Payu generating invalid default values for metadata #581
Description
When payu is creating metadata for new experiments (when there is a new uuid), for every field in the Experiment metadata schema that is not defined in the metadata, it adds a key with a end of line comment description of the field. I think the initial idea was to give information of what fields can be added to the metadata.
E.g. Generated metadata.yaml:
experiment_uuid: 0fddbbc5-5496-4a80-aebb-1e0c8f582b87
created: '2025-05-29'
name: mom6_double_gyre-0fddbbc5
model: MOM6
url: [email protected]:TestRepo/mom6_double_gyre.git
contact: Test Name
email: [email protected]
schema_version: # The version of the schema (string)
description: # Short description of the experiment (string, < 150 char)
long_description: # Long description of the experiment (string)
realm: # The realm(s) included in the experiment (string)
frequency: # The frequency(/ies) included in the experiment (string)
variable: # The variable(s) included in the experiment (string)
nominal_resolution: # The nominal resolution(s) of model(s) used in the experiment (string)
version: # The version of the experiment (number, string)
reference: # Citation or reference information (string)
license: # License of the experiment (string)
parent_experiment: # experiment_uuid for parent experiment if appropriate (string)
related_experiments: # experiment_uuids for any related experiment(s) (string)
notes: # Additional notes (string)
keywords: # Keywords to associated with experiment (string)
The issue is the above metadata.yaml is invalid according the schema, as multiple fields can not be null:
realm,frequency,variable,related_experiments,keywordsmust be an array type.descriptionandlong_description(they are also both required fields so it will also fail schema validation for that)schema_versioncan only be "1-0-3" for that particular schema version.
I want to know if the descriptions are the fields are that useful and if not, should it just be fully removed? Should the metadata.yaml from the above example be:
experiment_uuid: 0fddbbc5-5496-4a80-aebb-1e0c8f582b87
created: '2025-05-29'
name: mom6_double_gyre-0fddbbc5
model: MOM6
url: [email protected]:TestRepo/mom6_double_gyre.git
contact: Test Name
email: [email protected]
The above will still fail schema validation as description and long_description aren't present, so could add values such as description: Add short description of the experiment.
If we want the generated metadata to pass schema validation checks, schema validation should be added at least to the tests.