LFRic IO Standards#

Standards for XIOS Iodef Files#

File Definitions

Rules

  1. Global file settings (for instance, the file type) are to be specified precisely once: in the “Local file definitions” section of every top-level iodef file.

  2. Non-global file settings are to be specified at the level of individual files.

  3. id values shall be unique for a given XIOS XML element type.

Rationale

Warning

When XIOS aggregates definitions - possibly spread across several XML files -, then attributes are overriden by defined elements that use a _ref.

The overriding operates in a chain, so users may need to act cautiously to understand attribute inheritance and overrides.

This is why reuse of id values for different elements is problematic, not allowed, and tested by a code inspection rule for field elements.

With the current layout of the LFRic top-level iodef files, the last set of attributes to be processed are the ones in the local file definitions section.