[compare.py] Exclude certain meta-data from comparison

[chovyy]

It would be nice if the comparison tool has an option to configure which meta-data is included or excluded for comparison.

Background: The new FortrantTestGenerator (FTG) frontend always stores the memory address of a variable in a meta-data field called loc. This is done, because sometimes when working with FTG it is necessary to identify pointers that refer to the same variable. When comparing the results of multiple runs of the same program, those value are obviously different, but shall not count as deviation. My current workaround is to remove this information before using compare.py.

There would be several solutions:

• In general, only compare the standard meta-data (starting with __)
• Add option to include (additional) meta-data fields
• Add option to exclude meta-data fields
• Either by naming concrete fields or by regular expression
• ...

[havogt]

I would go with "option to exclude meta-data fields". Probably this does not have priority for us, so probably you or someone else from the FTG users would have to implement it.

[chovyy]

I will see if I can implement it once it's getting too annoying for me.

[chovyy]

To keep it consistent, I will make it the same way as the savepoint filter, that is by default all, but with option to include(!) only those matching a regular expression. Okay?

[clementval]

@chovyy sounds good