The PMIP Database release tags

The PMIP database is now stored in a CVS repository. This makes it possible to define release tags that allow the database administrator and the other users to easily access the latest release of the variables as well as older releases!

The three different kinds of release tags are described below. All the tags of a given type are given in a strictly increasing order, which makes it easy to determine if a release of a variable with a given tag is older or more recent than a release with another tag. Note that the same release of a variable can be assigned different tags, if the variable doesn't change between major updates of the database!

• Major release tags : these tags are used to freeze all the files in the database at a given time (or take a picture of the database), when the database is supposed to be in a stable enough state. The files can be retrieved later in this state (even if they have been modified) by accessing the PMIP CVS repository with the apropriate tag. You can make a reference to the major release tag of the PMIP database you have used in your articles. If you have worked with files that were updated since a major release but are not part (yet) of the next major release, you can specify the major release tag and the date of the last time you updated the variables you used.
  
  There are two kinds of major release tags that point to the same files. One is just a numeric release number, whereas the other is more human readable and intuitive :
  
  
  • Rnumber : R0, R1, ...
  • PMIPyear_letter : PMIP2001a, PMIP2001b, ...
  
  The R0 and PMIP2001a tags, for example, were given to the first release of the database that was checked in the CVS repository in January 2001.
  
  
• Update release tags : these tags are used when the database is updated between two major releases. They are usually used when several files are changed at the same time (e.g. when the new release of a model is added to the database or when a bunch of similar files are processed/corrected). It is likely that single files are updated in the database without being assigned a specific release tag. In that case, the files have only newer revision numbers, but no tags are associated with these revisions.
  
  An update release tag has the following form : Rmonth-year_letter (e.g. R03-2001a, R03-2001b, ...).
  
  
• Special current release tag : contrary to the other tags, the current tag is not always associated with the same revision of a file in the database! For each variable in the database, this tag is associated with the latest hopefully correct revision of the variable. A variable may have no (revision associated with the) current tag, which means that it has not been tested yet or that it has been tested and was not correct... Please check the Database News page for more details.
  
  The anonymous ftp web site holds only the revisions of the files (README files and variables) that have the current tag. You have to use the CVS server if you want to access all the files.

You can find the actual tags used in the PMIP database on the tags history page.