ECMWF is updating the default versions of its software packages and libraries used across all user platforms at the centre as part of the regular update cycle.

The changes will take place on Wednesday 13 November 2019 11:00 - 11:30 UTC


All user platforms at the centre will see their default additional software stack updated:

  • All clusters in our High Performance Computing Facility, mainly CCA and CCB
  • ECGATE
  • Linux Clusters
  • Linux Desktops


The next defaults are tagged as "nov19" in modules. After the session the previous defaults will be tagged as "old"

Table of contents

Highlights

A number of bug fixes and performance improvements have been introduced on the different versions to become default. Here are some of the most relevant new features:

How to use the new versions for testing BEFORE the update

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 nov19 tag in modules. For example:

module swap metview/nov19
module load Magics/nov19
module load bufrdc/nov19
module swap eccodes/nov19 

How to revert to the old versions in case of problems AFTER the update

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

module swap metview/old
module load Magics/old
module load bufrdc/old
module swap eccodes/old 


Please let ECMWF know if you need to revert to the old version of any of the packages after the update of the defaults has taken place. 

Version changes

This table summarises the changes in the version of the different packages:

PackageDefault versionRelease notesDownload page
BeforeAfter
CodesUI1.2.41.2.7

CodesUI - Change History

CodesUI - Releases
ecCodes2.12.52.14.0Latest newsecCodes Releases
ecFlow4.12.04.17.0

Latest news

ecFlow Releases
Magics4.0.34.2.0Latest NewsMagics Releases
Metview5.5.45.7.2

Change History

Metview Releases
Metview Bundle
ODB API0.18.10.19.1Change historyODB API Releases
ODB1.0.81.0.11--

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

ecCodes is now the official ECMWF encoder and decoder for GRIB and BUFR formats. It superseded GRIB-API, for the GRIB format, and EMOSLIB, for the BUFR. If you still use any of those, we encourage you to migrate to ecCodes. EMOSLIB is, in fact, no longer updated. The standalone BUFRDC package is also installed to help in the migration.


PackageDefault version
BeforeAfter
BUFRDC4.6.14.6.3