lib/iris/tests/stock_arrays.npz inadvertently deleted?

[ehogan]

I noticed this pull request (On Oct 25, 2016, after the v1.10.0 release) where updates were made to lib/iris/tests/stock.py to test whether stock_arrays.npz exists in the stock package, but then the lib/iris/tests/stock_arrays.npz file was deleted. Was this intentional?

[ajdawson]

The description of the PR you linked makes it look intentional, yes. It's been moved to the test data repository by the looks of it. Is there a problem associated with this?

[ehogan]

Yes; when I try to use realistic_4d I get:

   File "/opt/scitools/environments/default/2017_03_02/lib/python2.7/site-packages/iris/tests/stock.py", line 476, in realistic_4d
    raise IOError('Test data is not available at {}.'.format(data_path))
IOError: Test data is not available at /opt/scitools/environments/default/2017_03_02/lib/python2.7/site-packages/iris/test_data/stock/stock_arrays.npz.

Ah, my apologies, I was thrown by the fact that there is a copy of stock_mdi_arrays.npz in the iris/tests/ directory. This doesn't work for me because test_data isn't available.

Should iris/tests/stock_mdi_arrays.npz be removed?

[ajdawson]

You need to download the iris-test-data repository, and configure your install to find it. The test data (and test suite) aren't really part of our supported functionality, they are there as a convenience.

[marqh]

@ehogan

do you think the provision of the test data would be a useful thing for a site wide deployment?

would you be content using an environment variable in order to access data for your uses?

ty

[ehogan]

Hi @marqh, for those wanting to run the tests and work through the user guide, it would be useful to have the test data available.

Is it not possible to continue to use sample_data_path for this?

I thought I'd reiterate my previous question (I think it may have been missed): Should stock_mdi_arrays.npz be removed from the iris/tests/ directory?

[trexfeathers]

Of course a lot has changed since this discussion, but here is the current situation:

• remove stock_mdi_arrays.npz #3913 is doing as suggested in removing stock_mdi_arrays.npz
• See Testing > Running the tests in the Developer's Guide for the current instructions on control of test data location during testing

[ehogan]

Thanks @trexfeathers and @rcomer! :)