Feature request: set ESMF logging mode at run-time via config file

[lizziel]

The ESMF logging mode is currently part of cap_options set via a command line tool. We do not use the command line tool in GCHP and so set the logging mode at a very high level to pass when creating MAPL CAP (see here). To change the logging mode, such as to disable the default ESMF_LOGKIND_MULTI_ON_ERROR, users need to change the code and recompile.

It would be more convenient to set the logging mode at run-time via a config file. This is not possible with the current implementation of MAPL, however, because the logging mode is needed for ESMF initialization (see here) but ESMF initialization needs to happen prior to reading a config file.

The solution to this problem is to pass a config file rather than logging string to ESMF_Initialize. This is possible according to the ESMF docs.

[mathomp4]

@lizziel I'm assigning @tclune and @bena-nasa to answer this more. They'd have the knowledge on how and if this could be done.

[lizziel]

Thanks @mathomp4. I should give credit to @tclune (or was it @bena-nasa?) for coming up with the idea to pass a config file to ESMF_Initialize. We discussed solutions at our MAPL meeting earlier this week so they knew this feature request was coming.

[bena-nasa]

@lizziel so you want to parse from something the user can configure? YAML? Plain ASCII? ESMF_Config( which of course you can't parse with ESMF_Config at that point)? before that call where you set the logging mode in CapOptions?

[lizziel]

Hi @bena-nasa, I would like to have a switch in any of the existing rc files. CAP.rc probably make the most sense since it could replace passing the field from CapOptions.

[mathomp4]

Ben is out today, but I have some time because the work I was doing at NAS needs sysadmin help. So I took a shot at this. I have a branch called feature/mathomp4/2133-pre-esmf-file (see changes here) where you can have a file named ESMF.rc that looks like:

$ cat ESMF.rc
logKindFlag: ESMF_LOGKIND_MULTI_ON_ERROR

and if it's present, it will read it and change the log level.

Now, in this branch (at least) the file MUST be named ESMF.rc because, well, I couldn't figure anything else out. (Since CAP.rc is parsed by ESMF, you can't put anything in there.)

@lizziel Can you try this branch and see how it works for you? If nothing else, it's a first go at this. We will probably wait for @bena-nasa to return and figure out something more elegant and permanent, but we can at least see if this works for you.

[lizziel]

Thanks @mathomp4. To be clear, this update is not urgent and something that I'd like in a future release that will eventually go into GCHP. I actually have zero time to test unfortunately. At the meeting earlier this week Tom and I agreed on CAP.rc as the place to put the toggle.

[mathomp4]

Ah okay. Well, it was a fun bit of ESMF learning. 😄

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. If there are no updates within 7 days, it will be closed. You can add the "long term" tag to prevent the Stale bot from closing this issue.

[mathomp4]

@lizziel was this "resolved"?

[lizziel]

I'll know very soon. I am testing your updates today.

[lizziel]

This works! I'll put it into GCHP (and give you full credit). If you could merge it into MAPL before the 3 release that would be great.