Is it possible to create a “classic” format netCDF file with netCDF version 3.6.0 that cannot be accessed by applications compiled and linked against earlier versions of the library?
No, classic files created with the new library should be compatible with all older applications, both for reading and writing, with one minor exception. The exception is due to a correction of a netCDF bug that prevented creating records larger than 4 GiB in classic netCDF files with software linked against versions 3.5.1 and earlier. This limitation in total record size was not a limitation of the classic format, but an unnecessary restriction due to the use of too small a type in an internal data structure in the library. If you want to always make sure your classic netCDF files are readable by older applications, make sure you don’t exceed 4 GiBytes for the total size of a record’s worth of data.
No, classic files created with the new library should be compatible with all older applications, both for reading and writing, with one minor exception. The exception is due to a correction of a netCDF bug that prevented creating records larger than 4 GiB in classic netCDF files with software linked against versions 3.5.1 and earlier. This limitation in total record size was not a limitation of the classic format, but an unnecessary restriction due to the use of too small a type in an internal data structure in the library. If you want to always make sure your classic netCDF files are readable by older applications, make sure you don’t exceed 4 GiBytes for the total size of a record’s worth of data. (All records are the same size, computed by adding the size for a record’s worth of each record variable, with suitable padding to make sure each record begins on a byte boundary divisible by 4.
Related Questions
- Is it possible to create a "classic" format netCDF file with netCDF version 3.6.0 that cannot be accessed by applications compiled and linked against earlier versions of the library?
- What happens if I create a 64-bit offset format netCDF file and try to open it with an older netCDF application that hasn been linked with netCDF 3.6?
- How can I tell if a netCDF file uses the classic format or 64-bit offset format?
