Resource: filename

The filename resource is used to specify the primary file to be used in the program. In some cases, this is a converted file to be analyzed.  In others, it is the raw file to be decoded.  For the ingestor, it is the input file, fifo or device. The filename can also be specified with the current, hour,  and in_file resource. More than one filename can be listed.  For decoders, this extends the list of files to decode.  For plotting programs, this sets up a loop using those files.

Based on the file name convention, the appropriate path will be prepended to the filename along with the file name extension.

Sequence numbers

WXP offers the concept of a sequence number which is an absolute time specification that is irrelevant of the file naming convention.  If you wanted the data file from 12Z 22 Dec 1996, you would specify:

   #199612221200

The format of the sequence number is 4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day, 2 digit hour and 2 digit hour.  Any value omitted is assumed to be 0 so you could have left off the last two zeros.

Current Filenames

A current file can be specified for most programs with the filename resource by using the sequence "cu" or "la" for the filename.  Everything following these characters are passed to the current file algorithm.  For example:

   sfcwx la

specifies to use the latest file.

   sfcwx cu-2

specifies to use the file that is two hours old.

Last updated July 30, 1998