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This error occurs because some modules are missing from the perl installation on your computer. We use the FCM software to compile OpenIFS which uses Perl.  Please see the Prerequisites page for more information about this and how to resolve the error.

 A. When compiling this error message appears:

[FAIL] make oifs           # 94.3s
[FAIL] make                # 94.8s
[FAIL] master.exe: target not found after an update:
[FAIL] /nfs01/n02/n02/emgdc/git/openifs/make/noopt/oifs/bin/master.exe: expect target file

Although make finished, the executable file 'master.exe' was not created. This means an error occurred at the final 'linking' stage when all the compiled object files are combined to make the final executable.

To see what actually caused the problem, look in the logfile generated by the fcm make command. It will be file make/$OIFS_BUILD/.fcm-make/log. Note the '.' in front of the .fcm-make directory name. This directory is 'hidden'. e.g. If you have: OIFS_BUILD=noopt, then the log file from the build will be in make/noopt/.fcm-make/log.

If you look in the logfile, go down to the bottom and look for any errors such as 'undefined reference' which prevented the final link step. A undefined reference means a subroutine/function could not be found either because a library is not included or some code files are missing.

A. This is because the FCM configuration files assume the use of a 'compiler wrapper' which is typically provided by MPI (e.g. OpenMPI or MPICH) installations. Make sure you have a flavour of MPI installed and you have the 'bin' directory included on your PATH environment variable. For example, on linux use 'apt-get install libopenmpi-dev' to get OpenMPI. HPC machines may require you to use a 'module' command e.g 'module load openmpi': check your local help information.

A. FCM has found an include statement: "#include cpg1c.intfb.h" in the source code but can't find the source file cpg1c.F90. Make sure the file exists or FCM is configured to look at all the sources.

A. FCM queries the TMPDIR environment variable. If set it uses that location, otherwise it defaults to /tmp. On HPC systems, /tmp may not be the best choice if it is in memory.

A. The $HERE variable is a special variable that FCM interprets as the directory in which the configuration file resides. Unlike most of the other variables in the FCM configuration files, $HERE cannot be overridden by an environment variable of the same name.

A. For more information on how to correctly set your environment for compiling OpenIFS, see: HowTos: How to set your user environment.

It varies depending on your MPI implementation and your local environment. As an example, for OpenMPI, set the environment variables:
export OMPI_FC=pgf90
export OMPI_CC=pgcc
to use the Portland compilers instead of the default GNU (gfortran) compilers. Check the 'man page' of the mpif90 command to see what other options are possible. Some implementations allow you to use an option -fc to set the underlying compilers.

For Intel installations there are several ways in which the compiler can be set. Normally, the mpif90 command will invoke the gfortran compiler, the mpiifort will invoke the ifort compiler and the mpifc command can be used with a specified compiler on the command line. However, this behaviour can be changed by setting environment variables which these wrapper scripts will read. For more details consult the Intel compiler documentation.

Some HPC centres provide the 'module' command for loading and unloading particular compiler suites. Consult your local documentation for more details.

A. This can arise with the Intel compiler. The MKL library is Intel's version of the LAPACK and BLAS libraries which should be supplied with the compiler. The .so file extension means this is a shared library found at runtime. In order to find this library, the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH must be set correctly. You will need to find the location of this library and add the directory to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Normally this is done for you by a small script supplied with the Intel compiler script. Please check your support information.

A. These routines come from the LAPACK and BLAS libraries. You may have one or other of these libraries missing from your .cfg config (or OIFS_LAPACK_LIB environment variable). Alternately you have specific both libraries but the compiler can't find them; check the pathnames to the libraries specified on the compile link carefully.

A. These are references to the JASPER library and arise because the grib_api library referred to in the OpenIFS build configuration was compiled with the Jasper library, but the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable does not list the directory containing the library so the compiler can't find it. Either amend the LD_LIBRARY_PATH or add the -ljasper library to your compilation options.

A. This error is most likely because the version of grib-api is too old. For example, OpenIFS 40R1 requires a minimum version of grib-api version 1.11.0. Please upgrade your version of grib-api.

