ncdump produces a text representation of specified information in the netCDF file, either CDL or NcML.

• To look at just the "header" information (also known as the file schema or metadata) of a netCDF file, use the "-h" option, for example:

      ncdump -h co2.nc
    

More information is available by using the "-c" option, which specifies all the header information plus values of the coordinate variables.

    ncdump -c co2.nc
  

• To see the same information in NcML, a dialect of XML, use the "-x" option:

      ncdump -x -h co2.nc
    

• To request values for only particular variables, use the "-v variable-list" option.
• The "-k" option to ncdump reports what kind of netCDF file format (classic, 64-bit offset) is used:

      ncdump -k co2.nc
    

• The Java netCDF package has another implementation of ncdump that can also output CDL or NcML. For example, here's how you could output NcML for co2.nc:

      java -cp toolsUI.jar ucar.nc2.NCdump co2.nc -ncml
  

NetCDF-4 note: The netCDF-4 ncdump handles all features of the netCDF-4 data model in CDL output. It doesn't produce NcML for netCDF-4 features yet.

2008 Unidata NetCDF Workshop for Developers and Data Providers > NetCDF Utilities