Test environment setup

casa-data and pipeline-testdata

With an identical software stack, numerical test results can still differ due to runtime session environment (serial vs. mpicasa), OS libraries, OpenMP threading, and the version of casa-data managed by casaconfig.

Two typical use cases for developers and testers:

• Case 1 — daily development: use the latest casa-data, auto-updated by casaconfig.

• Case 2 — benchmarking / reproducing reported issues: pin to a specific casa-data version checked out from the casa-data Git repo. Set the CASADATA environment variable to override the discovery list.

The following snippet for ~/.casa/config.py handles both cases. Adjust measurespath_checklist and datapath_list for your local filesystem layout:

###################################################################################################
# User customization section
###################################################################################################

# 'casa-data' path discovery list in precedence order: first hit will be picked up by casaconfig.
# note: if the environment variable `CASADATA` is set, the value will be prepended to the
# discovery list.
measurespath_checklist = [
    '~/Workspace/nvme/nrao/casa_dist/casarundata',  # maintained by casaconfig
    '~/Workspace/nvme/nrao/casa_dist/casa-data',    # git-lfs clone
    '~/Workspace/local/nrao/casa_dist/casarundata', # maintained by casaconfig
    '~/Workspace/local/nrao/casa_dist/casa-data',   # git-lfs clone
]

# all user data paths to be appended
datapath_list = ['~/Workspace/zfs/nrao/tests/pipeline-testdata']

# note: if measurespath is not maintained by casaconfig (i.e. from git clone), auto_update
# will not take effect.
measures_auto_update = True
data_auto_update = True

###################################################################################################
# Assign rundata/measurespath/datapath for casa6
###################################################################################################

if 'CASADATA' in os.environ:
    measurespath_checklist = [os.environ.get('CASADATA')]
else:
    measurespath_checklist = [
        os.path.abspath(os.path.expanduser(path))
        for path in measurespath_checklist if isinstance(path, str)
    ]
datapath_list = [
    os.path.abspath(os.path.expanduser(path))
    for path in datapath_list if isinstance(path, str)
]

measurespath = None
datapath = []
for path in measurespath_checklist:
    if os.path.isdir(os.path.join(path, 'geodetic')):
        rundata = measurespath = path
        datapath = [measurespath]
        break

try:
    import casaconfig
except ImportError:
    if measurespath is None:
        print(
            '!!! The value of rundata is not set and casatools can not find the expected data in datapath !!!'
        )
        print('!!! CASA6 can not continue. !!!')
        os._exit(os.EX_CONFIG)

datapath += [os.path.expanduser(path) for path in datapath_list if os.path.isdir(path)]

###################################################################################################

casaconfig (introduced in CASA 6.6.4) and the casa-data Git repository are equivalent approaches for managing runtime data. When casaconfig detects a Git-managed directory, measures_auto_update and data_auto_update take no action — casaconfig only manages directories it initialized itself.

For testing cases that require a specific casa-data version: since casaconfig does not support rollback, use the Git repo approach. Note that versions of certain data (e.g. geodetic measures) in a Git checkout may occasionally lag behind those fetched by casaconfig’s auto-update mechanism from external providers (e.g. the ASTRO FTP server).