ECMWF will change the default versions of GRIB API, EMOSLIB, Magics, and Metview on all ECMWF platforms (ecgate, desktops, lxc, cca and ccb) between 10:00 and 10:30 UTC on Wednesday 15 June 2016.

Versions

On Wednesday 15 June 2016, ECMWF will update the default versions of its GRIB API, EMOSLIB, Magics, and Metview packages to the versions specified in the table below.

Package	Default version		Release notes	Download page
Package	Before 15/06/2016	After 15/06/2016	Release notes	Download page
GRIB-API	1.14.5	1.15.0	GRIB API version 1.15.0	GRIB-API Releases
EMOSLIB	4.3.7	4.4.1	History of EMOSLIB changes	EMOSLIB Releases
Magics	2.26.2	2.29.0	Latest News	Magics Releases
Metview	4.6.4	4.6.6	Version 4.6 Updates	Metview Releases Metview Bundle

Please see the Release notes for full details of the changes implemented in each package.

Important change to Metview on ecgate

With this upgrade, use of the following 'metview commands on ecgate will be discontinued: 'metview_new', 'metview_old', 'metview_dev', 'metview_test', 'metview4', 'metview4_new', 'metview4_old', 'metview4_dev' and 'metview4_test'. Users should use the module command instead to load the desired metview version as indicated in the table.

Discontinued Metview command	Replacement Metview command
metview_new	module switch metview/new ; metview
metview_old	module switch metview/old ; metview
metview_dev	module switch metview/dev ; metview
metview_test	module switch metview/new ; metview
metview4	metview
metview4_new	module switch metview/new ; metview
metview4_old	module switch metview/old ; metview
metview4_dev	module switch metview/dev ; metview

Using Metview in scripts running under cron

Users using /usr/local/bin/metview to pass the full path to the metview command in scripts run under cron will need to adapt their scripts and crontab entries to use a wrapper script which sets the environment before the script is run. This will ensure that the $PATH is set correctly and the 'metview' command is available for use directly in the script. For further information see Cron and time-critical jobs.

How to use the new versions for testing before the update of 15 June 2016

Users are strongly encouraged to test their software applications and data processing chain with the new versions of the various software packages before the date of the change to the default versions.

The new versions of the software packages can be selected by using the commands:

module switch metview/new

module load Magics/new

module switch emos/new

module switch grib_api/new

How to revert to the old versions in case of problems after the update of 15 June 2016

Users that experience problems with the new default software packages after the update of 15 June will be able to revert to the old default versions. These can be selected with the commands:

module switch metview/old

module load Magics/old

module switch emos/old

module switch grib_api/old