Supported formats and environments
Inputs ncv opens
| Input | Forms | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NetCDF-4 (HDF5) | .nc, .nc4, .hdf5-magic NetCDF-4 | Local and remote; subgroups appear as qualified names (physics/temperature) |
| GRIB2 | .grib, .grib2, .grb, .grb2, GRIB-magic detection | Local and remote; remote objects use .idx sidecars or bounded range reads |
| Kerchunk / VirtualiZarr reference manifests | .json | Virtual datasets describing byte ranges; never copies or modifies source data |
| Remote object locations | s3://, gs://, az://, abfs[s]:// | See Access remote data |
Inputs ncv rejects (on purpose)
| Input | Behavior |
|---|---|
| NetCDF-3 | Rejected before terminal entry with an actionable diagnostic |
| Arbitrary HDF5 (non-NetCDF-4) | Rejected with an actionable diagnostic |
| Large unindexed remote GRIB2 | Refused rather than silently downloaded in full |
Rejection happens before the TUI starts, so your terminal is never left in a modified state.
Platforms
Release archives are published for:
| OS | Architecture |
|---|---|
| Linux | x86_64 (glibc) and x86_64 musl (static, for older distributions) |
| macOS | arm64 |
| Windows | x86_64 |
Each release ships a SHA256SUMS file. The binary is pure Rust with no native
NetCDF/HDF5 runtime dependency.
Terminals and SSH
- Image protocols: Kitty, Sixel, iTerm2 (auto-detected after terminal entry;
overridable with
NCVIEW_IMAGE_PROTOCOL). - Portable fallback:
ncv’s own cell rasterizer — one truecolor background block per terminal cell — always functional, including over OpenSSH and tmux. - Explicit
NCVIEW_IMAGE_PROTOCOLsettings are honored as given on all terminals; the portable cell renderer remains available withNCVIEW_IMAGE_PROTOCOL=cells. - No X11 forwarding required.
Data safety
All datasets are opened read-only. Source files are never modified. Missing, fill, NaN, and infinity values are preserved and masked honestly — see Data fidelity.