Hi Ben,
It sounds like ncl_filedump (a stand-alone script packaged with NCL)  
will do what you want:
$ ncl_filedump -v xxx,lat isscp.nc
 Copyright (C) 1995-2007 - All Rights Reserved
 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
 NCAR Command Language Version 5.0.0
 The use of this software is governed by a License Agreement.
 See http://www.ncl.ucar.edu/ for more details.
Variable: f (file variable)
filename:       isscp
path:   isscp.nc
   file global attributes:
      description : ISSCP reduced grid
   dimensions:
      nodes = 6596
   variables:
      float lon ( nodes )
         units :        degrees east
         long_name :    longitude
      float lat ( nodes )
         units :        degrees north
         long_name :    latitude
      float topo ( nodes )
         units :        meters above sea level (I think)
         long_name :    topology
Variables:
${progname}: error: 'xxx' is not a variable in 'isscp.nc'.
     lat:
  -88.75      -88.75      -88.75      -86.25      -86.25      -86.25
  -86.25      -86.25      -86.25      -86.25      -86.25      -86.25
....
  -dave
 Dave Brown -- NCL development team
On Nov 27, 2007, at 12:00 PM, netcdfgroup-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
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Today's Topics:
   1. smart ncdump? (Ben Foster)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:52:59 -0700 (MST)
From: Ben Foster <foster@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [netcdfgroup] smart ncdump?
To: netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: foster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <200711271553.lARFqxx23445@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: TEXT/plain; charset=us-ascii
Netcdf group:
I find it annoying when ncdump stops if a variable in the -v list
is not found on the file. It would be better if it just printed a
warning and continued. Because of this I have to customize ncdump
commands for different project files.  I could certainly write my
own ncdump code w/ IDL or some other language, but it might help
others if ncdump could be improved in this way. Does anyone know
if such a "smart" ncdump already exists?
--Ben
---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
-
Ben Foster                      High Altitude Observatory (HAO)
foster@xxxxxxxx                 phone: 303-497-1595  fax: 303-497-1589
Nat. Center for Atmos. Res.     P.O. Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307 USA
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