Re: [XEN PATCH 3/3] CI: New stage "containers" to rebuild some containers

[Stefano Stabellini <sstabellini@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 18 Nov 2024, Anthony PERARD wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 15, 2024 at 04:34:21PM -0800, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
> > On Fri, 15 Nov 2024, Anthony PERARD wrote:
> > > Rebuild rolling release containers when XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS is
> > > set. This is to be use with a scheduled pipeline.
> > > 
> > > When $XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS is set, only build jobs related to the
> > > containers been rebuild will be executed.
> > > 
> > > Build jobs that are using one of the containers been rebuild should
> > > wait for the container to be rebuild. If it's a normal pipeline, those
> > > dependency are simply ignored.
> > 
> > This is a fantastic contribution, thanks Anthony!
> > 
> > I think we can simplify this patch by removing all stages except for
> > "containers" on the scheduled pipeline with XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS
> > set to true.
> > 
> > I think it is a good idea to have a special schedule pipeline for this,
> > and we should exploit the fact that it is special and only use it to
> > rebuild the containers. If we want to, we can have a second scheduled
> > pipeline to do a full normal run afterwards.
> > 
> > This way, there is no need to carry the changes to build.yaml or
> > test.yaml that are a bit hard to read/understand for someone unfamiliar
> > with gitlab. When XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS == true we only do the
> > containers stage.
> 
> So, you mean having this following change instead of make changes to
> build.yaml and test.yaml, right?
> 
>     diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
>     --- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
>     +++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
>     @@ -14,7 +14,15 @@ stages:
>        - test
>      
>      include:
>     -  - 'automation/gitlab-ci/containers.yaml'
>     -  - 'automation/gitlab-ci/analyze.yaml'
>     -  - 'automation/gitlab-ci/build.yaml'
>     -  - 'automation/gitlab-ci/test.yaml'
>     +  - local: 'automation/gitlab-ci/containers.yaml'
>     +    rules:
>     +      - if: $XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS
>     +  - local: 'automation/gitlab-ci/analyze.yaml'
>     +    rules:
>     +      - if: $XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS == null
>     +  - local: 'automation/gitlab-ci/build.yaml'
>     +    rules:
>     +      - if: $XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS == null
>     +  - local: 'automation/gitlab-ci/test.yaml'
>     +    rules:
>     +      - if: $XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS == null
> 
> 
> Or I guess we can also compare to the string "true" and write the
> expression as
>     if: $XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS == "true"
> and
>     if: $XEN_CI_REBUILD_CONTAINERS != "true"

Yes exactly, either one of the above is fine!

It is much simpler and clearer than having to add (admittedly
non-obvious) checks to build.yaml and test.yaml.

Thanks!