Running METplus
Running METplus involves invoking the python script run_metplus.py followed by a list of configuration files.
Reminder: The default configuration file (defaults.conf) is always read in and processed first before the configuration files passed in on the command line.
If you have configured METplus correctly and call run_metplus.py without passing in any configuration files, it will generate a usage statement to indicate that other config files are required to perform a useful task. It will generate an error statement if something is amiss.
- Review the Example.conf configuration file - which is METplus' version of a "Hello World" example
- Call the run_metplus.py script again, this time passing in the Example.conf configuration file and the tutorial.conf configuration file. You should see logs output to the screen.
${METPLUS_BUILD_BASE}/parm/use_cases/met_tool_wrapper/Example/Example.conf \
${METPLUS_TUTORIAL_DIR}/tutorial.conf
Note: The environment variable METPLUS_BUILD_BASE determines where to look for paths to use_case files. The METPLUS_TUTORIAL_DIR environment variable determines where to look for user-modified config files.
- Check the directory specified by the OUTPUT_BASE configuration variable. You should see that files and sub-directories have been created
- Review the METplus log file to see what was run. Compare the log output to the Example.conf configuration file to see how they correspond to each other. The log file will have today's date in the filename. Since METplus was configured to list today's timestamp in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format, each run of METplus will generate a separate log file. This is the same behavior as the METplus final configuration file. List all of the log files and view the latest METplus log file:
You will notice that METplus ran for 5 valid times, processing 4 forecast hours for each valid time. For each run time, it ran twice using two different input templates to find files.
metplus INFO: * Running METplus
metplus INFO: * at valid time: 201702010000
metplus INFO: ****************************************
metplus.Example INFO: Running ExampleWrapper at valid time 20170201000000
metplus.Example INFO: Input directory is /dir/containing/example/data
metplus.Example INFO: Input template is {init?fmt=%Y%m%d}/file_{init?fmt=%Y%m%d}_{init?fmt=%2H}_F{lead?fmt=%3H}.{custom?fmt=%s}
metplus.Example INFO: Processing custom string: ext
metplus.Example INFO: Processing forecast lead 3 hours initialized at 2017-01-31 21Z and valid at 2017-02-01 00Z
metplus.Example INFO: Looking in input directory for file: 20170131/file_20170131_21_F003.ext
metplus.Example INFO: Processing custom string: nc
metplus.Example INFO: Processing forecast lead 3 hours initialized at 2017-01-31 21Z and valid at 2017-02-01 00Z
metplus.Example INFO: Looking in input directory for file: 20170131/file_20170131_21_F003.nc
metplus.Example INFO: Processing custom string: ext
metplus.Example INFO: Processing forecast lead 6 hours initialized at 2017-01-31 18Z and valid at 2017-02-01 00Z
metplus.Example INFO: Looking in input directory for file: 20170131/file_20170131_18_F006.ext
metplus.Example INFO: Processing custom string: nc
metplus.Example INFO: Processing forecast lead 6 hours initialized at 2017-01-31 18Z and valid at 2017-02-01 00Z
metplus.Example INFO: Looking in input directory for file: 20170131/file_20170131_18_F006.nc
metplus.Example INFO: Processing custom string: ext
metplus.Example INFO: Processing forecast lead 9 hours initialized at 2017-01-31 15Z and valid at 2017-02-01 00Z
metplus.Example INFO: Looking in input directory for file: 20170131/file_20170131_15_F009.ext
metplus.Example INFO: Processing custom string: nc
metplus.Example INFO: Processing forecast lead 9 hours initialized at 2017-01-31 15Z and valid at 2017-02-01 00Z
metplus.Example INFO: Looking in input directory for file: 20170131/file_20170131_15_F009.nc
metplus.Example INFO: Processing custom string: ext
metplus.Example INFO: Processing forecast lead 12 hours initialized at 2017-01-31 12Z and valid at 2017-02-01 00Z
metplus.Example INFO: Looking in input directory for file: 20170131/file_20170131_12_F012.ext
metplus.Example INFO: Processing custom string: nc
metplus.Example INFO: Processing forecast lead 12 hours initialized at 2017-01-31 12Z and valid at 2017-02-01 00Z
metplus.Example INFO: Looking in input directory for file: 20170131/file_20170131_12_F012.nc
metplus INFO: ****************************************
metplus INFO: * Running METplus
metplus INFO: * at valid time: 201702010600
metplus INFO: ****************************************
...
- Now run METplus passing in the Example.conf and tutorial.conf files from the previous run AND an explicit override of the OUTPUT_BASE variable.
${METPLUS_BUILD_BASE}/parm/use_cases/met_tool_wrapper/Example/Example.conf \
${METPLUS_TUTORIAL_DIR}/tutorial.conf \
config.OUTPUT_BASE=${METPLUS_TUTORIAL_DIR}/output/changed
- Check the directory that corresponds to the config.OUTPUT_BASE value that you set in the command line override. You should see that files and sub-directories have been created in the new location. Note that you can reference an environment variable when setting values on the command line.
Remember: Additional conf files and config variable overrides are processed after the default METplus config file (defaults.conf). OUTPUT_BASE was set in tutorial.conf and then overridden with config.OUTPUT_BASE.
Order matters, since each successive conf file and/or explicit variable override will take precedence over any value set for variables defined previously.
Note: The processing order allows for structuring your conf files to contain system/user configurations (settings used for every run) and use case specific configurations (settings only used for a given use case).
