Russ,
Thanks for the recommendation. Have you run into any cases where users have
gotten a '.nc' file, but complained because a netCDF-3 tool they are using
cannot open the netCDF-4 file?
On Jun 6, 2011, at 3:24 PM, Russ Rew wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
>> What is the community convention for filename suffix for netCDF-4 files: .nc
>> , .nc4, .h5?
>
> We encourage just using ".nc", but as you've indicated, it's only a
> convention. The FAQ says:
>
> Why aren't different extensions used for the different formats, for
> example ".nc3" and ".nc4"?
>
> The file extension used for netCDF files is purely a convention. The
> netCDF libraries don't use the file extension. A user can currently
> create a netCDF file with any extension, even one not consistent with
> the format of the file.
>
> The ncgen utility uses ".nc" as a default extension for output, but
> this can be overridden using the "-o" option to specify the name for
> the output file. Recent versions of ncgen also have a "-k" option to
> specify what kind of output file is desired, selecting any of the 4
> format variants, using either a numeric code or a text string. Most
> other netCDF client software pays no attention to the file extension,
> so using more explicit extensions by convention has no significant
> drawbacks, except possibly causing confusion about format differences
> that may not be important.
>
> --Russ
--
Dr. Christopher Lynnes NASA/GSFC, Code 610.2 phone: 301-614-5185
