Vincent Bernat writes ("Re: Help requested: Packages which FTBFS randomly"):
> ❦ 20 février 2017 21:13 GMT, Ian Jackson <ijack...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> :
> > With the correct infrastructure (which is not that hard) the causes
> > can be completely eliminated. I don't ever experience random build
> > failures of any of my own packages and if I did I would hunt them down
> > with a vengeance.[1]
>
> Good for you.
>
> https://tests.reproducible-builds.org/debian/rbuild/unstable/armhf/autopkgtest_4.3.rbuild.log
Thanks for the reminder that I should probably ask to be removed from
Maintainers for that package. Martin Pitt has been doing most of the
work, I don't seem to be seeing eye to eye with him lately.[1]]
> It's also quite easier to not have a problems with reliable tests when
> most of your packages don't have tests.
I didn't say all my tests were reliable. Did you miss my mention of
the dgit test suite ? I know quite what it's like to have a heisenbug
in the test suite, in a program which you don't maintain, and whose
upstream denies that there can possibly be any races.[2]
There is no excuse for leaving an unreliable test as an FTBFS.
They're a nuisance for QA folks, trouble for downstreams, and a
landmine for users.
Ian.
[1] https://bugs.debian.org/833407
[2] Luckily another upstream developer eventually came to the rescue
and now the failure probability is down to about one in 10-20 runs of
dgit's adt tests.
