Feature example in documentation that doesn't require synda

[ssmithClimate]

Synda cant be installed on our machines (isn't clear this works anyway? e.g. https://github.com/ESMValGroup/ESMValTool/issues/1601 ).

Would be useful to have the documentation point to an example that doesn't require synda. The current example (examples/recipe_python.yml) would be fine if, for example, if some directory listings were added that showed which files were downloaded and to where so that users for whom synda didn't work could see a complete example.

[valeriupredoi]

I'll have a look into this, cheers for raising it! :beer:

[Peter9192]

Does #1827 address this?

[ssmithClimate]

I'm not quite sure. While the docs say to download data from ESGF, our understanding is that the data must be stored in the specific compliant folder hierarchy for the system to work (e.g., /AerChemMIP/NASA-GISS/GISS-base/no-season-so2/r1i1p5f101/Amon/rsuscs/gn/v20191120/). Is that explained somewhere?

[Peter9192]

Ah, I see. Well, the easiest way out is to store all data in a single 'flat' folder, and use the following keywords in your user configuration:

rootpath:
  default: ~/my_data

drs:
  CMIP5: default
  CMIP6: default

The corresponding documentation is here, but I understand that this is not obvious. It's one of the things we want to improve. Perhaps we can also add it for this simple example in the example recipe documentation.

[bouweandela]

Done