A. The log output from compiling OpenIFS can be found in the 'make' directory, then in the build directories 'opt', 'noopt' etc. The FCM software keeps the log in a hidden directory called '.fcm-make'. So if OIFS_BUILD=opt was set, the logfile for this compilation would be : make/opt/.fcm-make/log.

A. The 'boot.def' file is the GRIB definitions file. The location of the boot.def file is hardcoded into the GRIB_API library when it is compiled. Make sure that the directory where GRIB_API was installed has not moved. If it has, this hardcoded location will be wrong. You can override this location by using the environment variable: GRIB_DEFINITION_PATH and set this to the directory containing the boot.def file. e.g.
export GRIB_DEFINITION_PATH=/usr/local/apps/grib_api/1.9.18/share/definitions

This error can arise when grib_api is compiled in HPC environments where it's compiled on the front-end but the batch system has different mount points for the frontend directories causing the path to the grib_api installation to be different.

A. This usually indicates an error in the GRIB file or GRIB_API configuration rather than the model. Try using the 'grib_ls' or 'grib_dump' commands on the file causing the problem to try to reproduce the error. See the GRIB FAQ on this page, or email openifs-support@ecmwf.int and include the model output file (NODE_001.01) and the job log.

A. When you run the model (or using the grib_ls/grib_dump tools on the GRIB file), you see this error:

GRIB_API ERROR   :  Wrong size for bitmap it contains 1373624 values
GRIB_API ERROR   :  unable to get bitmap as double array (Passed array is too small)

This occurs because sometimes GRIB files are incorrectly encoded for the property 'longitudeOfLastGridPoint'. This is known to happen for the 'stl1' field (surface temperature layer 1). grib_dump shows this:

  longitudeOfLastGridPointInDegrees = 340;

To correct it, use a command similar to:

grib_set -w shortName=stl1 -s longitudeOfLastGridPoint=359824 ICMCLabcdINIT ICMCLabcdINIT.fixed

where 'stl1' is the field to be corrected, 359824 is the last longitude point of (359.824degrees) of (in this case) the correct resolution, and ICMCLabcdINIT is the file to be corrected.

Email openifs-support@ecmwf.int for additional assistance.

A. The environment variables for GRIB_API are described on the GRIB_API software support page.

 A. Try:

export GRIB_API_DEBUG=-1

This enables brief debug-level logging messages to be displayed by the library.

If set to 1, you will get very verbose output.

See GRIB_API environment variables for more information.

A. If grib_api installed correctly, the command grib_info will print out the location of the sample files and definitions. If you get 'grib_info not found' make sure you have added the grib_api installation bin directory to your PATH environment variable.

A. Please see HowTo convert convert model output to netCDF.

A. If you see this type of error:

% grib_ls ICMGGepc8+000004
ICMGGepc8+000004
edition  centre typeOfLevel level  dataDate  stepRange dataType  shortName packingType

GRIB_API ERROR   :  unable to represent the step in h
1       ecmf    surface     0      20041015 Decoding invalid stepRange

it is most likely because the model step isn't expressible as an integer number of hours (for example if the model output is every timestep with a timestep less than 1hr). Change the units to either minutes or seconds:

 grib_ls -s stepUnits=m ICMGGepc8+000004
 grib_ls -s stepUnits=s ICMGGepc8+000004

A. This error means the model can't find the GRIB templates it needs to write out the model results. These are contained in a directory called 'ifs_samples' which is provided with the grib_api library. First check that the directory pointed to by OIFS_GRIB_API_DIR exists and is readable. Then check if the directory $OIFS_GRIB_API_DIR/share/grib_api/ifs_samples exists and is readable. If it does then it's possible that the library may have been moved (or a link to it changed) and because these paths are hardcoded into the grib_api library at compile time, it means the model can't find it. To overcome this, set the environment variable:

GRIB_SAMPLES_PATH - Set to the folder containing the set of samples you want grib_api to use instead of the default one.

e.g.

export GRIB_SAMPLES_PATH=$HOME/ecmwf/grib_api/share/grib_api/ifs_samples/grib1_mlgrib2