NCRENAME(1)

NCRENAME(1) 💖 the netCDF Renamer

okay bestie, so this is ncrename, and she's from the General Commands Manual section of the NCO fam. She renames stuff inside netCDF files. That's the whole gig. And she eats. 👑

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✨ NAME ✨

ncrename — netCDF Renamer 🎀

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✨ SYNTAX ✨

ncrename [-a old_name,new_name] [-a  ... ] [-D] [-d old_name,new_name]
[-d  ... ] [-g old_name,new_name] [-g  ... ] [--gaa att_name= att_val]]
[--gad att1[,...]]  [-H] [-h] [--hdr_pad sz_byt][--hpss_try] [-l path]
[-O] [-p path] [-R] [-r] [--ram_all]  [--uio] [-v old_name,new_name] [-v
 ... ] input-file [ output-file]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So like, ncrename renames dimensions, variables, and attributes in a netCDF file. Every object whose name is in the list of old names gets renamed to the matching name in the list of new names. 💅

All the new names have to be unique. Periodt. And every old name has to actually exist in the input file — unless the name is preceded by the character . . Also? The validity of the old names is not checked before the renaming happens. So if you specify an old name without the . prefix and it isn't in input-file, ncrename will just abort. 😭

Now here's the tea 🍵 — ncrename is the exception to the normal rules that the user gets interactively prompted before an existing file is changed, and that a temporary copy of an output file is constructed during the operation. If you only specify input-file, then ncrename changes the names in input-file in place, no prompting, no temporary copy of input-file. Why is she like this? Because the renaming operation is considered reversible if you mess up. new_name can easily be changed back to old_name by using ncrename one more time. no cap, it's giving undo button 🫶

Also note bestie: renaming a dimension to the name of a dependent variable can be used to invert the relationship between an independent coordinate variable and a dependent variable. In that case, the named dependent variable must be one-dimensional and should have no missing values. Such a variable will become a coordinate variable. iconic behaviour honestly ✨

And according to the netCDF Users Guide, renaming properties in netCDF files does not incur the penalty of recopying the entire file when new_name is shorter than old_name. we love an efficient queen 🌸

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -a old_name, new_name — Attribute renaming. The old and new names of the attribute are specified by the associated old_name and new_name values. Global attributes are treated no differently than variable attributes. This option may be specified more than once. 🎀

⚠️ You cannot change the attribute name for one particular variable (unless it is uniquely named); all occurrences of the attribute of a given name will be renamed. This is considered an oversight and will be addressed in a future version of NCO. 😬

• -d old_name, new_name — Dimension renaming. The old and new names of the dimension are specified by the associated old_name and new_name values. This option may be specified more than once. 💙
• -g old_name, new_name — Group renaming. The old and new names of the group are specified by the associated old_name and new_name values. This option may be specified more than once. 🦋
• -v old_name, new_name — Variable renaming. The old and new names of the variable are specified by the associated old_name and new_name values. This option may be specified more than once. 🍓
• -i — Interactive. ncrename will prompt for confirmation before overwriting an existing file. yes she asks first, consent is hot 💅

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

Rename the variable p to pressure and t to temperature in netCDF in.nc. In this case p must exist in the input file (or ncrename will abort), but the presence of t is optional — that's what the . prefix is doing for you:

ncrename -v p,pressure -v .t,temperature in.nc

ncrename does not automatically attach dimensions to variables of the same name. So if you want to rename a coordinate variable so that it remains a coordinate variable, you must separately rename both the dimension and the variable:

ncrename -d lon,longitude -v lon,longitude in.nc

Create netCDF out.nc identical to in.nc except the attribute _FillValue is changed to missing_value (in all variables which possess it) and the global attribute Zaire is changed to Congo:

ncrename -a _FillValue,missing_value -a Zaire,Congo in.nc out.nc

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✨ AUTHOR ✨

NCO manual pages written by Charlie Zender and originally formatted by Brian Mays. 💖

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✨ REPORTING BUGS ✨

Report bugs to <http://sf.net/bugs/?group_id=3331>. 🙈

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✨ COPYRIGHT ✨

Copyright © 1995-present Charlie Zender

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 🫶

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

The full documentation for NCO is maintained as a Texinfo manual called the NCO Users Guide. Because NCO is mathematical in nature, the documentation includes TeX-intensive portions not viewable on character-based displays. Hence the only complete and authoritative versions of the NCO Users Guide are the PDF (recommended), DVI, and Postscript versions at <http://nco.sf.net/nco.pdf>, <http://nco.sf.net/nco.dvi>, and <http://nco.sf.net/nco.ps>, respectively. HTML and XML versions are available at <http://nco.sf.net/nco.html> and <http://nco.sf.net/nco.xml>, respectively. 📚

If the info and NCO programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info nco

should give you access to the complete manual, except for the TeX-intensive portions. ✨

ncap2(1), ncatted(1), ncbo(1), ncclimo(1), nces(1), ncecat(1), ncflint(1), ncz2psx(1), ncz2psx(1), ncks(1), nco(1), ncpdq(1), ncra(1), ncrcat(1), ncremap(1), ncrename(1), ncwa(1) 🌈

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✨ HOMEPAGE ✨

The NCO homepage at <http://nco.sf.net> contains more information. 👑

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎀 you just read NCRENAME(1) from the General Commands Manual — go forth and rename responsibly, mwah 💅✨