Namelist comparison for mizuRoute control files in tests shows Inequivalent lines that are only different in whitespace

[ekluzek]

The mizuRoute control files: CaseDocs/mizuRoute.control are text files in a non-standard format. The namelist comparison for testing shows them being different even for things that just different by whitespace.

For example the baseline comparison of ctsm5.4.033 against ctsm5.4.032 for the test "SMS_D_Ld5.5x5_amazon_rHDMA.I2000Clm60SpMizGs.derecho_intel.mizuroute-default" shows these kind of differences in TestStatus.log:

2026-04-16 09:03:58: NLCOMP
Comparison failed between '/glade/u/home/glemieux/scratch/ctsm-tests/tests_0416-090144de/SMS_D_Ld5.5x5_amazon_rHDMA.I2000Clm60SpMizGs.derecho_intel.mizuroute-default.GC
.0416-090144de_int/CaseDocs/mizuRoute.control' with '/glade/campaign/cgd/tss/ctsm_baselines/ctsm5.4.032/SMS_D_Ld5.5x5_amazon_rHDMA.I2000Clm60SpMizGs.derecho_intel.mizur
oute-default/CaseDocs/mizuRoute.control'
Inequivalent lines <case_name>                  SMS_D_Ld5.5x5_amazon_rHDMA.I2000Clm60SpMizGs.derecho_intel.mizuroute-default.GC.0409-131750de_int                       
                                       !  name of simulation != <case_name>                  SMS_D_Ld5.5x5_amazon_rHDMA.I2000Clm60SpMizGs.derecho_intel.mizuroute-defaul
t.GC.0416-090144de_int                                                                        !  name of simulation
  NORMALIZED: <case_name>                  SMS_D_Ld5.5x5_amazon_rHDMA.I2000Clm60SpMizGs.derecho_intel.mizuroute-default.GC.0409-131750de_int                            
                                  !  name of simulation != <case_name>                  SMS_D_Ld5.5x5_amazon_rHDMA.I2000Clm60SpMizGs.derecho_intel.mizuroute-default.GC.
0416-090144de_int                                                                        !  name of simulation
Inequivalent lines <route_opt>                  5                                                                                                                       
                                       !  option for routing schemes (only one-option allowed) 1->IRF, 2->KWT, 3-> KW, 4->MC, 5->DW != <route_opt>                  5   
                                                                                                                                                                     !  
option for routing schemes (only one-option allowed) 1->IRF, 2->KWT, 3-> KW, 4->MC, 5->DW
  NORMALIZED: <route_opt>                  5                                                                                                                            
                                  !  option for routing schemes (only one-option allowed) 1->IRF, 2->KWT, 3-> KW, 4->MC, 5->DW != <route_opt>                  5        
                                                                                                                                                                !  optio
n for routing schemes (only one-option allowed) 1->IRF, 2->KWT, 3-> KW, 4->MC, 5->DW

[ekluzek]

From looking at code in:

CIME/case/case_cmpgen_namelists.py

The high level should be using the compare_files subroutine from CIME/simple_compare.py

            elif is_namelist_file(item):
                success, current_comments = compare_namelist_files(
                    baseline_counterpart, item, test
                )
            else:
                success, current_comments = compare_files(
                   

If it's thinking the control file is a namelist, it might be failing because of that.

[ekluzek]

#5024 starts to address this by adding the ability to compare TOML file format files for use in model control (i.e. namelist) files. This also requires mizuRoute to update to TOML format for the control file, but this is a start that can be independent of that.