concat keep attrs from first variable.

Fixes pydata#2060
Fixes pydata#2575

doc/whats-new.rst

@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ Breaking changes
 
 New Features
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
+- :py:func:`xarray.concat` now preserves attributes from the first Variable.
+  (:issue:`2575`, :issue:`2060`, :issue:`1614`)
+  By `Deepak Cherian <https://github.com/dcherian>`_.
 - :py:meth:`Dataset.quantile`, :py:meth:`DataArray.quantile` and ``GroupBy.quantile``
   now work with dask Variables.
   By `Deepak Cherian <https://github.com/dcherian>`_.

xarray/core/variable.py

@@ -1622,8 +1622,9 @@ def concat(cls, variables, dim="concat_dim", positions=None, shortcut=False):
         if not shortcut:
             for var in variables:
                 if var.dims != first_var.dims:
-                    raise ValueError("inconsistent dimensions")
-                utils.remove_incompatible_items(attrs, var.attrs)
+                    raise ValueError(
+                        f"Variable has dimensions {list(var.dims)} but first Variable has dimensions {list(first_var.dims)}"
+                    )
 
         return cls(dims, data, attrs, encoding)
 

xarray/tests/test_concat.py

@@ -462,3 +462,16 @@ def test_concat_join_kwarg(self):
         for join in expected:
             actual = concat([ds1, ds2], join=join, dim="x")
             assert_equal(actual, expected[join].to_array())
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("attr1", ({"a": {"meta": [10, 20, 30]}}, {"a": [1, 2, 3]}, {}))
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("attr2", ({"a": [1, 2, 3]}, {}))
+def test_concat_attrs_first_variable(attr1, attr2):
+
+    arrs = [
+        DataArray([[1], [2]], dims=["x", "y"], attrs=attr1),
+        DataArray([[3], [4]], dims=["x", "y"], attrs=attr2),
+    ]
+
+    concat_attrs = concat(arrs, "y").attrs
+    assert concat_attrs == attr1