Specs

Location

Spec files are saved within the specs/groups folder at the top level of the checksit repository. Files can be grouped within folders in this directory if required.

Format of spec file

Spec files are in YAML format, and are split into sections by function calls. An example section from a YAML spec file might look like

required-global-attrs:
  func: checksit.generic.check_global_attrs
  params:
    defined_attrs:
      - source
      - title
    vocab_attrs:
      Conventions: __vocabs__:cf-netcdf:Conventions
      another_attribute: __vocabs__:attribute_vocabs

Line 1: required-global-attrs is a label which must be unique within the file.

Line 2: func: checksit.generic.check_global_attrs points to the function that will be used, in this case it’s the check_global_attrs function within the checksit/generic.py file.

Line 3: params indicates the following section is the parameters that will be passed to the function.

Line 4: defined_attrs is the name of a parameter in the function

Lines 5-6: source and title are the values being passed to the parameter. As they have a proceeding -, they are parsed as a list, i.e. ['source', 'title']

Line 7: vocab_attrs is another parameter in the function

Line 8-9: Values for the vocab_attrs parameter. As these do not have a - proceeding, they are parsed as a dictionary, i.e. {'Conventions': '__vocabs__:cf-netcdf:Conventions', 'another_attribute': '__vocabs__:attribute_vocabs'}

Note that __vocabs__ is the reference to the vocabs directory - see the vocabs page for more info.

Any number of these sections can be included in the same spec file, provided each has different labels.