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.   At GFDL, version 6.4 is installed on the Linux workstations, and version 6.62 is installed on the analysis nodes.   On both platforms, the software resides in the directory /usr/local/bin/ferret.   Type ferret to run the software.

Helpful Links:

Official Ferret Home Page

Documentation & Release Notes

Tour

Tutorials

Frequently Asked Questions

User's Group Mail Archives

Bug Reporting


When you have a question, first try searching the mail archives -- they contain thousands of questions and answers from both beginners and experienced users.

Customizing Your Ferret Environment

If you're running Ferret for the first time, it's easy to set up your environment.  Just copy two files to your home directory:

    cp /usr/local/ferret/bin/ferret_paths_template ~/.ferret_paths
    cp /usr/local/ferret/bin/my_ferret_paths_template ~/.my_ferret_paths

Then add the following to your ~/.login file:

    source ~/.ferret_paths
    source ~/.my_ferret_paths

The settings will take effect the next time you log in. It's best to logout and then log back in, so that your path settings will apply to all subsequent shells. But 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; note, however, 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.

To facilitate future updates of the Ferret software, it's best not to modify your ~/.ferret_paths further.  But feel free to add your own directories of scripts, data, color palettes, and external functions to your ~/.my_ferret_paths.

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

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 Customizing 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 login.

Goodies

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

FAQs


Andrew Wittenberg -- 21 January 2011