FYI: ESMF v8.5.0 and v8.6.0 do not support Windows yet (only v8.4.2 does)

[tomvothecoder]

Overview

ESMF v8.5.0 and v8.6.0 do not support Windows right now due to GCC build issues, which might be fixed later on. Related issues:

• esmf v8.5.0 conda-forge/esmf-feedstock#109 (comment)
• esmf v8.6.0 conda-forge/esmf-feedstock#110 (comment)

This lack of support cascades down to esmpy and further down to xesmf (which are dependencies of xcdat).

What this means for xCDAT Windows Users

If you install the latest version of xcdat (xcdat=0.7.0), which automatically installs the latest version of xesmf (xesmf=0.8.5), then you'll get esmf=8.4.2 rather than the latest version (esmf=8.6.0).

Possible Downstream Issues

In esmf=8.5.0, there is a fix for the missing ESMFMKFILE env variable in some environments such as Jupyter. This fix won't be available for Windows builds for now.

• Related PR: [ESMpy] Guess esmf.mk locations esmf-org/esmf#151
• xCDAT workaround: https://xcdat.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting-started-guide/installation.html#jupyter-users-set-esmfmkfile-env-variable