On many platforms, it only requires expanding the compressed distribution and running the following commands:
./configure
make check install
Shared libraries will be built by default after version 4.1.2. For earlier versions, if you want shared libraries use:
./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 and HDF5-1.8.5 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: