/*! \mainpage ecCodes

\section new New

- <a href="/publications/manuals/grib_api/conversion.html">GRIB edition 1 to 2 conversion</a>
- <a href="/publications/manuals/d/gribapi/param/">Parameters in GRIB API</a>
- <b> GRIB API keys </b>
 - <a href="/publications/manuals/d/gribapi/fm92/grib1/">GRIB edition 1 </a>
 - <a href="/publications/manuals/d/gribapi/fm92/grib2/">GRIB edition 2 </a>
 - <a href="/publications/manuals/d/gribapi/keys/">Edition independent</a>


\section overview Overview

ecCodes is the application program interface developed at ECMWF
to provide an easy and realiable way for encoding and 
decoding WMO FM-92 GRIB 
<a href="http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/WMOCodes/Manual/WMO306_vol-I-2-PartB-GRIB1.pdf">edition 1</a> and 
<a href="http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/DPS/grib-2.html">edition 2</a> messages. 

The ecCodes library is written entirely in C and some command line \ref tools "tools" are 
provided to give a quick way to manipulate GRIB and BUFR data. Moreover a \ref eccodes "Fortran interface 90" is available
giving access to the main features of the C library.

The library is designed to access and modify messages in both editions with the same
\ref get_set "function calls" using a set of \ref keys to access the coded information 
( examples: \ref grib_get_keys.f90 "grib_get_keys.f90" \ref set.f90 "set.f90", \ref grib_get_keys.c "grib_get_keys.c", \ref set.c "set.c", \ref grib_get_examples "grib_get", \ref grib_set_examples "grib_set" ). 

The \ref keys "keys" available for a message are different depending not only on the edition
but also and mainly on the type of each message and the information it contains. 
A list of all the available keys in a message can be obtained dynamically using the 
library as shown in \ref keys_iterator.c "keys_iterator.c" or using the \ref tools 
as shown in \ref grib_dump_examples "grib_dump" or \ref grib_keys_examples "grib_keys".

GRIB API will replace the GRIBEX function and a 
<a href="/publications/manuals/grib_api/gribexkeys/callGribex.html">table of conversion</a> between the
numeric encoding of GRIBEX and the alphanumeric keys of GRIB API is provided to help
the migration.

To learn how to use the grib_api we recommend the user works through the \ref grib_examples.

Reference manuals are also provided for the C library (organized in \ref modules), for the 
\ref eccodes "Fortran 90 interface" and for the \ref gribapi "Python interface".


\ref installation "Installation" instructions are also provided.

\section ecwf_users Compiling and linking on ECMWF platforms

The grib API is installed on all systems at ECMWF with both its components: the library
and the tools.\n
The latest version of the tools is always available in the system PATH so that
users can begin using the tools immediately by typing directly the tool name (\ref tools "see tools reference").\n
The latest version of the library is also installed on any platform and it is available for linking through the
following two environment variables: $GRIB_API_INCLUDE $GRIB_API_LIB.\n\n
Here is a short summary on how to compile and link on ECMWF systems:\n

- ecgate, hpce, hpcf 
\verbatim
> xlc -o foo foo.c $GRIB_API_INCLUDE $GRIB_API_LIB -lm
\endverbatim \n
\verbatim
> xlf90 -o foo foo.f90 $GRIB_API_INCLUDE $GRIB_API_LIB
\endverbatim\n
- linux cluster (C programs)
\verbatim
> gcc -m32 -o foo foo.c $GRIB_API_INCLUDE $GRIB_API_LIB 
\endverbatim \n
- workstation (C programs)
\verbatim
> gcc -o foo foo.c $GRIB_API_INCLUDE $GRIB_API_LIB 
\endverbatim \n
- linux cluster,workstation (Fortran programs)
\verbatim
> use pgf90
> pgf90 -o foo foo.f90 $GRIB_API_INCLUDE $GRIB_API_LIB
\endverbatim\n


*/