CLN: Deprecate reuse_metadata_rule argument

src/fmu/dataio/_metadata.py

@@ -139,10 +139,9 @@ class MetaData:
     def __post_init__(self) -> None:
         logger.info("Initialize _MetaData instance.")
 
-        # one special case is that obj is a file path, and dataio.reuse_metadata_rule is
-        # active. In this case we read the existing metadata here and reuse parts
-        # according to rule described in string self.reuse_metadata_rule!
-        if isinstance(self.obj, (str, Path)) and self.dataio.reuse_metadata_rule:
+        # one special case is that obj is a file path.
+        # In this case we read the existing metadata here and reuse parts
+        if isinstance(self.obj, (str, Path)) and self.dataio._reuse_metadata:
             logger.info("Partially reuse existing metadata from %s", self.obj)
             self.meta_existing = read_metadata_from_file(self.obj)
 
@@ -300,15 +299,10 @@ def _populate_meta_xpreprocessed(self) -> None:
             self.meta_xpreprocessed["subfolder"] = self.dataio.subfolder
 
     def _reuse_existing_metadata(self, meta: dict) -> dict:
-        """Perform a merge procedure if the key `reuse_metadata_rule` is active."""
-        if self.dataio and self.dataio.reuse_metadata_rule:
-            oldmeta = self.meta_existing
-            newmeta = meta.copy()
-            if self.dataio.reuse_metadata_rule == "preprocessed":
-                return glue_metadata_preprocessed(oldmeta, newmeta)
-            raise ValueError(
-                f"The reuse_metadata_rule {self.dataio.reuse_metadata_rule} is not "
-                "supported."
+        """Perform a merge procedure if input is a file i.e. `_reuse_metadata=True`"""
+        if self.dataio._reuse_metadata:
+            return glue_metadata_preprocessed(
+                oldmeta=self.meta_existing, newmeta=meta.copy()
             )
         return meta
 

src/fmu/dataio/dataio.py

@@ -279,8 +279,7 @@ class ExportData:
             "preprocessed" folder instead, and metadata will be partially re-used in
             an ERT model run. If a non-FMU run is detected (e.g. you run from project),
             fmu-dataio will detect that and set actual context to None as fall-back
-            (unless preprocessed is specified). If value is "preprocessed", see also
-            ``reuse_metadata`` key.
+            (unless preprocessed is specified).
 
         description: A multiline description of the data either as a string or a list
             of strings.
@@ -323,11 +322,6 @@ class ExportData:
             detected automatically from the FMU run. Can be used to override in rare
             cases. If so, numbers must be >= 0
 
-        reuse_metadata_rule: This input is None or a string describing rule for reusing
-            metadata. Default is None, but if the input is a file string or object with
-            already valid metadata, then it is assumed to be "preprocessed", which
-            merges the metadata after predefined rules.
-
         runpath: TODO! Optional and deprecated. The relative location of the current run
             root. Optional and will in most cases be auto-detected, assuming that FMU
             folder conventions are followed. For an ERT run e.g.
@@ -427,7 +421,7 @@ class ExportData:
     undef_is_zero: bool = False
     parent: str = ""
     realization: int = -999
-    reuse_metadata_rule: Optional[str] = None
+    reuse_metadata_rule: Optional[str] = None  # deprecated
     runpath: Optional[Union[str, Path]] = None
     subfolder: str = ""
     tagname: str = ""
@@ -447,11 +441,18 @@ class ExportData:
     _pwd: Path = field(default_factory=Path, init=False)
     _config_is_valid: bool = field(default=True, init=False)
     _fmurun: bool = field(default=False, init=False)
+    _reuse_metadata: bool = field(default=False, init=False)
 
     # << NB! storing ACTUAL casepath:
     _rootpath: Path = field(default_factory=Path, init=False)
 
     def __post_init__(self) -> None:
+        if self.reuse_metadata_rule:
+            warn(
+                "The 'reuse_metadata_rule' key is deprecated and has no effect. "
+                "Please remove it from the argument list.",
+                UserWarning,
+            )
         if self.verbosity != "DEPRECATED":
             warn(
                 "Using the 'verbosity' key is now deprecated and will have no "
@@ -627,12 +628,11 @@ def _check_obj_if_file(self, obj: types.Inferrable) -> types.Inferrable:
         """
 
         if isinstance(obj, (str, Path)):
-            if isinstance(obj, str):
-                obj = Path(obj)
+            obj = Path(obj)
             if not obj.exists():
                 raise ValidationError(f"The file {obj} does not exist.")
-            if not self.reuse_metadata_rule:
-                self.reuse_metadata_rule = "preprocessed"
+
+            self._reuse_metadata = True
 
             currentmeta = read_metadata(obj)
             if "_preprocessed" not in currentmeta:
@@ -671,9 +671,6 @@ def generate_metadata(
         Examples of such known types are XTGeo objects (e.g. a RegularSurface),
         a Pandas Dataframe, a PyArrow table, etc.
 
-        If the key ``reuse_metadata_rule`` is applied with legal value, the object may
-        also be a reference to a file with existing metadata which then will be re-used.
-
         Args:
             obj: XTGeo instance, a Pandas Dataframe instance or other supported object.
             compute_md5: If True, compute a MD5 checksum for the exported file.

src/fmu/dataio/providers/objectdata/_base.py

@@ -194,10 +194,7 @@ def _process_content(self) -> tuple[str | dict, dict | None]:
         # content == "unset" is not wanted, but in case metadata has been produced while
         # doing a preprocessing step first, and this step is re-using metadata, the
         # check is not done.
-        if self.dataio._usecontent == "unset" and (
-            self.dataio.reuse_metadata_rule is None
-            or self.dataio.reuse_metadata_rule != "preprocessed"
-        ):
+        if self.dataio._usecontent == "unset" and not self.dataio._reuse_metadata:
             allowed_fields = ", ".join(AllowedContent.model_fields.keys())
             warn(
                 "The <content> is not provided which defaults to 'unset'. "