Warning about NCL 5.2.0 beta version

Hi all,

If any of you are using a beta version of 5.2.0 that we provided you
with, please be aware that the Unidata/HDF5 folks have uncovered a
serious bug that could manifest itself if you use this NCL to create
NetCDF files:

   We have just been informed of a bug in HDF5-1.8.4 that causes a
problem
   in files written using netCDF-4.1. The symptom is that if a
variable or
   group is created with more than 8 attributes, the resulting file
becomes
   non-portable between little-endian and big-endian platforms.

   The HDF5 developers have a fix and are testing it now. We are also
   about to test a prerelease snapshot of the fix.

   This note is to inform the netCDF community about this problem and
the
   upcoming fix, which we expect to be officially announced sometime
next
   week.

   In the meantime, we recommend that you not use netCDF-4 linked with
   HDF5-1.8.4 to write netCDF-4 or netCDF-4 classic model files that
have
    more than 8 attributes for any data object, including more than 8
global
   attributes. We will add a test to the netCDF-4 version 4.1.1 release
   that would have uncovered this bug, test the HDF5 fix to make sure it
   creates portable netCDF-4 files, and keep you informed of progress on
   this issue.

I built the NCL 5.2.0 beta binaries against these versions of NetCDF
and HDF5, so I recommend that you don't use NCL 5.2.0 beta to write
any NetCDF files.

I'll let you know when/if new 5.2.0 beta binaries become available.

--Mary

_______________________________________________
ncl-talk mailing list
List instructions, subscriber options, unsubscribe:
http://mailman.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/ncl-talk
Received on Mon Feb 22 13:34:30 2010