2.3.2 Environment Variables

After successfully relinking an application program with the OPeNDAP libraries, there is a short list of environment variables that may be defined. Only DODS_ROOT is required. The other three variables are only used to override default values controlling the GUI manager process. Most users may safely ignore them.

DODS_ROOT

indicates the root directory of the OPeNDAP software. The OPeNDAP core software must be able to locate utilities that are located in this directory tree.  

DODS_GUI

can contain the name of the program used by the GUI manager. A user might wish to change this variable to point to a "safe" Tcl/Tk interpreter; whatever program is used here must be able to process Tcl and Tk commands. The default value is the wish program.  

DODS_GUI_INIT

indicates the name of any initialization command required by the GUI manager. The default initialization string executes the Tcl program in $DODS_ROOT/etc/dods_gui.tc1.  

DODS_USE_GUI

may be used to turn off the GUI manager. Set the value of this variable to no, and the progress indicator and the error message windows will not be displayed.  

NOTE: The user has substantial control over the GUI manager. You can change the program that listens for GUI commands from wish to anything else, and you can actually change the action of the GUI commands by editing the Tcl code in the files dods_gui.tcl, error.tcl, and progress.tcl. (These are in the $DODS_ROOT/etc directory.) However, editing these files and variables will not change the form of the messages from the OPeNDAP server, and from the core software that are meant to invoke these programs. In other words, the user may mess with these, but must be careful to leave the GUI manager in a form that will be able to process the messages it receives.