this variable should not be required (for e3sm)

[jedwards4b]

Description

The variable DRV_RESTART_POINTER is only provided by cmeps and should not be required for the ERR test

• Closes ERR doesn't work for E3SM #4961

Checklist

• My code follows the style guidelines of this project (black formatting)
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• My changes generate no new warnings
• I have added tests that exercise my feature/fix and existing tests continue to pass
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• I have made corresponding additions and changes to the documentation

Please confirm that this solves the issue for E3SM.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 30.50%. Comparing base (28fe4b5) to head (4632016).
⚠️ Report is 42 commits behind head on master.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master    #4962      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   28.29%   30.50%   +2.21%     
==========================================
  Files         262      131     -131     
  Lines       38384    19258   -19126     
  Branches     8126     4075    -4051     
==========================================
- Hits        10860     5875    -4985     
+ Misses      26276    12755   -13521     
+ Partials     1248      628     -620     

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[jasonb5]

@jedwards4b I'll check this out today. Thanks!

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR updates the ERR system test to avoid requiring the DRV_RESTART_POINTER case variable (which is only present for some coupler configurations), enabling ERR to run for E3SM where this variable may be absent.

Changes:

• Guard setting DRV_RESTART_POINTER so ERR doesn’t error when the variable is undefined.
• Continue restoring from the archived restart directory without forcing a NUOPC-only variable.

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[Copilot]

Consider using the existing helper self._set_drv_restart_pointer(...) here instead of duplicating the support check and calling self._case.set_value(...) directly. That keeps DRV_RESTART_POINTER handling consistent across system tests (including the log message) and centralizes the conditional behavior in one place.

Suggested change

	if self._drv_restart_pointer:
	self._case.set_value("DRV_RESTART_POINTER", "rpointer.cpl." + rest_dir)
	self._set_drv_restart_pointer("rpointer.cpl." + rest_dir)

[Copilot]

This change introduces a new conditional behavior that is important for E3SM (skipping DRV_RESTART_POINTER when the variable is not provided). Please add a unit test that constructs an ERR test with a case mock where get_value('DRV_RESTART_POINTER') is None and asserts that set_value('DRV_RESTART_POINTER', ...) is not called during _case_two_custom_prerun_action (and that the method still restores from archive as expected).

[jasonb5]

Verified the ERR test now runs correctly for E3SM.

[jasonb5]

LGTM

[rljacob]

Thanks for taking care of this, @jedwards4b