20010824: McIDAS, gcc, f2c and netCDF

>From: "Corcoran, William T" <address@hidden>
>Organization: SMSU
>Keywords: 200108232044.f7NKi2119256 McIDAS WEB gcc f2c AIX

Bill,

>Well, yesterday after firing off the message about web-downloading, I
>immediately ftp'd mcidas and got to work.  As an editorial comment
>y'all don't need to hear, a web-account that I use once every 6 months
>will be guaranteed to have password and user id lost.

I will pass along your comment.  It is an issue that we struggled
with while considering the move to web based software downloads.
While it _is_ a pain, it really isn't much different than having
to remember a user name and password for a particular package
(like McIDAS).  Also, a user of both the GEMPAK and McIDAS packages,
the ones that have always requried licensing in the past, now only
has to remember one user name and password combination, not two.
Don't get me wrong...  I am not trying to say that you are not correct
in your comments.  I am just trying to relay some of the arguments
that were made before we made the leap.

Also, here is why you got the Sorry page (from Scott, our webmaster):

  The first registered ID for Bill (wtc928f) is associated with an
  educational institution, but the second ID (wtc928) is not associated
  with any institution. 

  The best solution for this is for him to visit the 'I forgot my
  password' link and reset the password on his first ID and then we can
  delete the duplicate.

The second registration is the one you were using when you attempted to
grab the McIDAS 7.80 distribution.  Since that ID had no associated
institution, it was denied access.  If you had selected SMSU/Department
of Geography as your Institutional Affiliation, you would have been
granted access to the McIDAS download hierarchy.

>I encountered the problems detailed below.  Seems I had these same
>problems with 7.7, but solved them by tweaking makefiles and
>configure...never alerted you to the issues.  Now, however, I'm pressed
>for time and seeking help, also, it seems  as if this will be a
>continuing "problem" or feature, so I'd like to get a definitive
>answer.  (Also, I forgot what I did and can't seem to find the right
>path to take on my own.)

OK.  See below.

>We apparently are the only dummies using IBM workstations with gnu
>compilers...too cheap to license the compilers;

SSEC works in this environment also.

>we used to, maybe
>could, but don't.  Packages (such as netCDF, and as I recall,  jpeg)
>use configure, uname and find AIX, then assume xlc for compiler, and
>die dead.  To recap, I changed VENDOR to -gcc in the mcidas/src
>makefile, typed make mcx,  and got immediately blown out of the water
>in netCDF with configure looking for xlc.  Ditto if I just try to run a
>naked ./configure in the jpeg directory.

I feel pretty certain that the only thing that you need to do is define
the set of Unix environment variables that will satisfy the netCDF and
jpeg configure scripts.  From the Notes and Warnings web page, these
would look like the following IF you were using the IBM compilers
(syntax is for a C shell user):

setenv CC xlc
setenv CPPFLAGS -DNDEBUG
setenv CFLAGS -O
setenv FC xlf
setenv FFLAGS -O
setenv CXX

We would translate this to the following for users of gcc/f2c:

setenv CC gcc
setenv CPPFLAGS -DNDEBUG
setenv CFLAGS -O
setenv FC /home/mcidas/mcidas7.8/src/mcfc
setenv FFLAGS -O
setenv CXX

Since I think I remember that you are a Korn shell user (?), these should
look like:

CC=gcc
CPPFLAGS=-DNDEBUG
CFLAGS=-O
FC=/home/mcidas/mcidas7.8/src/mcfc
FFLAGS=-O
CXX=
export CC CFLAGS FC FFLAGS CXX

>As I said, I built 7.7 with the gnu compilers (gcc, f2c) back in May,
>but I may have had to disable netCDF.

OK.

>Oh yeah, if'n your interested: machine: cirrus.smsu.edu; ...

OK, I just logged on.  Here is what I have done:

o added the definitions of CC, CPPFLAGS, etc (the stuff above) to your
  .profile file and then made the settings active with:

  . .profile

o took a look at mcidas7.8/src/makefile and found that you set VENDOR=
  to -gccv instead of -gcc

o ran

  make mcx

Since cirrus is not a barn burner, I was going to hold off on sending this
to you until the build was past the netCDF and Jpeg sections, but I just
saw your second message:

>From address@hidden Fri Aug 24 13:31:14 2001
>Subject: UPDATE on mcidas7.8 install

>Since my last message detailing the problems with netcdf, AIX, and gnu,
>I did the following:

>1. read install.doc in /jpeg, so in jpeg did a ./configure CC='gcc'...okey
>   dokey
>2. went to /netcdf and tweaked the CC and FC symbols in configure for
>   AIX--made them gcc and fort77 (installed)...tweaked a flag or two too.
>   Looks like this will take care of that issue for now...BUT
>
>3. mcidas7.8/src make mcx
>
>Target "mcx" is up to date.
>       rm -f mcservsh
>Updating mcservsh...
>       chmod 755 mcservsh
>       rm -f ./tclcomp
>       sh tclcomp.sh /home/mcidas/tcl ../tcl ..tk ./tclcomp
>tclcomp.sh: Couldn't fid Tcl configuration information
>make: 1254-004 The error code from the last command is 1

At the point when you run into a build failure and then start changing
things like environment variables, it is always safest to:

cd mcidas7.8/src
make clobber
make mcx

>OOF!

The build is proceeding as I write this.  I will send a second message
once it is finished.

Tom