[ncl-install] ncattname error when reading NetCDF files

[Samuel G Trahan]

I am trying to get NCL working on the IU BigRed cluster.  I was able to 
open and view a few grib files, and create X11 graphical output. 
However, when I went to open a NetCDF file, I got a few hundred lines of 
errors that look like:

 	ncattname: ncid 65536: NetCDF: Not a valid ID
 	ncattinq: ncid 65536; varid 10; attname "ST100200": NetCDF: Not a valid ID

and one "fatal:NclMalloc Failed:[errno=12]" error. Then, when I use 
print(file), it lists out all of the variables in the file and says they 
have size 0.

The script I'm using contains:

begin
   file1=addfile("/N/u/tg-strahan/BigRed/work/katrina-gfs/run/met_nmm.d01.2005-08-27_00:00:00.nc","r")
   print(file1)
end

The file is output from the WRF Preprocessing System (WPS) version 3.0.1. 
I also tried some wrfout_* files output by the atmospheric simulator 
WRF-NMM 3.0.1.1.  According to ncdump -h, the variables do not have size 
zero (and the files are tens of MB to 1.3 GB in size).

The error I'm getting is not the ncclose error mentioned in the 
archive.  The error is happening when reading the file, not closing it.

Do you have any idea what might be causing this problem?  I've included 
details below if you need more info.

Thank you in advance,
Samuel G Trahan

The output generated by the addfile line is as follows:

-------------------- begin addfile errors ---------------------
ncattname: ncid 65536: NetCDF: Not a valid ID
ncattinq: ncid 65536; varid 10; attname "ST100200": NetCDF: Not a valid ID
ncattname: ncid 65536: NetCDF: Not a valid ID
ncattinq: ncid 65536; varid 10; attname "ST100200": NetCDF: Not a valid ID
...
     more lines like that
...
ncattname: ncid 65536: NetCDF: Not a valid ID
ncattinq: ncid 65536; varid 12; attname "ST010040": NetCDF: Not a valid ID
  Copyright (C) 1995-2007 - All Rights Reserved
  University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
  NCAR Command Language Version 5.0.0
  The use of this software is governed by a License Agreement.
  See http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/ for more details.
fatal:NclMalloc Failed:[errno=12]
ncattget: ncid 65536: NetCDF: Not a valid ID
ncattname: ncid 65536: NetCDF: Not a valid ID
ncattinq: ncid 65536; varid 12; attname "ST010040": NetCDF: Not a valid ID
ncattname: ncid 65536: NetCDF: Not a valid ID
ncattinq: ncid 65536; varid 12; attname "ST010040": NetCDF: Not a valid ID
... more lines like that ...
--------------------- end addfile errors ----------------------

(Except, without the "begin addfile errors" and "end addfile errors" 
lines.)  Those errors are printed out even if I remove the print(file1) 
line from my script.  Running print(file) results in the following lines 
being printed:

------------------- begin print(file1) output -----------------
Variable: file1 (file variable)

filename:       met_nmm.d01.2005-08-27_00:00:00
path: 
/N/u/tg-strahan/BigRed/work/katrina-gfs/run/met_nmm.d01.2005-08-27_00:00:00.nc
    file global attributes:
       XLAT_M : <ARRAY of 0 elements>
       XLAT_M : <ARRAY of 0 elements>
       XLAT_M : <ARRAY of 0 elements>
... a bunch of those XLAT_M lines ...
    dimensions:
       Time = 1  // unlimited
       DateStrLen = 19
       west_east = 179
       south_north = 323
       num_metgrid_levels = 27
       num_sm_levels = 4
       num_st_levels = 4
       z-dimension0012 = 12
       z-dimension0016 = 16
       z-dimension0024 = 24
    variables:
       character Times ( Time, DateStrLen )

       float PRES ( Time, num_metgrid_levels, south_north, west_east )
          PRES : <ARRAY of 0 elements>
          PRES : <ARRAY of 0 elements>
          PRES : <ARRAY of 0 elements>
          PRES : <ARRAY of 0 elements>
          PRES : <ARRAY of 0 elements>

... the rest of the variables printed with those "0 elements" messages ...
------------------- end print(file1) output -------------------

According to ncdump -h, these files are valid -- the variables do not have 
zero size.  I am using the IU BigRed Linux PowerPC cluster with suse 9, 
patch level 4 and the IBM XL compiler.  (I had to use gcc for some of the 
prerequisite libraries though.)  The versions of everything I compiled 
were as follows:

ncl_ncarg_src-5.0.0 (plus triangle.h and triangle.c)
HDF4.2r3 (configured with --disable-netcdf to avoid undefined sd* symbols)
hdf5-1.8.1
g2clib-1.1.7
g2lib-1.1.7
szip-2.1
netcdf-4.0 (configured with --enable-netcdf-4 and --with-hdf5)
openssl-0.9.8i
curl-7.19.0
libxml2-2.7.1
libdap-3.8.2
libnc-dap-3.7.3
vis5d+-1.2.1   (vis5d was linked with netcdf-3.6.3 instead of 4)
udunits-1.12.9
openldap-stable-20080813 (required by libcurl)