parallel netcdf - first experiences

[rene.redler]

Hello,

   I recently (today) subscribed to parallel-netCDF mailing list, so I 
apologies in advance for taking your time if I rise any topic that has 
already been discussed.

I started with the latest version 0.8.6 and tried to install the library on 
a NEC SX6. Doing this on a SX6 itself would have resulted in some changes 
of the Makefile.in due to different behavior of make (-C is not supported 
there and install, and some other odd things.) I then started working with 
the cross compiler which was not possible with release 0.8.4 which I 
tested last week due to the fact that the previous release needed to run 
executables during the configure (or make) phase.

I needed to define the following environment variables 

setenv MPIF77 sxmpif90
setenv MPICC sxmpic++
setenv AR sxar
setenv RANLIB :

Running configure and make worked fine.

When trying to create the test cases I recognized that mpinetcdf.c tries 
to call  MPI_Type_create_vector which I guess is not part of the MPI2 
standard. Are there any plans to to add this function to the MPI2 in 
future? I also could not find this function in the mpich-1.2.5 release. 
Comments are welcome.

As a first check whether everything worked I used e.g.

     ncvalid parallel-netcdf-0.8.6/test/data/test_double.nc  

which resulted in no output. From a brief look into validate.c I got the 
impression that this could be a good sign.

Nevertheless trying to test_read the netCDF files failed, and the ncmpi
routines returned and invalid id or dimension. Did anyone encounter a 
similar behavior on any other architecture?

Another question related to parallel netCDF for climate system modeling: 
Is any subscriber of this mailing list working for or in close contact 
with the ESMF (Earth System Modeling Framework) or the European PRISM 
project (Program for Integrated Earth System Modeling)? If so, I would be 
happy to get into contact to discus the impact of the parallel netCDF on 
ongoing or planned activities. 

Thank you very much for your attention,

   Rene Redler

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