html_url,issue_url,id,node_id,user,created_at,updated_at,author_association,body,reactions,performed_via_github_app,issue https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/4209#issuecomment-656399210,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/4209,656399210,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDY1NjM5OTIxMA==,1217238,2020-07-09T23:28:30Z,2020-07-09T23:28:30Z,MEMBER,"> > The way `compute=False` currently works may be a little confusing. It doesn't actually delay creating files, it just delays writing the array data. > > Interesting... I always assumed that all operations (including file creation) were delayed. So, this is a feature and not a bug then? Well, there is certainly a case for file creation also being lazy -- it definitely is more intuitive! This was more of an oversight than an intentional omission. Metadata generally needs to be written from a single process, anyways, so we never got around to doing it with Dask. That said, there are also some legitimate use cases where it is nice to be able to eagerly write metadata only without any array data. This is what we were proposing to do with `compute=False` in `to_zarr`: https://github.com/pydata/xarray/pull/4035","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,653442225 https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/4209#issuecomment-656388313,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/4209,656388313,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDY1NjM4ODMxMw==,1217238,2020-07-09T22:50:16Z,2020-07-09T22:50:16Z,MEMBER,"The way `compute=False` currently works may be a little confusing. It doesn't actually delay creating files, it just delays writing the array data.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,653442225