CF-Checker command-line tool

CF-Checker command-line tool
1. Installation Procedure
2. Example setup script

The cfchecks tool is installed in the JASMIN Analysis Platform so it is available on ingest1, jasmin-sci*, cems-sci* and LOTUS.

You can run the checker as follows:

$ cfchecks <path-to-netcdf>

By default the script is configured to download recent versions of the CF standard name table and area types table from the CF site at PCMDI. These locations can be configured as other URLs or local files on the command-line or through environment variables. See setup.sh for details.

$ cfchecks --help
 cfchecker [-a|--area_types area_types.xml] [-s|--cf_standard_names standard_names.xml] [-u|--udunits udunits.dat] [-v|--version CFVersion] file1 [file2...]

Description:
 The cfchecker checks NetCDF files for compliance to the CF standard.
 
Options:
 -a or --area_types:
       the location of the CF area types table (xml)
       
 -s or --cf_standard_names:
       the location of the CF standard name table (xml)
       
 -u or --udunits:
       the location of the udunits.dat file

 -h or --help: Prints this help text.

 -v or --version: CF version to check against.

Installation Procedure

NOTE: The following procedure includes installation of dependencies. This is not needed when using on JASMIN systems.

Brief notes follow on how to install the cf-checker in its own directory. It is assumed that you have a suitable python interpreter (Python 2.5.1+) with virtualenv installed.

1. Create a virtualenv on top of Python 2.6+

$ cd /usr/local/cf-checker
$ virtualenv --no-site-packages $PWD

Create $VIRTUALENV/setup.sh which activates the environment and sets other environment variables. (See bottom of this page for an example)

2. Install cdat_lite prerequisites

HDF5: Check the required version of HDF5 that is compatible with the NetCDF4 install you are preparing. Download that version of HDF5 (currently HDF5-1.8.8)

Configure to install into its own sub-directory
$ ./configure --prefix=$VIRTUALENV/hdf5-1.8.8
$ make
$ make check
$ make install

Note: checks take a long time

Link $VIRTUALENV/hdf5-1.8.8 to $VIRTUALENV/hdf5 Link $VIRTUALENV/hdf5/bin/* to $VIRTUALENV/bin

In setup.sh set LDFLAGS and CPPFLAGS to reflect the header and library locations of hdf5 (neede to compile netcdf4)

NetCDF4: Check you have curl headers TODO: check version

configure to install into its own sub-directory

$ ./configure --prefix=$VIRTUALENV/netcdf4-$VERSION --enable-netcdf4 --enable-dap
$ make
$ make check
$ make install

Numpy

$ . setup.sh
$ pip install numpy

cdat_lite

$ pip install cdat_lite

3. Install cfchecker prerequisites

UDUNITS2

Download udunits2 from unidata

$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/cf-checker/udunits-$VERSION
$ make
$ make install

4. Install cfchecker

$ pip install cfchecker

Copy the following file to $VIRTUALENV/udunits/share/udunits/udunits2_local.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<!--                                                                            
  Include patch for bit units and import the defaults.                        
-->
<unit-system>
  <import>udunits2.xml</import>
  <unit>
    <def>1</def>
    <aliases>
      <name> <singular>bit</singular> </name>
    </aliases>
  </unit>
</unit-system>

Example setup script

This is the setup.py script on glacial. Fair has a slightly different script because it is installed into its own Python interpreter.

#
# Please execute this script as "source setup.sh"
#

CFCHECKER_HOME=/usr/local/cf-checker

# Source virtual environment
source $CFCHECKER_HOME/bin/activate


# Configure HDF5 location for compilation
export LDFLAGS="-L$CFCHECKER_HOME/hdf5/lib"
export CPPFLAGS="-I$CFCHECKER_HOME/hdf5/include"

# Configure dynamic library locations
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$CFCHECKER_HOME/lib/hdf5:$CFCHECKER_HOME/netcdf/lib:$CFCHECKER_HOME/udunits/lib

# Configure cf-checker dependencies
# By default the checker downloads standard names and area types from the web.
export CF_STANDARD_NAMES='http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/documents/cf-standard-names/standard-name-table/current/cf-stand\
ard-name-table.xml'
export CF_AREA_TYPES='http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/documents/cf-standard-names/area-type-table/current/area-type-table.\
xml'
export UDUNITS=$CFCHECKER_HOME/udunits/share/udunits/udunits2_local.xml