[Vm-dev] the purpose of CI

[Nicolas Cellier]

+1

Exactly what I named continuous desintegration in recent post
http://forum.world.st/OpenSmalltalk-opensmalltalk-vm-24bea9-Fix-compilation-of-SoundPlugin-on-Windows-td4947979.html



2017-05-28 15:46 GMT+02:00 Ben Coman <btc at openinworld.com>:

>
>
> Maybe I'm speaking out of turn from the sidelines, but just curious to ask
> a leading question...
>
> What is the purpose of the Continuous Integration system?
>
>
>
> I notice Travis has not had a green build for nearly 120 days
>    https://travis-ci.org/OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/builds
> since Build #603...
>    https://travis-ci.org/OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/builds/200671152
>
> I'd guess that makes it harder to identify which "new" commits introduce
> "new" defects.
> It was tough for me trying to categorise the historical failures to
> understand what might be required to make them green.
>
> For example, lately the usual failure has been just a single job...
>     macos32x64 squeak.sista.spur.
> which last worked 22 days ago in Build #713
>    https://travis-ci.org/OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/builds/228902233
> but there are other failures in builds that obscure that fact, way back to
> #603.
> Only an exhaustive search through all builds reveals this.
>
> For example, recent Build #748 has macos32x64 squeak.sista.spur as its
> only failure
>    https://travis-ci.org/OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/builds/236010112
> but then #750,#751, #752, #753 introduce other failures.
>
> Perhaps a contributing factor is commits being pushed directly to the
> server Cog branch,
> with CI tests only running after they are integrated.  I guess that was
> done to keep the workflow
> similar for those moving from subversion to git.   However it seems to
> lose some value of CI
> in "preventing" build failures from entering the repository.   After a
> year of using git maybe
> this workflow could be reconsidered? Perhaps turn turn on branch
> protection for administrators
> and "force" all commits to the server Cog branch to first pass CI testing?
>
> Of course needing to submit everything via PRs adds workflow overhead, but
> some workflows might minimise the impact.
> So I can't argue whether the benefit is worth it, since I'm not working in
> the VM every day.
> I'm just bumping the status quo to table the question for discussion.
>
> cheers -ben
>
> P.S. Should macos32x64 squeak.sista.spur be fixed, or temporarily removed
> from the build matrix?
> A continually failing build seems to serve no purpose, whereas green
> builds should be a great help to noticing new failures.
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/vm-dev/attachments/20170528/522ec109/attachment.html>