[WIP] fail when repository cannot init

[tomkralidis]

Overview

This PR causes pycsw to fail on repository initialization if a connection cannot be made to the underlying metadata repository (current behaviour fails silently on repository init, and provides misleading error on subsequent interactions with self.repository).

Related Issue / Discussion

None

Additional Information

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Contributions and Licensing

(as per https://github.com/geopython/pycsw/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.rst#contributions-and-licensing)

• I'd like to contribute [feature X|bugfix Y|docs|something else] to pycsw. I confirm that my contributions to pycsw will be compatible with the pycsw license guidelines at the time of contribution.
• I have already previously agreed to the pycsw Contributions and Licensing Guidelines

[tomkralidis]

@epifanio see the 3 commits in this PR which represent different approaches that you can test in your deployment when you have a chance:

• 2391ff9: IMHO this will not work because the repo init will fail on the first load
• 0bd11f5: pycsw fails fast, and the server will not start (hard stop). Not sure if this is too strict of an approach
• a289909: raises on last attempt, throws error (server will not start, hard stop)

cc @kalxas @ricardogsilva

[DK96-OS]

Only 0bd11f5 makes sense in the while loop context. The other commits would be better if they removed the while loop.

[github-actions]

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[tomkralidis]

Still valid/in scope.