test: let the interop suites find a Python that actually has h5py

Every Python interop suite had stopped running on this machine: the h5py
writer round-trips, the facade suite, netCDF4 and the reference files.
`python3` is 3.14, nothing on the box has h5py, and PEP 668 refuses to
install it into a system interpreter at all — so the availability probes
all returned false and each suite skipped without failing.

A silent skip here is exactly how the v5 compound-datatype bug reached a
release, so the probes now read `CLAWHDF5_PYTHON` and `ci-test.sh` picks
up `.venv/bin/python` on its own. The detection sits at the top of the
script rather than beside the interop step, because the non-ignored
suites run in the earlier `cargo test` step and would otherwise still
miss it. `CLAWHDF5_REQUIRE_INTEROP=1` continues to turn a skip into a
failure.

Verified against a venv with h5py 3.16 / HDF5 2.0.0: 94 interop tests
across the four suites, all passing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

scripts/ci-test.sh

@@ -20,6 +20,13 @@
 set -uo pipefail
 
 SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)"
+
+# Interop suites drive a Python interpreter. On a PEP 668 "externally managed"
+# system h5py can only live in a virtualenv, so pick one up here — before any
+# test step, since the non-ignored interop suites read the same variable.
+if [ -z "${CLAWHDF5_PYTHON:-}" ] && [ -x "$SCRIPT_DIR/../.venv/bin/python" ]; then
+    export CLAWHDF5_PYTHON="$SCRIPT_DIR/../.venv/bin/python"
+fi
 PASS=0
 FAIL=0
 STEPS=()
@@ -85,12 +92,18 @@ run_step "cargo test (ann parallel)" cargo test \
 
 # 5. Python interop suites. The h5py writer tests are #[ignore]d so a plain
 #    `cargo test` stays hermetic; run them explicitly here.
-if python3 -c "import h5py" >/dev/null 2>&1 || [ "${CLAWHDF5_REQUIRE_INTEROP:-0}" = "1" ]; then
+#    On a PEP 668 "externally managed" system h5py can only live in a
+#    virtualenv, so honour CLAWHDF5_PYTHON (and a local .venv) rather than
+#    skipping — the tests read the same variable.
+PYTHON="${CLAWHDF5_PYTHON:-python3}"
+if "$PYTHON" -c "import h5py" >/dev/null 2>&1 || [ "${CLAWHDF5_REQUIRE_INTEROP:-0}" = "1" ]; then
     run_step "h5py interop (format, ignored tests)" cargo test \
         -p clawhdf5-format --test writer_h5py_tests -- --include-ignored
 else
     echo ""
-    echo "==> [h5py interop] SKIPPED: python3 with h5py not available"
+    echo "==> [h5py interop] SKIPPED: no h5py in $PYTHON"
+    echo "    (set CLAWHDF5_PYTHON=/path/to/venv/bin/python, or create .venv;"
+    echo "     CLAWHDF5_REQUIRE_INTEROP=1 makes this a failure instead)"
     STEPS+=("SKIP: h5py interop (format, ignored tests)")
 fi