Time travel accident

[Konrad Hinsen <konrad.hinsen@fastmail.net>]

Hi everyone,

For doing some experiments with Python 3.8.2, I tried to use the commit
that introduced that version into Guix;

  guix time-machine --commit=ce35dc84a10b05dc891bfae03f613b907337945e \
   -- shell --pure python \
   -- python3

That fails, due to a build failure in OpenSSL:

   building /gnu/store/nh63q12x95irxyqzls0sfalf8ih5qass-openssl-1.1.1d.drv...
   | 'check' phasebuilder for `/gnu/store/nh63q12x95irxyqzls0sfalf8ih5qass-openssl-1.1.1d.drv' failed with exit code 1
   build of /gnu/store/nh63q12x95irxyqzls0sfalf8ih5qass-openssl-1.1.1d.drv failed
   View build log at '/var/log/guix/drvs/nh/63q12x95irxyqzls0sfalf8ih5qass-openssl-1.1.1d.drv.bz2'.

Inspecting the build log shows that the cause is a failing test:

   Test Summary Report
   -------------------
   ../test/recipes/80-test_ssl_new.t                (Wstat: 256 Tests: 29 Failed: 1)

That problem has been reported elsewhere and identified as caused by an
expired certificate:

   https://github.com/openssl/openssl/issues/18441


I guess there is nothing we can do retroactively to fix this, but can we
do something to prevent such issues in the future?

One idea is to allow disabling tests at the command line. I'd then run
"guix build" for that specific package with tests disabled, and
continue. That should be doable with a suitable package transformation.

Cheers,
  Konrad