Provided by: nco_5.3.6-1_amd64 
NAME
ncrename - netCDF Renamer
SYNTAX
ncrename [-a old_name,new_name] [-a ... ] [-D] [-d old_name,new_name] [-d ... ] [-g old_name,new_name]
[-g ... ] [--gaa att_name= att_val]] [--gad att1[,...]] [-H] [-h] [--hdr_pad sz_byt][--hpss_try] [-l
path] [-O] [-p path] [-R] [-r] [--ram_all] [--uio] [-v old_name,new_name] [-v ... ] input-file [
output-file]
DESCRIPTION
ncrename renames dimensions, variables, and attributes in a netCDF file. Each object that has a name in
the list of old names is renamed using the corresponding name in the list of new names. All the new
names must be unique. Every old name must exist in the input file, unless the name is preceded by the
character .. The validity of the old names is not checked prior to the renaming. Thus, if an old name
is specified without the the . prefix and is not present in input-file, ncrename will abort.
ncrename is the exception to the normal rules that the user will be interactively prompted before an
existing file is changed, and that a temporary copy of an output file is constructed during the
operation. If only input-file is specified, then ncrename will change the names of the input-file in
place without prompting and without creating a temporary copy of input-file. This is because the
renaming operation is considered reversible if the user makes a mistake. The new_name can easily be
changed back to old_name by using ncrename one more time.
Note that renaming a dimension to the name of a dependent variable can be used to invert the relationship
between an independent coordinate variable and a dependent variable. In this case, the named dependent
variable must be one-dimensional and should have no missing values. Such a variable will become a
coordinate variable.
According to the netCDF Users Guide, renaming properties in netCDF files does not incur the penalty of
recopying the entire file when the new_name is shorter than the old_name.
OPTIONS
-a old_name, new_name Attribute renaming. The old and new names of the attribute are specified by
the associated old_name and new_name values. Global attributes are treated no differently than
variable attributes. This option may be specified more than once. You cannot change the
attribute name for one particular variable (unless it is uniquely named); all occurrences of the
attribute of a given name will be renamed. This is considered an oversight and will be addressed
in a future version of NCO.
-d old_name, new_name Dimension renaming. The old and new names of the dimension are specified by
the associated old_name and new_name values. This option may be specified more than once.
-g old_name, new_name Group renaming. The old and new names of the group are specified by the
associated old_name and new_name values. This option may be specified more than once.
-v old_name, new_name Variable renaming. The old and new names of the variable are specified by the
associated old_name and new_name values. This option may be specified more than once.
-i Interactive. ncrename will prompt for confirmation before overwriting an existing file.
EXAMPLES
Rename the variable p to pressure and t to temperature in netCDF in.nc. In this case p must exist in the
input file (or ncrename will abort), but the presence of t is optional:
ncrename -v p,pressure -v .t,temperature in.nc
ncrename does not automatically attach dimensions to variables of the same name. If you want to rename a
coordinate variable so that it remains a coordinate variable, you must separately rename both the
dimension and the variable:
ncrename -d lon,longitude -v lon,longitude in.nc
Create netCDF out.nc identical to in.nc except the attribute _FillValue is changed to missing_value (in
all variables which possess it) and the global attribute Zaire is changed to Congo:
ncrename -a _FillValue,missing_value -a Zaire,Congo in.nc out.nc
AUTHOR
NCO manual pages written by Charlie Zender and originally formatted by Brian Mays.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <http://sf.net/bugs/?group_id=3331>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 1995-present Charlie Zender
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
SEE ALSO
The full documentation for NCO is maintained as a Texinfo manual called the NCO Users Guide. Because NCO
is mathematical in nature, the documentation includes TeX-intensive portions not viewable on character-
based displays. Hence the only complete and authoritative versions of the NCO Users Guide are the PDF
(recommended), DVI, and Postscript versions at <http://nco.sf.net/nco.pdf>, <http://nco.sf.net/nco.dvi>,
and <http://nco.sf.net/nco.ps>, respectively. HTML and XML versions are available at
<http://nco.sf.net/nco.html> and <http://nco.sf.net/nco.xml>, respectively.
If the info and NCO programs are properly installed at your site, the command
info nco
should give you access to the complete manual, except for the TeX-intensive portions.
ncap2(1), ncatted(1), ncbo(1), ncclimo(1), nces(1), ncecat(1), ncflint(1), ncz2psx(1), ncz2psx(1),
ncks(1), nco(1), ncpdq(1), ncra(1), ncrcat(1), ncremap(1), ncrename(1), ncwa(1)
HOMEPAGE
The NCO homepage at <http://nco.sf.net> contains more information.
NCRENAME(1)