Add error checking to the --keep option to case.setup

[ekluzek]

Updating this to cover the thing that should change. The "--keep" option to case.setup doesn't' do error checking so you may enter bad data, or enter a delimited list and think it's going to work and it will silently ignore what you ask it to do. So adding some error checking for the names of the files that can be asked for which make this more usable for users.

Original post: This is what I originally saw....

The keep option to case.setup says:

  -k KEEP, --keep KEEP  When cleaning/resetting a case, do not remove/refresh files in this list. Choices are batch script, env_mach_specific.xml, Macros.make, Macros.cmake. Use should use this if you have local modifications to these files that you want to keep.

I've tried using different delimiters for the list, and it doesn't seem to recognize all the files.

This is in cime6.1.169 with other submodules from ctsm5.4.034.

How to reproduce:

./case.setup --reset --keep 'env_mach_specific.xml;Macros.make;Macros.cmake'

Shows that all the files listed were still cleaned (I've tried delimiters or ",", ";" (as above) and " "):

Successfully cleaned .case.test
Successfully cleaned env_mach_specific.xml
Successfully cleaned Macros.cmake
Successfully cleaned cmake_macros

When I ask for a single file it removes that file from the list

/case.setup --reset --keep 'env_mach_specific.xml'
Setting up test for SMS in directory /glade/derecho/scratch/erik/tests_ctsm5434erikhacknia/SMS_D.f10_f10_mg37.I2000Clm60BgcCrop.derecho_nvhpc.clm-crop.GC.ctsm5434erikhacknia_nvh
WARNING: Found difference in test REST_OPTION: case: none original value $STOP_OPTION
Successfully cleaned .case.test
Successfully cleaned Macros.cmake
Successfully cleaned cmake_macros

[ekluzek]

OK, it turns out the "append" option is used in case.setup. So that the way to do it is to list each file:

./case.setup --reset --keep 'env_mach_specific.xml' --keep Macros.make --keep Macros.cmake

Which then works correctly.

But, we should add error checking so that the list of files entered in keep is found in the list to clean. Adding an error check for that wouldn't be hard to do.

[jedwards4b]

@ekluzek I fail to see how #4974 would have made any difference here?

[ekluzek]

@ekluzek I fail to see how #4974 would have made any difference here?

It wouldn't. But, the point of #4974 is that if I can't rely on the --keep option to preserve my local changes to the build in the build files -- USER_FFLAGS would give me an option that would work even with --keep being broken. We should still fix the --keep option and add the error checking suggested here -- whether or not USER_FFLAGS is decided to be added or not.

The other thing I think is needed is to add a unit test that makes sure that using the --keep option works correctly after both case.setup and case.build. That's probably a point that applies to #4972 more than here, so I'll add it there.