`SalishSeaCmd` Changes That Break Backward Compatibility

Version 26.1

The following change that was introduced in version 26.1 of the SalishSeaCmd package is incompatible with earlier versions:

Changed to Pixi for package and environment management.

Version 25.3

The following change that was introduced in version 25.3 of the SalishSeaCmd package is incompatible with earlier versions:

Dropped support for Python 3.11. Minimum supported Python version is now 3.12.

Version 25.2

The following changes that were introduced in version 25.2 of the SalishSeaCmd package are incompatible with earlier versions:

Dropped support for the graham HPC system that was decommissioned on 1-Sep-2025.
Dropped support for the beluga HPC system that was decommissioned on 31-Jul-2025.
Dropped support for the cedar HPC system that was decommissioned after 11-Aug-2025. Practically, we have not been able to use cedar efficiently since late-2018 due to issues with its OmniPath interconnect.

Version 23.1

The following change that was introduced in version 23.1 of the SalishSeaCmd package is incompatible with earlier versions:

Drop support for Python 3.10. Minimum supported Python version is now 3.11.

Version 22.3

The following change that was introduced in version 22.3 of the SalishSeaCmd package is incompatible with earlier versions:

Drop support for Python 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, and 3.9. Minimum supported Python version is now 3.10. Python 3.5 version deployed on orcinus is tagged orcinus-python-3.5.

Version 22.2

The following change that was introduced in version 22.2 of the SalishSeaCmd package is incompatible with earlier versions:

Replaced the salishsea run --cedar-broadwell command-line flag with more generic --cores-per-node and cpu-arch options. This change enables more general control of HPC job configuration on clusters where that is applicable (presently sockeye and cedar).

To reproduce the effect of --cedar-broadwell now, please use --cores-per-node 32 --cpu-arch broadwell.

Version 19.3

The following change that was introduced in version 19.3 of the SalishSeaCmd package is incompatible with earlier versions:

The gitpython package is now a required dependency. It can be installed with pip install --user gitpython or conda install gitpython as appropriate for your working environment.

Version 19.1

The following changes that were introduced in version 19.1 of the SalishSeaCmd package are incompatible with earlier versions:

Dropped support for Python 2.7; minimum version is now 3.5.
The f90nml package is now a required dependency. It can be installed with pip install --user f90nml or conda install f90nml as appropriate for your working environment.
segmented run is now an optional key in the run description YAML file. Please see Segmented Runs for details of how to use it.
Changed to CalVer versioning convention. Version identifier format is now yy.n[.devn], where yy is the (post-2000) year of release, and n is the number of the release within the year, starting at 1. After a release has been made the value of n is incremented by 1, and .dev0 is appended to the version identifier to indicate changes that will be included in the next release. 19.1.dev0 is an exception to that scheme. That version identifies the period of development between the 3.5 and 19.1 releases.

Version 3.4

The following changes that were introduced in version 3.4 of the SalishSeaCmd package are incompatible with earlier versions:

Replaced the salishsea run --no-deflate command-line option with salishsea run --deflate so that the default run options assume that XIOS-2 on-the-fly deflation is being used.
Dropped bugaboo from the list of recognized systems.
Default to using account rrg-allen when running on cedar.
Dropped support for NEMO-3.4.

Version 3.3

The following change that was introduced in version 3.3 of the SalishSeaCmd package is incompatible with earlier versions:

The salishsea get_cgrf sub-command was removed.

Version 3.1

The following changes that were introduced in version 3.1 of the SalishSeaCmd package are incompatible with earlier versions:

For NEMO-3.6 only, Land Processor Elimination configuration must now be done explicitly, in contrast to being automatic in version 3.0. This change is necessary to accommodate the fact that the MPI-LPE mapping changes with bathymetry, so it is necessary to specify the MPI-LPE mapping CSV file that corresponds to the bathymetry you are using in the run description YAML file.

The land processor elimination key has moved from the top level of the YAML file (where it was previously only used with a value of False to disable land processor elimination) to the grid section. The value associated with the land processor elimination key is the path/filename of the MPI-LPE mapping CSV file to be used for the run.

Please see the YAML file grid Section docs for details.
For NEMO-3.6 only, restart file paths/filenames are now specified in a new restart section instead of in the forcing section; see restart Section for details.

Version 3.0

The following change that was introduced in version 3.0 of the SalishSeaCmd package is incompatible with earlier versions:

The paths section of the YAML run description file must now contain a NEMO code config key, the value of which is the path to the CONFIG/ directory in the NEMO code tree. An absolute path is required because the path is used in both the current directory and the temporary run directory created in the runs directory. The path may contain ~ or $HOME as alternative spellings of the user’s home directory, and $USER as an alternative spelling of the user’s userid. Examples:
```
NEMO code config: $HOME/MEOPAR/NEMO-3.6-code/NEMOGCM/CONFIG

NEMO code config: /data/sallen/MEOPAR/NEMO-code/NEMOGCM/CONFIG
```

Version 2.2

The following changes that were introduced in version 2.2 of the SalishSeaCmd package are incompatible with earlier versions:

