ESMpy 8.4.2 not compatible with importlib-metadata 8.0.0

[aulemahal]

Weird bug here.

When we have importlib-metadata 8.0.0 (out since june 25th), importing esmpy from a child process (while using dask) does not work. It fails on some metadata issue. There's a note in the ESMF code about the specific entry failing.

See https://github.com/pangeo-data/xESMF/actions/runs/9685118354/job/26725324514

It does not happen for esmpy 8.3.1, nor 8.6.

#372 addresses the issue in the CI, but I don't think there's much to do on our side as this is an esmpy issue and an older version. However, 8.4.2 is the last windows-compatible version, so windows users might need to pin importlib-metadata.

[peanutfun]

Do I understand correctly that the workaround is to pin importlib-metadata<8.0.0 and/or esmpy<=8.3.1,>=8.6?

[aulemahal]

AFAIU, yes.