Create a meta-repo for conda packaging and deployment

[atteggiani]

As already considered by @jo-basevi and @CodeGat, it would be good to create a meta-repo for conda packaging and deployment, similar to what is in place for model deployment and configuration stuff.

Raising this issue as a place to put ideas, suggestions and thoughts about the specifications and requirements for the CI/CD workflows in the meta-repo.

Feel free to add your inputs below!

[atteggiani]

The channels to be used in a conda build are likely the same for all the packages we deploy.
I think they would be the following (in order):

• accessnri
• conda-forge
• coecms (The need for this channel will likely be removed soon)
• nodefaults

Therefore, a Repo variable could be set with the list of them.
Something like:

variable_name: CONDA_CHANNELS
value: -c accessnri -c conda-forge -c coecms -c nodefaults --override-channels (the override-channels option is to prevent searching the user .condarc for channels --> more info)

Then, we could use it in a workflow step as:

conda build . --no-anaconda-upload --output-folder=${{env.BUILD_FOLDER}} ${{vars.CONDA_CHANNELS}}

Note:
The channels are needed only to create the environment for the test of the commands.
If there are no tests to be performed, the channels are not necessary.
However, if they get added when they are not needed it doesn't make any difference, so I would add them as a default.

[atteggiani]

Related to #7