offline code and mesh_mak file

[oaumont]

There is a problem in the offline code. It requires a mesh_mask file to build the grid which can be a problem over time. The format of the mesh_mask file has changed many times over the last few years. This led to bugs and incompatibilities which can be a pain to handle. My suggestion is to follow what is done in the online version of the code and to rebuild the grid from the standard input files (coodinate, etc ...).

[cetlod]

I agree with you Olivier and I already did the job in the CMIP6 stable branch

• there are only 2 remaining routines in the OFF_SRC directory - great !!!!! -
• no changes in the others component, except small modifications in one routine in TOP_SRC
• no changes in the namelist
• sette test have been succesfully passed
• coordinate and bathymetry files must be added in the set of inputs files for Offline

[jpaul]

I think there is an issue with your proposal.
The mesh mask file is required in degrad mode,
and can't be rebuild with bathymetry and coordinates.

[cetlod]

It's not really an issue because the coarsening of I/O is already available in the system.
This functionnality can also be used in OFFLINE.

[cetlod]

Ultimately, for now, we keep the possibility to read the meskmask as an option.
The model will check for the coordinate file to compute the grid. If it does not find it, then the meskmask will be read.

But on a short-term scale, we will try to replace the "degrad mode" with the coarsening functionnality to run passive tracer offline