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NAME

       ncdump - Convert netCDF file to text form (CDL)

SYNOPSIS

       ncdump   [-chistxw]   [-v   var1,...]   [-b  lang]  [-f  lang]  [-l  len]  [-n  name]  [-p
              f_digits[,d_digits]] [-g grp1,...]  file

       ncdump -k file

DESCRIPTION

       The ncdump utility generates a text representation of a specified netCDF file on  standard
       output,  optionally  excluding  some  or all of the variable data in the output.  The text
       representation is in a form called CDL (network Common Data form  Language)  that  can  be
       viewed, edited, or serve as input to ncgen, a companion program that can generate a binary
       netCDF file from a CDL file.  Hence ncgen and ncdump can be used as inverses to  transform
       the  data representation between binary and text representations.  See ncgen documentation
       for a description of CDL and netCDF representations.

       ncdump may also be used to determine what kind of netCDF file is used  (which  variant  of
       the netCDF file format) with the -k option.

       If  DAP  support  was  enabled when ncdump was built, the file name may specify a DAP URL.
       This allows ncdump to access data sources  from  DAP  servers,  including  data  in  other
       formats  than  netCDF.  When used with DAP URLs, ncdump shows the translation from the DAP
       data model to the netCDF data model.

       ncdump may also be used as a  simple  browser  for  netCDF  data  files,  to  display  the
       dimension  names  and  lengths;  variable  names,  types,  and shapes; attribute names and
       values; and optionally, the values of data for all variables or selected  variables  in  a
       netCDF  file.   For  netCDF-4  files,  groups  and user-defined types are also included in
       ncdump output.

       ncdump uses `_' to represent data values that are equal to the `_FillValue' attribute  for
       a  variable,  intended to represent data that has not yet been written.  If a variable has
       no `_FillValue' attribute, the default fill value for the variable type is used unless the
       variable is of byte type.

       ncdump defines a default display format used for each type of netCDF data, but this can be
       changed if a `C_format' attribute is defined for a netCDF variable.  In this case,  ncdump
       will  use  the  `C_format' attribute to format each value.  For example, if floating-point
       data for the netCDF variable `Z' is known to be accurate to only three significant digits,
       it would be appropriate to use the variable attribute

              Z:C_format = "%.3g"

OPTIONS

       -c     Show  the  values  of  coordinate  variables  (1D  variables with the same names as
              dimensions) as well as the declarations of  all  dimensions,  variables,  attribute
              values,  groups,  and  user-defined types.  Data values of non-coordinate variables
              are not included in the output.  This is usually the most suitable  option  to  use
              for a brief look at the structure and contents of a netCDF file.

       -h     Show  only  the  header  information  in  the  output,  that  is,  output  only the
              declarations for the dimensions, variables, attributes,  groups,  and  user-defined
              types  of  the  input  file,  but  no data values for any variables.  The output is
              identical to using the -c option except that the values of coordinate variables are
              not included.  (At most one of -c or -h options may be present.)

       -v var1,...
              The output will include data values for the specified variables, in addition to the
              declarations of all dimensions, variables, and attributes.  One or  more  variables
              must  be  specified by name in the comma-delimited list following this option.  The
              list must be a single argument to  the  command,  hence  cannot  contain  unescaped
              blanks  or  other white space characters.  The named variables must be valid netCDF
              variables in the input-file.  A variable within a group in a netCDF-4 file  may  be
              specified  with  an  absolute  path  name, such as `/GroupA/GroupA2/var'.  Use of a
              relative path name such as `var' or `grp/var' specifies all matching variable names
              in  the  file.  The default, without this option and in the absence of the -c or -h
              options, is to include data values for all variables in the output.

       -b [c|f]
              A brief annotation in the form of a CDL comment (text beginning with the characters
              ``//'')  will be included in the data section of the output for each `row' of data,
              to help identify data values for multidimensional variables.  If lang  begins  with
              `C'  or  `c',  then  C  language conventions will be used (zero-based indices, last
              dimension varying fastest).  If lang begins with `F' or `f', then Fortran  language
              conventions  will be used (one-based indices, first dimension varying fastest).  In
              either case, the data will be presented in the same  order;  only  the  annotations
              will  differ.   This  option  may  be  useful for browsing through large volumes of
              multidimensional data.

       -f [c|f]
              Full annotations in the form of trailing CDL  comments  (text  beginning  with  the
              characters  ``//'') for every data value (except individual characters in character
              arrays) will be included in the data section.  If lang begins with `C' or `c', then
              C  language conventions will be used.  If lang begins with `F' or `f', then Fortran
              language conventions will be used.  In either case, the data will be  presented  in
              the  same  order;  only the annotations will differ.  This option may be useful for
              piping data into other filters, since each data value appears on a  separate  line,
              fully identified. (At most one of '-b' or '-f' options may be present.)

       -l length
              Changes  the  default  maximum  line  length  (80) used in formatting lists of non-
              character data values.

       -n name
              CDL requires a name for a netCDF file, for use by ncgen -b in generating a  default
              netCDF  file name.  By default, ncdump constructs this name from the last component
              of the file name of the input netCDF file by stripping off any  extension  it  has.
              Use  the -n option to specify a different name.  Although the output file name used
              by ncgen -b can be specified, it may be wise to have ncdump change the default name
              to  avoid  inadvertently  overwriting  a  valuable  netCDF  file when using ncdump,
              editing the resulting CDL file, and using ncgen -b to generate a  new  netCDF  file
              from the edited CDL file.

