Blacklisting of PIM from the CI system

[Volker Krause]

sigh...

On Saturday, 30 November 2019 19:14:38 CET Ben Cooksley wrote:
[...]
> Which is where the problem with PIM comes in - because it currently
> has many repositories failing to build from source on all platforms
> those builds are enabled for (including Linux and FreeBSD).

looking at this right now, at least three errors seem transient (ie. a manual 
rebuild "fixed" them), one I can't explain yet is this one:

https://build.kde.org/job/Applications/view/Everything/job/kpimtextedit/job/
kf5-qt5%20SUSEQt5.12/39/console

This is about using new API in KF 5.65, but the use is guarded by a 
corresponding version check #ifdef. Which KF5 is the CI building against, 
latest release, latest master, or maybe something in between (the latter would 
explain this)?

I'll look through the rest as time permits.

> Given that the PIM project mailing list is emailed by the CI system,
> and that the changes in one case were pushed over 2 days ago, there is
> no excuse for this series of build failures.

I try to actively look at the CI state every 24h, however that sometimes fails 
when I'm on the road or otherwise busy. I do see the email notifications, but 
given the high number of transient failures (usually due to unfortunately 
timed dependency bumps), they are of limited use for me for raising an alarm 
in cases of actual breakage.

> In addition to all of the above, this round of updates was to lay the
> ground work for adding additional dependencies which are necessary for
> the builds of Digikam and SubtitleComposer to commence on the CI
> system for Windows. These failures by PIM have therefore indirectly
> harmed other KDE projects.
> 
> As this is not the first time that PIM has caused issues in this
> manner, I would therefore like to proceed with blacklisting PIM from
> the CI system. This would include prohibiting other projects from
> depending on any part of PIM, so those projects that have a required
> dependency on PIM would also have their builds removed by this.

Of course stuff tends to break more often when you look at 50+ actively 
developed repos compared to a single barely alive one. And yes, I do very well 
understand that this can be frustrating.

> Whilst I would prefer another solution to this, given that it is a
> recurring issue that makes maintenance of the CI system substantially
> harder, I see the removal of PIM from the equation as the only
> reasonable path forward.
> 
> Should the PIM developers wish to avoid this consequence for their
> actions, they will need to provide an action plan as to how this will
> be avoided in the future.

I cannot realistically promise more than what I am already doing on this (as 
outlined above), the combination of me not able to pay enough attention to the 
CI state and things blowing up in multiple repos on the same day is very rare 
though. If that's not enough, others need to help here as well.

> Fixing the current set of failures will not prevent this blacklisting
> action from being carried out - as a recurring issue it needs a
> permanent solution.

What do you envision this permanent solution to look like?

Regards,
Volker
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