bug#32955: Cuirass: Some tests depend on 'guix-current', which makes them resource expensive

bug#32955: Cuirass: Some tests depend on 'guix-current', which makes them resource expensive

[Clément Lassieur]

Hi,

Tests depending on 'guix-current' are expensive in terms of CPU and
storage usage since we need to build (current-guix) and then store a
couple of full system images.

They are built at each evaluation because they depend on 'guix-current'.
(And they all fail.)

    test.btrfs-root-os.x86_64-linux
    test.encrypted-root-os.x86_64-linux
    test.installed-extlinux-os.x86_64-linux
    test.separate-home-os.x86_64-linux
    test.raid-root-os.x86_64-linux
    test.separate-store-os.x86_64-linux
    test.iso-image-installer.x86_64-linux
    test.installed-os.x86_64-linux
    
    test.btrfs-root-os.i686-linux
    test.encrypted-root-os.i686-linux
    test.installed-extlinux-os.i686-linux
    test.separate-home-os.i686-linux
    test.raid-root-os.i686-linux
    test.separate-store-os.i686-linux
    test.iso-image-installer.i686-linux
    test.installed-os.i686-linux

It seems that the reason is explained by that comment in
gnu/tests/install.scm:

    ;; Since the image has no network access, use the
    ;; current Guix so the store items we need are in
    ;; the image and add packages provided.

Is there another way to get those tests to work without depending on
'guix-current'?

Clément

bug#32955: Cuirass: Some tests depend on 'guix-current', which makes them resource expensive

[Clément Lassieur]

Clément Lassieur <clement@lassieur.org> writes:

> Hi,
>
> Tests depending on 'guix-current' are expensive in terms of CPU and
> storage usage since we need to build (current-guix) and then store a
> couple of full system images.
>
> They are built at each evaluation because they depend on 'guix-current'.
> (And they all fail.)

I understand that 'guix-current' is only built once at each evaluation,
of course.  And now I wonder: is it the same one that is built for
guix-modular?  In that case it's not really useless.

bug#32955: Cuirass: Some tests depend on 'guix-current', which makes them resource expensive

[Clément Lassieur]

Clément Lassieur <clement@lassieur.org> writes:

> Clément Lassieur <clement@lassieur.org> writes:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Tests depending on 'guix-current' are expensive in terms of CPU and
>> storage usage since we need to build (current-guix) and then store a
>> couple of full system images.
>>
>> They are built at each evaluation because they depend on 'guix-current'.
>> (And they all fail.)
>
> I understand that 'guix-current' is only built once at each evaluation,
> of course.  And now I wonder: is it the same one that is built for
> guix-modular?  In that case it's not really useless.

Closing it, because those builds are idle most of the time, until they
fail.

bug#32955: Cuirass: Some tests depend on 'guix-current', which makes them resource expensive

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Clément Lassieur <clement@lassieur.org> skribis:

> Tests depending on 'guix-current' are expensive in terms of CPU and
> storage usage since we need to build (current-guix) and then store a
> couple of full system images.

[...]

> Is there another way to get those tests to work without depending on
> 'guix-current'?

These tests are indeed expensive.  However the motivation here is
precisely to test a complete installation procedure using the current
Guix in the installation image.  If we were to change that we’d be
testing something different and much less interesting.

So I think there’s not much we can do here.

Does that make sense?

(Note that all the other system tests use just whatever snapshot the
‘guix’ package refers to, which is good enough for them because they
don’t test things where Guix itself is involved.)

Thanks,
Ludo’.

bug#32955: Cuirass: Some tests depend on 'guix-current', which makes them resource expensive

[Clément Lassieur]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Hello,
>
> Clément Lassieur <clement@lassieur.org> skribis:
>
>> Tests depending on 'guix-current' are expensive in terms of CPU and
>> storage usage since we need to build (current-guix) and then store a
>> couple of full system images.
>
> [...]
>
>> Is there another way to get those tests to work without depending on
>> 'guix-current'?
>
> These tests are indeed expensive.  However the motivation here is
> precisely to test a complete installation procedure using the current
> Guix in the installation image.  If we were to change that we’d be
> testing something different and much less interesting.
>
> So I think there’s not much we can do here.
>
> Does that make sense?

Yes it does :-)  Thank you for the reply!

> (Note that all the other system tests use just whatever snapshot the
> ‘guix’ package refers to, which is good enough for them because they
> don’t test things where Guix itself is involved.)
>
> Thanks,
> Ludo’.