Merge py-pandas, py-awscrt, texinfo, and ectrans bug fixes from release/1.5.1 (with mods from spack develop)

[climbfuji]

Summary

This PR brings the bug fixes for the packages listed above that went into release/1.5.1 first down to develop. There is a small update that is due to the modifications from spack develop (see JCSDA/spack#346 for the glorious details), namely the addition of the excel variant for py-pandas.

Note that we need to stick with [email protected] for a while, because I encountered build problems on my macOS with newer versions due to some complicated py-numba-llvm compiler dependencies.

Testing

• @climbfuji's macOS
• CI (ignore the failing container test, this is post-build when it is trying to post a message on the JCSDA CI slack channel, I haven't figured out why this works sometimes and sometimes not

Applications affected

JEDI applications, although py-pandas+excel is really only used in jedi-tools-env.

Systems affected

All systems that install the unified environment.

Dependencies

• waiting on Merge py-pandas, py-awscrt, texinfo, and ectrans bug fixes from release/1.5.1 (with mods from spack develop) spack#346

Issue(s) addressed

All Github issues were resolved when merging the updates into release/1.5.1, this is just bringing the improved and spack-sanctioned versions into develop. However, this PR does solve the current container CI failures for the Intel container (these run only twice a week on a nightly schedule using develop, errors are reported to the CI slack channel in the JCSDA workspace; see https://github.com/JCSDA/spack-stack/actions/runs/6516462554 for an example of a failed Intel container build).

Checklist

• This PR addresses one issue/problem/enhancement, or has a very good reason for not doing so.
• These changes have been tested on the affected systems and applications.
• All dependency PRs/issues have been resolved and this PR can be merged.