A pointer file is an ascii file named rpointer.ice that contains the
path and filename of the latest restart file. The model uses this information to find
a restart file from which initialization data is read. The pointer files are
written to and then read from the executable directory. For
startup runs, a pointer is created by the ice setup script
Whenever a restart file is written, the existing restart pointer file
is overwritten. The namelist variable pointer_file contains the
name of the pointer file. Pointer files seldom need editing. The contents
are usually maintained by the setup script and the component model.