How to configure and install ARWpost Version 3 on CentOS 7

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I recently needed to install ARWpost on a CentOS 7 server to post-process WRF model output data, however, when I tried to configure and install I ran into a couple of errors as detailed below.

What’s ARWpost? ARWpost is a post-processing command line utility that allows you to process WRF model output data, which comes in NetCDF format, and generate .dat/.ctl files that are compatible with the GrADS language. GrADS allows you to quickly and easily visualize data generated by WRF model.

The first error I got as soon as I try to compiled the utility was the following error:

ARWpost.f:9.7:
USE gridinfo_module
        1
 Fatal Error: Can't open module file 'gridinfo_module.mod' for reading at (1): No such file or directory
 make: [ARWpost.o] Error 1 (ignored)

once I got the error above fixed, I ran in the following error:

gfortran -ffree-form -O -fno-second-underscore -fconvert=big-endian -frecord-marker=4   -o ARWpost.exe module_model_basics.o constants_module.o gridinfo_module.o ARWpost.o input_module.o output_module.o module_map_utils.o misc_definitions_module.o module_date_pack.o module_debug.o process_domain_module.o module_get_file_names.o module_interp.o module_basic_arrays.o module_diagnostics.o module_arrays.o module_pressure.o module_calc_height.o module_calc_pressure.o module_calc_theta.o module_calc_tk.o module_calc_tc.o module_calc_td.o module_calc_td2.o module_calc_rh.o module_calc_rh2.o module_calc_uvmet.o module_calc_slp.o module_calc_dbz.o module_calc_cape.o module_calc_wdir.o module_calc_wspd.o module_calc_clfr.o  \

    -L/home/wrf/libraries/netcdf/lib -I/home/wrf/libraries/netcdf/include  -lnetcdf

input_module.o: In function __input_module_MOD_arw_get_next_time':
input_module.f:(.text+0x3f): undefined reference tonf_inq_varid_'

input_module.f:(.text+0x7e): undefined reference to nf_inq_var_'
input_module.f:(.text+0x133): undefined reference tonf_get_vara_text_'

As a reminder, I’m documenting the steps I took to install ARWpost v3 on a CentOS 7 server (which should be fairly similar to other Linux flavors):

I’m assuming you already have WRF and WPS installed on your server.

First step, is to get a copy of ARWpost:

$ wget https://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/src/ARWpost_V3.tar.gz

once downloaded, expand the file and, ideally, place it on the same level as the WRF and WPS folders (README says this is no longer needed but just in case):

$ tar -zxvf ARWpost_V3.tar.gz

now go to the folder and run the configure command:

$ cd ARWpost
$ ./configure

you will see 3 options on your screen, one for PGI, Intel and gfortran compilers, in this case, we will go with option 3 (gfortran):

$ ./configure
 Will use NETCDF in dir: /home/wrf/libraries/netcdf
 Please select from among the following supported platforms.
 1. PC Linux i486 i586 i686 x86_64, PGI compiler
 2. PC Linux i486 i586 i686 x86_64, Intel compiler
 3. PC Linux i486 i586 i686 x86_64, gfortran compiler 
 Enter selection [1-3] : 3

now, before you try to compile the utility, edit the configure.arwp file first and change the following line:

CPP             =       /lib/cpp -C -P -traditional

to look like this (we drop the -C parameter/flag):

CPP             =       /lib/cpp -P -traditional

next, we edit the Makefile file in src/Makefile and change the following line:

-L$(NETCDF)/lib -I$(NETCDF)/include  -lnetcdf

to look like this (note we add the -lnetcdff flag before the -lnetcdf flag, order is important here):

-L$(NETCDF)/lib -I$(NETCDF)/include  -lnetcdff -lnetcdf

finally, we execute the compile command to generate the ARWpost binary:

$ ./compile

once it’s done compiling, we should have the ARWpost utility compiled and ready to go:

$ ls -l
 total 48
 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 wrf wrf   15 Jan 27 23:31 ARWpost.exe -> src/ARWpost.exe
 -rw-r--r--. 1 wrf wrf 7189 Dec 15  2010 README
 drwxr-xr-x. 2 wrf wrf   82 Jan 27 23:16 arch
 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 wrf wrf  905 May 24  2007 clean
 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 wrf wrf  490 Dec 15  2010 compile
 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 wrf wrf 4257 May 24  2007 configure
 -rw-rw-r--. 1 wrf wrf 1756 Jan 27 23:31 configure.arwp
 -rw-rw-r--. 1 wrf wrf    0 Jan 27 23:31 configure.arwp.backup
 -rw-r--r--. 1 wrf wrf   12 May 24  2007 fields.plt
 -rw-r--r--. 1 wrf wrf   19 May 24  2007 myLIST
 -rw-r--r--. 1 wrf wrf 1150 Dec 15  2010 namelist.ARWpost
 drwxr-xr-x. 2 wrf wrf  269 Jan 27 23:16 scripts
 drwxr-xr-x. 2 wrf wrf 4096 Jan 27 23:31 src
 drwxr-xr-x. 2 wrf wrf   68 Mar  2  2011 util