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2009 Unidata NetCDF Workshop for Developers and Data Providers > Overview of netCDF

3.5 Installing netCDF
NetCDF is easy to build and install from source using the most recent autotools-based package.

On many platforms, it only requires expanding the compressed distribution and running the following commands:


     ./configure
     make check install

Shared libraries are not build by default, use --enable-shared to get them.


     ./configure --enable-shared
     make check install

There are many options available for configuring netCDF builds. Use the --help option to learn more.


     ./configure --help

If you want to use the netCDF-4/HDF5 data format, you must first install the zlib-1.2.3 and HDF5-1.8.3-snap2 libraries, and build netCDF like this:


     ./configure --with-hdf5=/location/of/hdf5
     make check install

To be able to read HDF4 SD data files, you must specify --enable-hdf4, and optionally the location of HDF4 like this:


     ./configure --with-hdf5=/location/of/hdf5 --enable-hdf4 --with-hdf4=/location/of/hdf4
     make check install

The UDUNITS package is now available with the netCDF build. Use the --with-udunits configure option to install it. UDUNITS is a mature package which supports unit conversions.


     ./configure --with-udunits
     make check install

The experimental libcf package is also available with the netCDF build. Use the --with-libcf configure option to install it. Libcf helps read and write data files which use the CF (Climate and Forecast) conventions, used to annotate Earth system data.


     ./configure --with-libcf
     make check install

Frequently you will want to set some flags for the pre-processors, compilers, and linker.


CPPFLAGS - C pre-processor flags
CFLAGS - C compiler flags
FCFLAGS - Fortran compiler (77 & 90) flags
F77FLAGS - Fortran 77 (only) compiler flags
F90FLAGS - Fortran 90 (only) compiler flags
CXXFLAGS - C++ compiler flags
LDFLAGS - Loader flags
LIBS - Library flags

Many options can be combined


  
     CC=gcc CFLAGS='-g -Wall' ./configure --with-libcf --with-udunits
     --enable-hdf4 --with-hdf4=/machine/local
     --with-hdf5=/machine/local_hdf5 --enable-shared
     make check install

If you run into problems, check these sources of help:

 


Previous: The NetCDF Web Site Next: Getting Support Table of contents Frames User guide
2009 Unidata NetCDF Workshop for Developers and Data Providers > Overview of netCDF