1NCRENAME(1) General Commands Manual NCRENAME(1)
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6 ncrename - netCDF Renamer
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9 ncrename [-a old_name, new_name] [-a [-d old_name, new_name] [-d [-R]
10 [-r] [-v old_name, new_name] [-v input-file [ output-file]
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13 ncrename renames dimensions, variables, and attributes in a netCDF
14 file. Each object that has a name in the list of old names is renamed
15 using the corresponding name in the list of new names. All the new
16 names must be unique. Every old name must exist in the input file,
17 unless the name is preceded by the character .. The validity of the
18 old names is not checked prior to the renaming. Thus, if an old name
19 is specified without the the . prefix and is not present in input-
20 file, ncrename will abort.
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22 ncrename is the exception to the normal rules that the user will be
23 interactively prompted before an existing file is changed, and that a
24 temporary copy of an output file is constructed during the operation.
25 If only input-file is specified, then ncrename will change the names of
26 the input-file in place without prompting and without creating a tempo‐
27 rary copy of input-file. This is because the renaming operation is
28 considered reversible if the user makes a mistake. The new_name can
29 easily be changed back to old_name by using ncrename one more time.
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31 Note that renaming a dimension to the name of a dependent variable can
32 be used to invert the relationship between an independent coordinate
33 variable and a dependent variable. In this case, the named dependent
34 variable must be one-dimensional and should have no missing values.
35 Such a variable will become a coordinate variable.
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37 According to the netCDF User's Guide, renaming properties in netCDF
38 files does not incur the penalty of recopying the entire file when the
39 new_name is shorter than the old_name.
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42 -a old_name, new_name Attribute renaming. The old and new names of
43 the attribute are specified by the associated old_name and
44 new_name values. Global attributes are treated no differently
45 than variable attributes. This option may be specified more
46 than once. You cannot change the attribute name for one partic‐
47 ular variable (unless it is uniquely named); all occurrences of
48 the attribute of a given name will be renamed. This is consid‐
49 ered an oversight and will be addressed in a future version of
50 NCO.
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52 -d old_name, new_name Dimension renaming. The old and new names of
53 the dimension are specified by the associated old_name and
54 new_name values. This option may be specified more than once.
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56 -v old_name, new_name Variable renaming. The old and new names of
57 the variable are specified by the associated old_name and
58 new_name values. This option may be specified more than once.
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60 -i Interactive. ncrename will prompt for confirmation before over‐
61 writing an existing file.
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64 Rename the variable p to pressure and t to temperature in netCDF in.nc.
65 In this case p must exist in the input file (or ncrename will abort),
66 but the presence of t is optional:
67 ncrename -v p,pressure -v .t,temperature in.nc
68 ncrename does not automatically attach dimensions to variables of the
69 same name. If you want to rename a coordinate variable so that it
70 remains a coordinate variable, you must separately rename both the
71 dimension and the variable:
72 ncrename -d lon,longitude -v lon,longitude in.nc
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74 Create netCDF out.nc identical to in.nc except the attribute _FillValue
75 is changed to missing_value (in all variables which possess it) and the
76 global attribute Zaire is changed to Congo:
77 ncrename -a _FillValue,missing_value -a Zaire,Congo in.nc out.nc
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81 NCO manual pages written by Charlie Zender and Brian Mays.
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85 Report bugs to <http://sf.net/bugs/?group_id=3331>.
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89 Copyright © 1995-2004 Charlie Zender
90 This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is
91 NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
92 PURPOSE.
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96 The full documentation for NCO is maintained as a Texinfo manual called
97 the NCO User's Guide. Because NCO is mathematical in nature, the docu‐
98 mentation includes TeX-intensive portions not viewable on character-
99 based displays. Hence the only complete and authoritative versions of
100 the NCO User's Guide are the PDF (recommended), DVI, and Postscript
101 versions at <http://nco.sf.net/nco.pdf>, <http://nco.sf.net/nco.dvi>,
102 and <http://nco.sf.net/nco.ps>, respectively. HTML and XML versions
103 are available at <http://nco.sf.net/nco.html> and
104 <http://nco.sf.net/nco.xml>, respectively.
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106 If the info and NCO programs are properly installed at your site, the
107 command
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109 info nco
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111 should give you access to the complete manual, except for the TeX-
112 intensive portions.
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116 The NCO homepage at <http://nco.sf.net> contains more information.
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