Acquiring and Naming Data on a Remote Server

When the remote server account is configured, McIDAS-X clients can request data from it. To make the data available, you must acquire it and then create dataset names. See the corresponding sections below for details.

Acquiring Data

When a client requests data, the remote server searches for the dataset in, by default, the $HOME/mcidas/data and the ~mcidas/data directories, respectively. If you have datasets in another directory, use one of the following methods to make them accessible to clients.

Add the directory to the remote server account's MCPATH environment variable.
Use the McIDAS REDIRECT command to add a path redirection to the directory.
If the directory is on another workstation, NFS mount the directory and use MCPATH or REDIRECT.

If you use MCPATH, you must explicitly define its value in the remote server account's $HOME/.mcenv file and source it in the remote server account's $HOME/.profile file. For example, add a line similar to the following in the $HOME/.mcenv file:

export MCPATH; MCPATH=$HOME/mcidas/data:/alldata:/u/demo/images:~mcidas/data:~mcidas/help

To set the MCPATH value each time you log in to the remote server account, add the following line to the $HOME/.profile file. Be sure to leave a space between the period (.) and $HOME.

. $HOME/.mcenv

If you use the REDIRECT command, you must run it in a McIDAS-X session started from the remote server account. The examples below make areas 100 to 199 in the directory /alldata and areas 8000 to 8999 in the directory /u/demo/images accessible to ADDE clients.

REDIRECT ADD AREA01* "/alldata

REDIRECT ADD AREA8* "/u/demo/images

You can start a McIDAS-X session, run your REDIRECT commands and then exit the session. The client requests will find the data in the REDIRECT and MCPATH directories even if the remote server is not running a McIDAS-X session.

Naming Data

Since clients request the data by name, you must also name the datasets with the DSSERVE command. DSSERVE assigns the group and descriptor to a dataset consisting of one or more files of the specified format.

See the DSSERVE command documentation for detailed information and examples.

[Search Manual] [Table of Contents] [Go to Previous] [Go to Next]