CDF Version 2.2, UNIX Systems Common Data Format (CDF) is a conceptual data abstraction for storing multi-dimensional data sets. The basic component of CDF is a software programming interface that is a device independent view of the CDF data model. The application developer is insulated from the actual physical file format for reasons of conceptual simplicity, device independence, and future expandability. Version 2 of CDF has been rewritten to be portable across a wide variety of platforms. CDF files created on any given platform can be transported to any other platform on to which CDF is ported and used with any CDF tools or layered applications. A more detailed introduction to CDF can be found in the CDF User's Guide. The CDF library and toolkit programs are written in C. A C compiler (ANSI standard preferred) is necessary to build the CDF distribution. The CDF distribution also contains several FORTRAN source files which support the FORTRAN interface. If a FORTRAN compiler is not available, the distribution can be built without FORTRAN support. Documentation for CDF consists of the CDF User's Guide. This document has been written using LaTeX and can be found in the 'doc' directory of the distribution area in a compressed "Adobe" PostScript file named cdfug.ps.Z. It should be printable on any PostScript printer capable of printing "Abode" PostScript. If you have trouble printing the CDF User's Guide, contact us (we can mail you a hard copy if necessary). The document will be printed so that you can copy it to double-sided and then bind it like a book. Before printing, you must first uncompress the document with the 'uncompress' command (which will rename the file cdfug.ps). Requests for assistance or documentation should be sent to: Internet -- CDFSUPPORT@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV (128.183.36.23) If you get the distribution, please send CDFSUPPORT a message so we can put you on our mailing list. That way you will be notified of new releases. UNIX Installation Instructions ------------------------------ CDF V2.2 is distributed for UNIX-based systems as a compressed tar file named cdf22-dist.tar.Z. Use the 'uncompress' command to first uncompress the tar file. An example of this would be: uncompress cdf22-dist.tar.Z Then use the 'tar' command to extract the CDF library and toolkit source files from the tar file. 'tar' will create a directory named 'cdf22-dist' containing several subdirectories. The source files for the distribution will be placed into these directories. The syntax for the 'tar' command is different on some flavors of UNIX. For Sun/SunOS, DECstation/ULTRIX, SGi/IRIX, and HP9000/HP-UX use: tar -xvof cdf22-dist.tar For the IBM-RS6000/AIX use: tar -x -v -f cdf22-dist.tar CDF V2.2 has a makefile setup to automatically build the CDF library and tools. The following steps should be taken to build and install CDF V2.2. 1. Set your current directory (cd) to the top level CDF directory (the directory named 'cdf22-dist' created by 'tar'). 2. This step depends on your machine/operating system. It will compile and link the distribution. For Sun/SunOS 4.1 (or more recent) enter: make all.Sun_SunOS For Sun/SunOS pre-4.1 (eg. SunOS 4.0.3) enter: make all.Sun_SunOS_pre41 For Silicon Graphics/IRIX 4.0 (or more recent) enter: make all.SGi_IRIX For Silicon Graphics/IRIX pre-4.0 (eg. IRIX 3.3) enter: make all.SGi_IRIX_pre40 For DECstation/ULTRIX enter: make all.DECstation_ULTRIX For IBM-RS6000/AIX enter: make all.IBM-RS6000_AIX For HP9000/HP-UX enter: make all.HP9000_HP-UX If a FORTRAN compiler is not available, append "_noFORTRAN" to the command used (eg. make all.Sun_SunOS_noFORTRAN). Some informational/warning messages may be displayed. These can be ignored and should have no effect on the operation of the library or toolkit programs. 3. Test that the distribution was built correctly by entering the appropriate command from the following: make test.Sun_SunOS make test.Sun_SunOS_pre41 make test.SGi_IRIX make test.SGi_IRIX_pre40 make test.DECstation_ULTRIX make test.IBM-RS6000_AIX make test.HP9000_HP-UX The CDF release, copyright notice, and CDF_OK status message should be displayed for each interface tested. 4. Either install the library, include files, and toolkit programs in system directories manually or use 'make' to automatically install them. Using 'make' is dependent on your machine/operating system. Enter the appropriate command from the following: make install.Sun_SunOS INSTALLDIR= make install.Sun_SunOS_pre41 INSTALLDIR= make install.SGi_IRIX INSTALLDIR= make install.SGi_IRIX_pre40 INSTALLDIR= make install.DECstation_ULTRIX INSTALLDIR= make install.IBM-RS6000_AIX INSTALLDIR= make install.HP9000_HP-UX INSTALLDIR= The automatic install creates 'bin', 'include', and 'lib' directories in the to install relevant files. MUST be an absolute path. The executables, include files, and library installed in these directories should be used by your applications. If this does not fit in with your system directory setup, then you should manually install the CDF library, tools, and include files. For example (assuming a Sun/SunOS 4.1 system) to install from the top level CDF directory, the following command will work if entered while in that directory (`pwd` is expanded to be the absolute path of the current directory). make install.Sun_SunOS INSTALLDIR=`pwd` 5. A file named `definitions.template' exists in the top-level directory of the CDF distribution. It is a template for a script file that a user should execute to set up the environment variables and aliases necessary to use CDF. You should edit this script file for the location of the CDF distribution and then rename it with no extension (or whatever you would like). A user would then execute this script file (possible in their `.login' or `.cshrc') to define aliases for the toolkit programs and environment variables for the locations of the include files and CDF library.