
* --disable-largefile: Running the configure Script.
(line 79)
* --disable-utilities: Running the configure Script.
(line 105)
* --disable-v2: Running the configure Script.
(line 98)
* --enable-c-only: Running the configure Script.
(line 110)
* --enable-docs-install: Running the configure Script.
(line 42)
* --enable-large-file-tests: Running the configure Script.
(line 116)
* --enable-separate-fortran: Running the configure Script.
(line 161)
* --enable-shared: Running the configure Script.
(line 38)
* --prefix: Running the configure Script.
(line 33)
* --with-temp-large: Running the configure Script.
(line 124)
* 64-bit platforms: Building on 64 Bit Platforms.
(line 6)
* _LARGE_FILES, on AIX: Installing NetCDF. (line 6)
* AIX 64-bit build: Building on 64 Bit Platforms.
(line 6)
* AIX, building on: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* autoconf: NetCDF Source. (line 43)
* automake: NetCDF Source. (line 46)
* big endian: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* binaries, windows: Getting Prebuilt DLL.
(line 6)
* binary install: installing-binaries. (line 6)
* binary releases: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems.
(line 6)
* bugs, reporting: Reporting Problems. (line 6)
* config.log: Running the configure Script.
(line 6)
* configure, running: Running the configure Script.
(line 6)
* CRAY, porting to: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* Cygwin, building with: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* debug directory, windows: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* DLL: Windows. (line 6)
* dll, getting: Getting Prebuilt DLL.
(line 6)
* documentation: Finding Help. (line 6)
* documents, latest version: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems.
(line 6)
* earlier netCDF versions: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems.
(line 6)
* enable-large-file-tests: Requirements. (line 6)
* FAQ for netCDF: Finding Help. (line 6)
* ffio.c: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* flex and yacc: NetCDF Source. (line 22)
* fortran, Intel: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* fortran, Portland Group: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* g++: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* g95: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* GNU make: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* HPUX, building on: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* install directory: Running the configure Script.
(line 6)
* installation requirements: Requirements. (line 6)
* installing binary distribution: installing-binaries. (line 6)
* installing netCDF: Installing NetCDF. (line 6)
* Intel fortran: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* Irix, building on: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* known problems: Finding Help. (line 6)
* large file tests: Testing the Build. (line 6)
* large file tests requirements: Requirements. (line 6)
* large file tests, for windows: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* libtool: NetCDF Source. (line 51)
* Linux, building on: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* little endian: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* m4: NetCDF Source. (line 17)
* Macintosh, building on: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* mailing lists: Finding Help. (line 6)
* make all_large_tests: Testing the Build. (line 6)
* make check: Testing the Build. (line 6)
* make install: Installing NetCDF. (line 6)
* make lfs_test: Testing the Build. (line 6)
* make slow_check: Testing the Build. (line 6)
* make test: Testing the Build. (line 6)
* make, running: Running make. (line 6)
* makeinfo: NetCDF Source. (line 27)
* Microsoft: Windows. (line 6)
* MingGW, building with: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* ncconfig.h: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* ncconfig.in: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* ncconfig.inc: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* ncdump, windows location: Installing the DLL. (line 6)
* ncgen, windows location: Installing the DLL. (line 6)
* ncio: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* ncx.m4: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* NET: Windows. (line 6)
* netcdf.dll, location: Installing the DLL. (line 6)
* netcdf.lib: Installing the DLL. (line 6)
* OBJECT_MODE, on AIX: Installing NetCDF. (line 6)
* OSF1, building on: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* other builds document: Finding Help. (line 6)
* porting notes, additional: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* Portland Group fortran: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* posixio.c: Additional Porting Notes.
(line 6)
* prefix argument of configure: Running the configure Script.
(line 6)
* problems, reporting: Reporting Problems. (line 6)
* quick unix instructions: Quick Instructions for Installing NetCDF on Unix.
(line 6)
* quick_large_files, in VC++.NET: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* release directory, windows: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* reporting problems: Reporting Problems. (line 6)
* running configure: Running the configure Script.
(line 6)
* running make: Running make. (line 6)
* sed: NetCDF Source. (line 56)
* shared libraries, building: Quick Instructions for Installing NetCDF on Unix.
(line 6)
* shared libraries, using: installing-binaries. (line 6)
* successful build output, on web: Finding Help. (line 6)
* SunOS 64-bit build: Building on 64 Bit Platforms.
(line 6)
* SunOS, building on: Platform Specific Notes.
(line 6)
* support email: Reporting Problems. (line 6)
* TEMP_LARGE: Testing the Build. (line 6)
* testing large file features: Testing the Build. (line 6)
* testing, for windows: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* tests, running: Testing the Build. (line 6)
* tex: NetCDF Source. (line 33)
* troubleshooting: Troubleshooting. (line 6)
* turning off C++, Fortran interface: Troubleshooting. (line 6)
* VC++: Windows. (line 6)
* VC++ 6.0, using netcdf with: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus 6.
(line 6)
* VC++.NET, building with: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* VC++.NET, using netcdf with: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* visual studio 2003 properties: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* windows large file tests: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* windows testing: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET.
(line 6)
* windows, building on: Windows. (line 6)

Tag Table:
Node: Top1378
Node: installing-binaries3629
Node: Quick Instructions for Installing NetCDF on Unix5100
Node: Building and Installing NetCDF on Unix Systems6495
Node: Requirements7420
Node: Specifying the Environment for Building8645
Node: Building on 64 Bit Platforms15426
Node: Running the configure Script16266
Node: Running make25320
Node: Testing the Build25932
Node: Installing NetCDF28074
Node: Platform Specific Notes30221
Node: Additional Porting Notes41627
Node: NetCDF Source44132
Node: Windows46982
Node: Getting Prebuilt DLL48527
Node: Installing the DLL49002
Node: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus 652349
Node: Building the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET53424
Node: Using the DLL with Visual Cplusplus NET54680
Node: If Something Goes Wrong56020
Node: The Usual Build Problems56432
Node: Troubleshooting61019
Node: Finding Help63924
Node: Reporting Problems65595
Node: Combined Index66507

End Tag Table