Re: debci configuration is inconsistent, disrupts package migration

[Drew Parsons <dparsons@debian.org>]

On Tue, 2018-07-17 at 13:20 +0200, Graham Inggs wrote:
> Hi Drew
> 
> > On Tue, 17 Jul 2018, Drew Parsons wrote:
> > > The configuration of ci.debian.org is not consistent.   A failing
> > > test
> > > of deal.ii is marked on
> > > https://ci.debian.net/packages/d/deal.ii/testing/amd64/
> > > as triggered by petsc/3.9.3+dfsg1-2, but the test log shows that
...
> From the times in the logs, it appears that the test was run before
> deal.ii's binNMU happened [1].
> So the delay is only temporary.
> 
> As soon as the test is successful, the migration delay will
> disappear.
> 
> I've requested a retry for that test, so it should happen soon.


Thanks Graham. When we looked closer, the underlying problem was that
petsc (both 3.8 and 3.9) were built against openmpi 3.1.1, but the CI
test used openmpi 3.1.0. PETSc objects to the backwards version.

I've tightened up the petsc dependency in 3.9.3+dfsg1-3 which should
improve things.

Does this still count as an inconsistency in CI configuration? The test
is triggered by a package in unstable, but CI uses testing to actually
run the test.

Perhaps that's actually not a bad inconsistency. It gives an extra
layer of testing.  If the version difference between testing and
unstable really does matter (as it does for petsc/openmpi in this case)
then that problem should be declared in the versioned dependencies.

Drew