This page is still a draft!


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  TBD


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


We strongly recommend you test that your programs, scripts and suites work with the new versions of any software or library affected before the change happens.

In particular, if using ecFlow, please make sure you check the triggers in your suites are well defined as described below.

Table of contents

Highlights

Software stack ready for next operational IFS cycle

With the upcoming Implementation of IFS Cycle 47r1, this set of defaults is ready to handle the data produced, including all the new parameters introduced in this cycle.

More?

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 may20 tag in modules. For example:

module swap metview/may20
module load Magics/may20
module swap eccodes/may20
module swap python/may20

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 swap eccodes/old
module swap python/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. 

Change list

ECMWF Software

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

PackageDefault versionRelease notesDownload page
BeforeAfter
CodesUI1.2.7
CodesUI - Change HistoryCodesUI - Releases
ecCodes2.14.0

Latest news

ecCodes Releases
ecFlow4.17.0

Latest news

ecFlow Releases
Magics4.2.0
Latest NewsMagics Releases
Metview5.7.2

Version 5.0 Updates

Metview Releases
Metview Bundle
ODB API0.19.1
Change historyODB API Release
quaver1.3.5
Quaver Release Notes-
ecmp1.2.4
ecmp Release Notes-


ecCodes is now the official ECMWF encoder and decoder for GRIB and BUFR formats. It supersedes 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.

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

Third-party software

Some of the versions in this list may already be the default for a specific package on a certain platform, so no changes will be made in those cases. After the update, all platforms will have the same defaults for all these packages.

Package

Next default

Notes

cdo1.9.8

https://code.mpimet.mpg.de/news/452

cmake3.16.5https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.16/release/3.16.html
cmor3.5.0https://cmor.llnl.gov/news/2019/07/31/cmor3/
ferret7.5.0https://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/Ferret/documentation/version-75-release-notes
fcm2019.05.0https://github.com/metomi/fcm/blob/master/CHANGES.md
fftw3.3.8http://www.fftw.org/release-notes.html
gdal3.0.4https://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/Release/3.0.2-News
geos3.8.1https://trac.osgeo.org/geos/browser/git/NEWS?rev=3.8.1
git2.26.0https://github.com/git/git/tree/master/Documentation/RelNotes
gsl2.6http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gsl.git/tree/NEWS
hdf4.2.14https://support.hdfgroup.org/ftp/HDF/releases/HDF4.2.14/src/hdf-4.2.14-RELEASE.txt
hdf51.10.6https://support.hdfgroup.org/ftp/HDF5/releases/ReleaseFiles/hdf5-1.10.6-RELEASE.txt
ncl6.6.2http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/prev_releases.shtml
nco4.7.8http://nco.sourceforge.net/ANNOUNCE
netcdf44.7.4https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/netcdf-4-6-2
proj6.3.1https://proj.org/news.html#id30
python33.6.10-01https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.6.html
R3.6.2

More up-to-date extra R packages

MKL used for all linear algebra operations

https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/NEWS.html

udunits2.2.26https://abi-laboratory.pro/tracker/changelog/udunits/2.2.26/log.html