Specification of which iodef.xml file NEMO should use has been moved from the command-line to the YAML run description file; see run Sub-command or use salishsea help run to see the new command-line usage.
- For NEMO-3.6 the output section of the run description YAML file must now contain a files key, the value of which is the file path/name of the iodef.xml file to use for the run. For example:
```
output:
  files: iodef.xml
```
  If the path is relative, it is taken from the directory in which the run description YAML file resides.
- For NEMO-3.4 the run description YAML file must now contain an output section that contains a files key, the value of which is the file path/name of the iodef.xml file to use for the run. For example:
```
output:
  files: iodef.xml
```
  If the path is relative, it is taken from the directory in which the run description YAML file resides.
This change also affects the prepare Sub-command sub-command, and the the following APIs:

Version 2.1

The following changes that were introduced in version 2.1 of the SalishSeaCmd package are incompatible with earlier versions:

For NEMO-3.6 the forcing section of the run description YAML file now contains sub-sections that provide the names of directories and file that are to be symlinked in the run directory for NEMO to use to read initial conditions and forcing values from. For example:
```
forcing:
  NEMO-atmos:
    link to: /results/forcing/atmospheric/GEM2.5/operational/
  restart.nc:
    link to: /results/SalishSea/nowcast-green/06dec15/SalishSea_00004320_restart.nc
  restart_trc.nc:
    link to: /results/SalishSea/nowcast-green/06dec15/SalishSea_00004320_restart_trc.nc
  open_boundaries:
    link to: open_boundaries/
  rivers:
    link to: rivers/
```
The keys are the names of the symlinks that will be created in the run directory. Those names are expected to appear in the appropriate places in the namelists. The values associated with the link to keys are the targets of the symlinks that will be created.

A sub-section that provides a directory of atmospheric forcing files to link to may also include a check link sub-sub-section. check link contains 2 key-value pairs:
- The type key provides the type of checking to perform on the link
- The value associated with the namelist filename key is the name of the namelist file in which the atmospheric forcing link is used.
```
forcing:
  NEMO-atmos:
    link to: /results/forcing/atmospheric/GEM2.5/operational/
    check link:
      type: atmospheric
      namelist filename: namelist_cfg
```
Link checking can be disabled by excluding the check link section, or by setting the value associated with the type key to None.

See forcing Section for details.

For NEMO-3.4 the forcing section is unchanged, the hard-coded symlink names remain the same, and provision of a tracers restart file is not supported.
For NEMO-3.6 the namelists section of the run description YAML file is now a dict of lists. The dict keys are the names of the namelist*_cfg files to create and the element(s) of the list under each key are the namelist section files to be concatenated to create the file named by the key. For example:
```
namelists:
  namelist_cfg:
    - namelist.time
    - namelist.domain
    - namelist.surface
    - namelist.lateral
    - namelist.bottom
    - namelist.tracer
    - namelist.dynamics
    - namelist.vertical
    - namelist.compute
  namelist_top_cfg:
    - namelist_top_cfg
  namelist_pisces_cfg:
    - namelist_pisces_cfg
```
The namelist_cfg key is required to create the basic namelist for running NEMO-3.6. Other namelist*_cfg keys are optional. At least 1 namelist section file is required for each namelist*_cfg key that is used.

See namelists Section for details.

For NEMO-3.4 the namelists section remains a simple list of namelist section files, and construction of namelists for tracers, biology, etc. is not supported.
The SalishSeaCmd.api.run_description() and SalishSeaCmd.api.run_in_subprocess() functions now accept a nemo34 argument that defaults to False. That means that those functions now assume that their objective is a NEMO-3.6 run.
In the SalishSeaCmd.api.run_description() function, the name of the argument that is used to pass in the path to the NEMO-forcing/ directory has been changed from forcing to forcing_path. This change affects both NEMO-3.4 and NEMO-3.6 uses of the function.
The SalishSeaCmd.api.run_description() function now accepts a forcing argument that can be used to pass in a forcing links dict. The dict must match the forcing links data structure described in Run Description File Structure for the version of NEMO that you are using. For NEMO-3.4, the default value of None will result in “sensible” default values being set for the forcing links. For NEMO-3.6, it is impossible to guess what “sensible” default values might be, so the default value of None is simply passed through.

Version 2.0

The following changes that were introduced in version 2.0 of the SalishSeaCmd package are incompatible with earlier versions:

The gather and combine sub-commands now take a --compress command-line option to cause the results files to be gzip compressed. Previously, gzip compression was the default and the --no-compress option was required to prevent it. The run, gather, and combine sub-commands are now all consistent in defaulting to no compression of the results files.
The run description YAML file must now contain an MPI decomposition key-value pair, for example:
```
MPI decomposition: 8x18
```
The value is used to write the correct MPI decomposition values into the namelist.compute namelist section file. That means that it is no longer necessary to a collection of namelist.compute.* files for different MPI decompositions. The value is also used to tell the REBUILD_NEMO script how many results file sections to operate on.

SalishSeaCmd Changes That Break Backward Compatibility