       -p float_digits[,double_digits]
              Specifies  default  precision  (number  of significant digits) to use in displaying
              floating-point or double precision data values for attributes  and  variables.   If
              specified,  this value overrides the value of the C_format attribute, if any, for a
              variable.  Floating-point data will  be  displayed  with  float_digits  significant
              digits.   If  double_digits  is  also  specified,  double-precision  values will be
              displayed  with  that  many  significant  digits.   In  the  absence  of   any   -p
              specifications,  floating-point  and double-precision data are displayed with 7 and
              15 significant digits  respectively.   CDL  files  can  be  made  smaller  if  less
              precision is required.  If both floating-point and double precisions are specified,
              the two values must appear separated by a comma (no blanks) as a single argument to
              the  command.   (To  represent  every  last  bit of precision in a CDL file for all
              possible floating-point values would require -p 9,17.)

       -k     Show kind of netCDF  file  the  pathname  references,  one  of  `classic',  `64-bit
              offset',`netCDF-4',  or  `netCDF-4  classic  model'.  Before version 3.6, there was
              only one kind of netCDF file, designated as `classic' (also know as format  variant
              1).   Large  file  support  introduced another variant of the format, designated as
              `64-bit offset' (known as format variant 2).  NetCDF-4, uses a third variant of the
              format,   `netCDF-4'  (format  variant  3).   Another  format  variant,  designated
              `netCDF-4 classic model' (format variant 4), is restricted to features supported by
              the  netCDF-3  data  model  but  represented  using  the  HDF5  format,  so that an
              unmodified netCDF-3 program can read or write the file just by relinking  with  the
              netCDF-4  library.   The  string output by using the `-k' option may be provided as
              the value of the `-k' option to ncgen(1) to specify exactly  what  kind  of  netCDF
              file to generate, when you want to override the default inferred from the CDL.

       -s     Output  special  virtual  attributes  that  provide performance-related information
              about the file format and variable properties for  netCDF-4  data.   These  special
              virtual  attributes are not actually part of the data, they are merely a convenient
              way to display miscellaneous properties of the data in CDL (and  eventually  NcML).
              They   include   `_ChunkSizes',   `_DeflateLevel',   `_Endianness',  `_Fletcher32',
              `_Format', `_NoFill', `_Shuffle', and `_Storage'.  `_ChunkSizes' is a list of chunk
              sizes  for each dimension of the variable.  `_DeflateLevel' is an integer between 0
              and 9 inclusive if compression has been specified for the variable.   `_Endianness'
              is  either  `little'  or `big', depending on how the variable was stored when first
              written.  `_Fletcher32' is  `true'  if  the  checksum  property  was  set  for  the
              variable.   `_Format'  is  a global attribute specifying the netCDF format variant,
              one of  `classic',  `64-bit  offset',  `netCDF-4',  or  `netCDF-4  classic  model'.
              `_NoFill' is `true' if the persistent NoFill property was set for the variable when
              it was defined.  `_Shuffle' is `true' if use of the shuffle  filter  was  specified
              for  the  variable.   `_Storage' is `contiguous' or `chunked', depending on how the
              variable's data is stored.

       -t     Controls display of time data,  if  stored  in  a  variable  that  uses  a  udunits
              compliant  time  representation  such  as `days since 1970-01-01' or `seconds since
              2009-03-15 12:01:17', a variable identified in a "bounds" attribute of such a  time
              variable,  or a numeric attribute of a time variable.  If this option is specified,
              time data values are displayed as  human-readable  date-time  strings  rather  than
              numerical  values,  interpreted  in  terms  of  a `calendar' variable attribute, if
              specified.  For numeric attributes of time variables, the human-readable time value
              is  displayed  after  the  actual  value,  in  an associated CDL comment.  Calendar
              attribute values interpreted with this option include  the  CF  Conventions  values
              `gregorian' or `standard', `proleptic_gregorian', `noleap' or `365_day', `all_leap'
              or `366_day', `360_day', and `julian'.

       -i     Same as the '-t' option, except output time data as date-time strings with ISO-8601
              standard 'T' separator, instead of a blank.

       -g grp1,...
              For  netCDF-4  files,  the  output  will include data values only for the specified
              groups.  One or more groups must be specified by name in the  comma-delimited  list
              following this option. The list must be a single argument to the command. The named
              groups must be valid netCDF groups in the input-file.  A group in a  netCDF-4  file
              may  be  specified  with an absolute or relative path name.  Use of a relative path
              name specifies all matching group names in the file.   The  default,  without  this
              option  and  in  the absence of the -c or -h options, is to include data values for
              all groups in the output.

       -w     For file names that request remote access using DAP URLs, access data with  client-
              side caching of entire variables.

       -x     Output XML (NcML) instead of CDL.  The NcML does not include data values.  The NcML
              output option currently only works for netCDF classic model data.

EXAMPLES

       Look at the structure of the data in the netCDF file `foo.nc':

              ncdump -c foo.nc

       Produce an annotated CDL version of the structure and data in the  netCDF  file  `foo.nc',
       using C-style indexing for the annotations:

              ncdump -b c foo.nc > foo.cdl

       Output  data for only the variables `uwind' and `vwind' from the netCDF file `foo.nc', and
       show the floating-point data with only three significant digits of precision:

              ncdump -v uwind,vwind -p 3 foo.nc

       Produce a fully-annotated (one data value per line) listing of the data for  the  variable
       `omega',  using  Fortran  conventions for indices, and changing the netCDF dataset name in
       the resulting CDL file to `omega':

              ncdump -v omega -f fortran -n omega foo.nc > Z.cdl

SEE ALSO

       ncgen(1), netcdf(3)

BUGS

       Character arrays that contain a null-byte are treated like C  strings,  so  no  characters
       after the null byte appear in the output.

       Multidimensional  character  string  arrays are not handled well, since the CDL syntax for
       breaking a long character string into several shorter lines is weak.

       There should be a way to specify that the data should be displayed in `record' order, that
       is with the all the values for `record' variables together that have the same value of the
       record dimension.