In order to run, Unidata McIDAS requires that a number of environment variables be pre-defined in a user's Unix/Linux session. Defining these envionment variables is the responsibility of either the system adminstrator that installs McIDAS, or of the user him/herself.

Environment Variables

Environment Variable	Purpose
MCHOME	the HOME directory of mcidas
MCDATA	working directory for McIDAS-X sessions
MCPATH	a colon-separated list of directories that McIDAS routines will search when looking for data and ancillary data files
MCGUI	the directory in which the Unidata Tcl/Tk GUI executables and scripts reside
MCTABLE_READ	a semi-colon separated list of fully qualified pathnames of ADDE client routing tables that will be read by McIDAS applications when determining the server from which data will be requested
MCTABLE_WRITE	the ADDE client routing table that will be modified when the McIDAS DATALOC command is run
MCCOMPRESS	when set, makes McIDAS clients request that ADDE servers send them data in compressed format
PATH	add the MCGUI directory to the front of your PATH

The special user mcidas, will have two additional envionment variables defined in its Unix session:

Environment Variable	Purpose
McINST_ROOT	the directory under which you wish to install Unidata McIDAS-X. This is usually the same as MCHOME
MySQL_ROOT	setting this environment variable to a non-blank value tells the McIDAS-X/-XCD build process to include MySQL support. If MySQL is installed in a standard location, specify the flag as TRUE). If MySQL is installed in a non-standard install location, specify the flag as MySQL=directory, where directory is the root MySQL install directory. NB: if MySQL is not installed setting this environment variable will cause the build to fail.
XCD_disp_file	fully qualified pathname of the XCD decoder status file, DECOSTAT.DAT. This should be located in mcidas's working directory.

These environment variables need to be defined in the user's shell-specific definition file -- .cshrc for C/TC shell users, .profile for Bourne shell users, .bash_profile for BASH users, and .kshrc for Korn shell users -- so that they will be active whenever the user logs onto the workstation.

The Unidata McIDAS-X distribution includes files of needed settings that can be incorporated into a user's shell definition file (as indicated above), or referenced from the user's shell definition file. The following are the list of files provided:

user_env.csh	non-mcidas user's non-conforming shell environment file (.cshrc) settings
user_env.sh	non-mcidas user's conforming shell environment file (.profile, .bash_profile, .kshrc) settings
mcidas_env.csh	mcidas user's non-conforming shell environment file (.cshrc) settings
mcidas_env.sh	mcidas user's conforming shell environment file (.profile, .bash_profile, .kshrc) settings

The needed environment variables can be set by a simple construct in the appropriate shell definition file. Here are examples:

User	non-Conforming shells	Conforming shells
mcidas	# McINST_ROOT and VENDOR non-conforming shell defines # needed to build McIDAS setenv McINST_ROOT $HOME setenv VENDOR -gfortran # NOTE: uncomment the line that sets MySQL_ROOT if you want to # build with MySQL support: # - leave the value blank if MySQL is installed in a standard # location # - specify the value as the root directory of the MySQL # installation if MySQL is not installed in a standard # location # setenv MySQL_ROOT TRUE if ( -e $HOME/admin/mcidas_env.csh ) then source $HOME/admin/mcidas_env.csh endif	# McINST_ROOT and VENDOR conforming shell defines # needed to bulid McIDAS McINST_ROOT=$HOME VENDOR=-gfortran export McINST_ROOT VENDOR # NOTE: uncomment the next two lines that set MySQL_ROOT if you # want to build with MySQL support: # - leave the value blank if MySQL is installed in a standard # location # - specify the value as the root directory of the MySQL # installation if MySQL is not installed in a standard # location # MySQL_ROOT=TRUE # export MySQL_ROOT if [ -e $HOME/admin/mcidas_env.sh ]; then . $HOME/admin/mcidas_env.sh fi
other user	setenv MCHOME /home/mcidas if ( -e $MCHOME/admin/user_env.csh ) then source $MCHOME/admin/user_env.csh endif	MCHOME=/home/mcidas export MCHOME if [ -e $MCHOME/admin/user_env.sh ]; then . $MCHOME/admin/user_env.sh fi

In addition, the user mcidas will have a second set of enviornment variables defined in the file ~mcidas/.mcenv. These definitions are used by the ADDE remote server that runs as the user mcadde (mcadde shares the HOME directory of mcidas).

# Bourne/Korn shell environment variable definitions for the user 'mcidas'

# umask
umask 002

# MCHOME and McINST_ROOT
MCHOME=/home/mcidas

# McIDAS environment variables
MCDATA=$MCHOME/workdata
MCPATH=${MCDATA}:$MCHOME/data:$MCHOME/help
MCGUI=$MCHOME/bin
MCTABLE_READ="MCHOME/mcidas/data/MCTABLE.TXT"
MCTABLE_WRITE="MCHOME/mcidas/data/MCTABLE.TXT"

# Turn on ADDE logging
ADDE_LOGGING=YES

# Define the PATH
PATH=${MCGUI}:$PATH

# Export the environment variables above
export MCPATH MCTABLE_READ MCTABLE_WRITE ADDE_LOGGING PATH

# CD to the MCDATA directory
cd $MCDATA

• the definitions in .mcenv use Bourne/Korn/Bash Shell syntax. Do NOT change this.

• '$PATH' should contain the same directories you added to PATH in the shell-specific definition file

• MCTABLE_READ and MCTABLE_WRITE are set to non-existent files so that the remote server being run by mcadde will always access data locally

• permissions on .mcenv need to be set to read/write for owner and group

• the users mcidas, mcadde, and ldm should all be in the same group