CDO software bug

[Javier P.L.]

Hi,

I've commented your report, I'd like to help you however I'm unable to 
reproduce it without the files you're referring to. I'm not involved in 
cdo work, so if you could provide some sample files that would be great.

If you'd like to do it by yourself, following the packaging guide should 
be enough to fix it, specifically this section:

http://developer.ubuntu.com/packaging/html/fixing-a-bug.html

I've read in the upstream report that adding "--enable-cgribex" could 
help, if that's right it should be a easy to fix.

Have a nice day.

On 11/10/2012 05:45 PM, marcofgalli at gmail.com wrote:
> Dear Ubuntu MOTU team,
>
> I'm writing you because I would like to help with a problem I found in
> one of the software packages available in the standard official Ubuntu
> repositories. I fount out that the problem is a compilation problem
> specific of the software coming with Ubuntu due to an unsatisfactory
> compilation, as I will demonstrate in the text of this email of mine.
>
> I already opened a bug report on Launchpad, but nobody gave ever a
> feedback about that. I opened that bug report because of a
> malfunctioning of the cdo software available in the homonymous package
> in the Ubuntu official repositories. I have the technical skills to get
> the problem fixed for myself, but I'd like to share the fixing of the
> problem with the other people of the Ubuntu community. About this point,
> I'd need some tutoring on how to do the work of sharing the solution of
> the problem and let the other users benefit of that. I both can warn you
> of this problem, or, if you don't have time to fix it personally, I can
> do it, but, as I was writing before, I'd need some tutoring.
>
> Some time ago, I noticed a problem with the software cdo. At first, I
> did not know how to classify it, if the name of the problem could be
> referred meaningfully with the word bug or not. However, I investigated
> a little about this problem I found out, and I worked out it was a
> compilation problem of the cdo package
> (https://code.zmaw.de/projects/cdo) shipping with Ubuntu. The Ubuntu cdo
> software works, strictly speaking (i. e., it does not suffer of memory
> leaks, or it does not lead to segmentation faults, it does not crash if
> I feed it with meaningful input...). However, the cdo software does not
> always to what it is supposed to do. The problem is not intrinsic in the
> software itself: in fact, if one compiles the source package after
> downloading it directly from the developers web site (which I referenced
> above), everything works perfectly. My question is: how is it possible
> to correct the misfunctioning of the software in the Ubuntu repositories?
>
> My report on Launchpad is this one:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cdo/+bug/1023329
>
> For my own curiosity, I tried to use cdo in the framework of a Debian
> powered computer system, because I was convinced that Ubuntu inheired
> most of the software packages from it, and, most of all, this non
> distribution-specific software packages (i. e., cdo does not appear to
> use any specific Debian or Ubuntu logo...). I surprisingly found out
> that in Debian everything works perfectly. Hence, the problem in the cdo
> software is due to some errors of who compiled and packaged it for
> Ubuntu. In detail, as it resulted from my investigation, the Ubuntu
> packager used and linked a library not yet fully supported (as a
> reference, hereafter, I'm posting my discussion with the upstream
> software developer: https://code.zmaw.de/boards/1/topics/1171)
>
> How do I have to move to get the problem solved? I made the software
> work for myself, recompiling it from scratch, but I'd like to share my
> solution.
>
> I am more than keen to write more specific details, it you need them. In
> this report, in fact, I reckon (perhaps erroneously?) not necessary to
> go into what cdo does and does not do in its official version
> distributed with Ubuntu.
>
> I already opened a bug report on the Italian forum of the Ubuntu
> developers team
> (http://forum.ubuntu-it.org/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=540210&p=4237333#p4227775
> ; in italian language), and I have been suggested to contact the Ubuntu
> maintainer of the package (you, as I understood) to ask about this problem.
>
> More in the technical details, the version shipping with Ubuntu uses the
> grib_api library to cope with the grib1 and grib2 files. The cdo
> upstream package internal library for grib1 files is not used at all in
> the Ubuntu version, and it is the only functioning library for grib1
> files, as it results from the discussion I referred above with the cdo
> software developer. However, the grib_api library is needed as well,
> because it is the only interface available to cope with grib2 data files.
>
> <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cdo/+bug/1023329>In the
> meanwhile, I upgraded my Ubuntu distribution from the 12.04 to the
> 12.10, but nothing about this issue happened. We have to work about this.
>
> I know that not many people use this software, and many of the users are
> so skilled that they can overcome the problem by themselves; however, I
> do not think this is a good reason not to fix this bug. I had the chance
> to interact to many younger colleagues that are not so familiar with the
> GNU/Linux systems, nor with their management. These people get so
> annoyed and discouraged when this kind of (very trivial) problems come
> out, and this is not a really good advertising for their idea about free
> software. They usually get somebody (I'm one of them) which lets things
> work, however, if Ubuntu is Linux for human beings, also this
> specialistic software should work good as well.
>
> Thanks in advance for the attention. Don't exitate to contact me for
> some interaction, for some guidance on how to behave, for some tutoring
> on how to act personally to fix the problem, if you cannot do that
> personally.
>
> Sincerely
> Marco
>
>