ferret

Ferret at GFDL

Ferret is a powerful data visualization and analysis tool developed by the Thermal Modeling and Analysis Project (TMAP) at NOAA/PMEL.

Helpful Links:

Official Ferret Home Page

Documentation & Release Notes

You can also use your browser's search facility (e.g. Ctrl-F) to search the complete Ferret documentation index.

Tour and Tutorials

Frequently Asked Questions

User's Group Mail Archives and Search Page

Before asking a question, first search the mail archives -- they contain thousands of questions and answers from both beginners and experienced users.

Bug Reporting

GFDL Ferret Wiki

Setting Up Your Ferret Environment

If you're running Ferret at GFDL for the first time, it's easy to set up your environment (see also the GFDL Ferret Wiki).  "Modules" are available for several versions of Ferret at GFDL.  To load the default version of Ferret, simply run

module load ferret
Then copy the following file to your home directory:
cp $FER_DIR/bin/my_ferret_paths_template.csh ~/.my_ferret_paths.csh
Where $FER_DIR is the directory where Ferret is installed -- this environment variable will have been set up by the "module load ferret" above.  You can now add the following to your ~/.login file, to automatically set up your Ferret environment whenever you log in:
module load ferret
source ~/.my_ferret_paths.csh
Feel free to add your own directories of scripts, data, color palettes, and external functions to your ~/.my_ferret_paths.csh.  The settings will take effect the next time you log in.  At this point it's best to log out and then log back in, so that your path settings will apply to all subsequent shells. If you'd like to test the settings immediately without logging out, you could simply paste the above two source commands into your shell window; but note that this would only affect that particular shell window, and you would have to repeat for any other windows in which you want to run Ferret.

Once your environment is properly set up, you can run the software with:

ferret

Troubleshooting

Some GFDL users have run into an issue with old environment settings when running the new version on the HPCS.  The problem was traced to an obsolete file ~/.ferret_paths_ac, which was being sourced by their ~/.cshrc when opening an HPCS session.  A solution is to edit the ~/.cshrc (or ~/.login) file, replacing any "source ~/.ferret_paths_ac" lines with
source ~/.ferret_paths.csh
The ~/.ferret_paths_ac file can then be deleted, or moved to a backup directory.  (The same goes for ~/.ferret_paths_686, which is also obsolete.)

To start with a clean slate, follow the instructions for Setting Up Your Ferret Environment above.  You may delete any other "ferret_paths" files or lines in your ~/.login or ~/.cshrc.  Note that it's more efficient to "source" these ferret_paths files from your ~/.login, rather than your ~/.cshrc.  The changes will appear the next time you log in.

Goodies

Working with descriptor files: Syntax highlighters for Ferret scripts: Miscellaneous:

FAQs



Andrew Wittenberg -- 29 May 2012