CDF Version 2.0 Common Data Format (CDF) is a conceptual data abstraction for viewing multi-dimensional data sets. The basic component of a CDF is a software programming interface (API) 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 2.0 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 and layered applications. A more detailed introduction to CDF can be found in the CDF Primer in the distributed documentation or in the doc subdirectory in the network distribution. A short review of the enhanced features of CDF V2.0 is described in the CDF V2.0 Release notes. Detailed interface specifications and programmers reference manuals for C and Fortran are also in the distributed document set or in the doc subdirectory of the CDF V2.0 network distribution. A user support office (USO) exists for CDF. Requests for assistance should be sent to CDFSUPPORT@NSSDCB.GSFC.NASA.GOV via Email. 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-style Installation Instructions ------------------------------------ CDF V2.0 is distributed for UNIX-based systems as a compressed tar file named cdf20-dist.tar.Z in the same directory as this README.doc file. Use the 'uncompress' command to first uncompress the tar file and then use the 'tar' command (with the -x function) to extract the CDF library and toolkit files (and put them into the created directories on your disk). CDF V2.0 has a makefile setup to automatically build the CDF library and tools. The following steps should be taken to build and install CDF V2.0. 1. Set your current directory (cd) to the top level CDF directory. 2. This step depends on your machine/operating system. For a DECstation/ULTRIX installation, type 'make DECstation_ULTRIX' to load the appropriate Makefiles. For a Sun/SunOS 4.1 (or after) installation, type 'make Sun_SunOS' to load the appropriate Makefiles. For a Sun/SunOS 4.0.3 (or before) installation , type 'make Sun_SunOS_403' to load the appropriate Makefiles. For a Silicon Graphics/IRIX 3.2.2 (or after) installation, type 'make SGi_IRIX' to load the appropriate Makefiles. For a Silicon Graphics/IRIX 3.2.1 (or before) installation, type 'make SGi_IRIX_321' to load the appropriate Makefiles. 3. Type 'make all' to build the CDF library and tools. Some informatory/warning messages may be displayed. These can be ignored and should have no effect on the operation of the library or toolkit programs. 4. Type 'make test' to run the quick start CDF tester to insure that the CDF library has been built correctly. 5. Either install libraries and tools in system directories by hand or type 'make install INSTALLDIR=' to automatically install the libraries and tools. The automatic install creates a bin, include, and lib subdirectories in the destination directory to install relevant files. 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, to install from the top level CDF directory, the following command will work when typed while in that directory. make install INSTALLDIR=`pwd` 6. The environment variable CDF20HELP (use setenv) should be set to the location of the cdf20-dist/help directory (full path name needed). This directory contains the online help text for the toolkit programs. VMS-style Installation Instructions ----------------------------------- CDF V2.0 is distributed for VMS-based systems as a BACKUP utility save set named CDF20-DIST.BCK in the same directory as this README.DOC file. To put the CDF library and tools on your system, perform the following steps. 1. Copy the CDF20-DIST.BCK file to the directory which is to be the parent directory of the CDF V2.0 distribution (library and tools) and SET DEFAULT to that directory. 2. Create the CDF V2.0 directory structure and files using the command: BACKUP/LOG CDF20-DIST.BCK/SAVE_SET [...] 3. A new subdirectory named [.NCDF] will have been created. This subdirectory has only one subdirectory below it, [.CDF20-DIST]. [.NCDF] is an unnecessary subdirectory level created because of the way that BACKUP works. To remove it, use the command: RENAME [.NCDF]CDF20-DIST.DIR []CDF20-DIST.DIR Then delete NCDF.DIR (note that [.NCDF] is now empty). It may be necessary that you change the protection or ACL for NCDF.DIR before you will be able to delete it. CDF V2.0 has a set of command files to automatically build the CDF library and tools. The following steps should be taken to build and install CDF V2.0. 4. SET DEFAULT to [.CDF20-DIST], the top-level CDF V2.0 subdirectory. 5. You may want to SET VERIFY at this point so you can see what is being done. 6. Define logical names for building/installing the distribution by using the command: @DIST_DEFINITIONS 7. Build the library and toolkit programs with the command: @BUILD Some informatory/warning messages may be displayed. These can be ignored and should have no effect on the operation of the library or toolkit programs. Several of the files being compiled are fairly large. You may need to increase your pagefile quota to avoid running out of virtual memory space. Note also that SYS$LIBRARY:VAXCRTL must be made available to the LINKer via the logical name LNK$LIBRARY (or LNK$LIBRARY_n if you already have one or more libraries specified; n starts at 1 and is incremented until all additional libraries have been specified). 8. Test that the library has been properly built with the command: @TEST If the tests are successful, the CDF V2.0 copyright notice will be displayed followed by a message saying TEST SUCCESSFUL. 9. Install (not related to the INSTALL utility) the library and tools in the proper subdirectories using the command: @INSTALL This will put the library and interfaces in [.LIB], the include files in [.INCLUDE], and the toolkit/test programs in [.EXE]. 10. Logical names for the subdirectories (referred to in Step 8 above) containing the library, interfaces, and include files should be defined. These logical names should be defined (possibly system-wide) to be consistent with your system. The tools should be installed as foreign commands to VMS. An example of this would be: CDFBROWSE :== $CDFBROWSE where is the full directory path name (including the device) to where CDFBROWSE is located. The logical name CDF20$HELP should be defined to be the location of the [.CDF20-DIST.HELP] subdirectory (full path name needed). This subdirectory contains the online help text for the toolkit programs.