[MINC-development] micopy_all_var_values dies if non-standard variables are present in MINC files

[Rick Hoge]

Hi -

For a while we've been motivated to add 'custom' variables to MINC 
files to embed information about the experiment or analysis in a 
convenient way.  It seems though that non-standard variables prevent 
some of the MINC tools from running.

The following is an example:  the file tmap.mnc has a variable added 
containing information about the analysis performed, and we are running 
MINC Version 1.0

mincresample -like norm30.mnc tmap.mnc junk2.mnc
micopy_all_var_values: MINC package entry point

Note that we don't want to use the history variable because we want a 
specific parameter that can be queried in subsequent analysis steps.  I 
was under the impression the MINC/NetCDF should be extensible in this 
way without breaking tools that don't know about all the variables 
present.

How should this be handled - does the MINC standard prohibit new 
variables?  Thanks for any advice.  I can put such a file on /scratch/ 
if anyone is interested.

Rick