GMT_AUTO_DOWNLOAD off results in [ERROR]: Remote download is currently deactivated

robd · October 21, 2020, 12:10pm

Querying a remote data server is usually inappropriate so we do this:

GMT_AUTO_DOWNLOAD off

Thereafter, even this:

gmt grdinfo test.grd

raises this error:

grdinfo [ERROR]: Remote download is currently deactivated

which breaks scripts that don’t catch it.

Also, thinking about how often user scripts must be needlessly querying data servers, wouldn’t it be much better if
GMT_AUTO_DOWNLOAD was off by default?

I think there are two fixes needed here.

Mac. 6.1.1

robd · October 22, 2020, 1:01am

My problems are related to the following issue; as if the fixes were not complete.

github.com/GenericMappingTools/gmt

GMT should not download the gmt_data_server.txt file if no remote files are used

opened 06:48AM - 06 Jul 20 UTC

closed 03:41AM - 08 Jul 20 UTC

seisman

feature request

Every gmt command checks if `gmt_data_server.txt` and `gmt_hash_server.txt` exis…t locally. If not, GMT will download these two files from the GMT data server. GMT command also checks if these two files are older than 24 hours and try to refresh them if they are. It works well for users with good internet connections and users without internet connections. However, it's a terrible experience for users who have very slow internet connections or work with intranet (intranet has network connections but can't visit external websites). Every time they run a gmt command, they need to wait for the timeout of the GMT server (~30 s). They won't understand why GMT is so slow, since the timeout message is not shown unless **-Vi** is used. Even **-Vi** is used, they may still be confused why GMT tries to download the two files even though they don't use any remote files like `@earth_relief_01d`. IMHO, it's not a good design to let gmt check and download the two files every time. A better behavior is only try to download the two files if remote files are needed.

which look like they were subsequently resolved here.

github.com/GenericMappingTools/gmt

Try to refresh only when remote files are requested

GenericMappingTools:6.1 ← GenericMappingTools:refresh-when-remote

opened 11:26PM - 06 Jul 20 UTC

PaulWessel

+25 -8

**Description of proposed changes** See #3609 for background. This PR examin…es the option arguments in gmt_init_module, before any parsing happens, and if it finds an argument starting with @ or an argument containing a @ that is not inside quotes, it errs on the side of caution and refreshes the server (once). All tests pass for me. We consider this a but (excessive checking) so goes into 6.1.

Yet it still exists in 6.1.1.

Perhaps the problem become evident to me because:

GMT_DATA_SERVER = https://oceania.generic-mapping-tools.org

was not always available

It seems I can choose between ~30 second delays while processes wait to download 2 template files (that they generally don’t need) or I switch GMT_AUTO_DOWNLOAD off which leaves me dealing with every subsequent GMT process writing a message to stderr.

If GMT_AUTO_DOWNLOAD is off, there should be no error to report.

robd · October 23, 2020, 1:35pm

I’m adding a bit more detail here. Unless I am missing something, this seems important. I see it at Centos installs too. Where GMT_AUTO_DOWNLOAD is off (surely it should mostly be off) there should be no error in this context and sending a message to stdout would cause other problems. There should not be a message at all.

[robd@moomin MRFGRD]$ gmt --version
6.1.1
[robd@moomin MRFGRD]$ gmt grdinfo stempmax.102.grd -Cn > /dev/null
grdinfo [ERROR]: Remote download is currently deactivated
grdinfo [ERROR]: Remote download is currently deactivated

pwessel · October 23, 2020, 9:08pm

I totally agree that this is not an ERROR message and not sure why it was labeled as such. I will deescalate that to INFORMATION so it is only printed if -Vi is used.
Most people using our remote data will want to have it on so the default will remain on.

pwessel · October 23, 2020, 9:24pm

Looks like copy/paste mistake. That message shall only be a error message if you actually access a remote file but remote download is off. The other place it is is used shall only be for information since it is just checking to see if it is time to refresh the server listings. PR submitted: https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/gmt/pull/4362