github PRs keep breaking for me

github PRs keep breaking for me

[Laszlo Ersek]

Hi Mike,

(1) github stopped supporting my browser. I can no longer apply the push
label using my current browser. The "hub" cmdline utility does not seem
to support adding just a label to an existing PR.

(2) github closed my PR as a personal build (due to lack of the "push"
label), and now it even denies me the option to reopen the pull request.
I deleted and re-pushed the (identical) branch, which github noticed in
the PR, but it still wouldn't re-launch the CI build, or honor the
"push" label.

CI is good, but github+mergify have turned the merging of valid patch
series from a 3-second git-push command into repeated half-hour
nightmares. Sorry for the strong words, I'm livid.

Laszlo

Re: [edk2-devel] github PRs keep breaking for me

[Michael D Kinney]

Laszlo,

I understand your frustration.  Let's work on resolving 
these issues.

What browser are you using?  I would like the reproduce 
that issue and report to GitHub.  Do you a screen shot
where the labels button is not visibe?

Did you use the same branch name or a new branch name with
the same set of commits?  When I do a 2nd PR for the same
content, I use a new branch name.

The hub command is very flexible.  What commands did you try?

I want to root cause this issue.  I suspect it is more related
to Mergify than GitHub or Azure Pipelines.  There is a state 
machine that is watching statuses and the sequence of actions
you are using must be going into a state I did not test.
Are you able to provide the sequences of steps that got the
PR into a bad state and the approximate time between steps?

Thanks,

Mike

> -----Original Message-----
> From: devel@edk2.groups.io <devel@edk2.groups.io> On
> Behalf Of Laszlo Ersek
> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2020 2:06 PM
> To: Kinney, Michael D <michael.d.kinney@intel.com>
> Cc: edk2-devel-groups-io <devel@edk2.groups.io>; Sean
> Brogan <sean.brogan@microsoft.com>
> Subject: [edk2-devel] github PRs keep breaking for me
> 
> Hi Mike,
> 
> (1) github stopped supporting my browser. I can no
> longer apply the push
> label using my current browser. The "hub" cmdline
> utility does not seem
> to support adding just a label to an existing PR.
> 
> (2) github closed my PR as a personal build (due to
> lack of the "push"
> label), and now it even denies me the option to reopen
> the pull request.
> I deleted and re-pushed the (identical) branch, which
> github noticed in
> the PR, but it still wouldn't re-launch the CI build,
> or honor the
> "push" label.
> 
> CI is good, but github+mergify have turned the merging
> of valid patch
> series from a 3-second git-push command into repeated
> half-hour
> nightmares. Sorry for the strong words, I'm livid.
> 
> Laszlo
> 
> 
> 

Re: [edk2-devel] github PRs keep breaking for me

[Laszlo Ersek]

On 03/12/20 22:57, Kinney, Michael D wrote:
> Laszlo,
> 
> I understand your frustration.  Let's work on resolving 
> these issues.

I apologize for allowing my irritation to "leak out" to the list. It was
unprofessional. I was overworked / exhausted, sorry.

> What browser are you using?  I would like the reproduce 
> that issue and report to GitHub.

I'm using an older ESR release of Firefox. It's out of support even by
Mozilla (and github.com had been warning me for a while that they no
longer supported this version either). I'll send you the exact version
number later.

I refuse to upgrade my main workhorse Firefox browser to a more recent
version, because:

- more recent versions have a very annoying UI glitch (for example when
I use Right-Click to pull up the local / context menu, the first menu
item appears immediately under the mouse pointer, and as soon as I
release the right mouse button, the first entry in the context menu gets
activated at once. I basically can't just right click to pull up the
context menu, I have to "press, move left, release")

- my favorite extensions work no longer

- I only visit trusted sites.

I do have a fresh Firefox release installed too, with a separate
profile. It suffers from the above two issues (UI glitch, broken
extensions), but when I absolutely must interact with a website that
rejects my normal browser, this is what I use. That's how I managed to
merge the branch in question ultimately.

> Do you a screen shot where the labels button is not visibe?

I've tried to reproduce the issue right now, but I can't.

The symptom was the following (yesterday, when it failed):
- I clicked the "labels" gear
- a small dialog / widget appeared with some kind of flashing /
pulsating animation (likely fetching the list of possible labels?)
- yesterday, the github UI got stuck there -- pulsating animation, no
labels. However, when I tried the same with the recent Firefox release,
I got the labels (i.e., just the push label, which is the only one we
offer) at once.
- today I got the label offered after a very brief moment with the
pulsating animation even in my old ("normal") browser.

I could chalk the problem from yesterday up to a networking glitch, but
then I don't understand why it wouldn't work (yesterday) for multiple
attemtps / page reloads even, while (basically in parallel) it worked
with the new Firefox release at once.

Anyway -- I can't reproduce this any longer.

> Did you use the same branch name or a new branch name with
> the same set of commits?  When I do a 2nd PR for the same
> content, I use a new branch name.

I tried the same branch name (with the same commits) multiple times
(delete / push again / ...).

https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/pull/441

Then I decided to change both the commit hashes (I reworded a single
commit twice, forward and back), and the branch name. That worked. So I
didn't test either change (changed commit hash vs. differently named
branch) in isolation.

> 
> The hub command is very flexible.  What commands did you try?

I checked the manual / command line help.

- The "hub pr" command provides listing and local fetch / checkout. So
it didn't apply to my case.

- The "hub pull-request" command is documented as "Create a GitHub Pull
Request", and indeed when I invoked it just to get a command line help,
it complained that it couldn't find a local git repository (I didn't
invoke it in my local edk2 clone). I only wanted to manage an existent
PR (apply a label), so a local repo was unnecessary, and I gave up.

$ hub pull-request
fatal: Not a git repository

(Admittedly, if I pass "--help", it does give me help, regardless of my
current working directory.)

> I want to root cause this issue.  I suspect it is more related
> to Mergify than GitHub or Azure Pipelines.  There is a state 
> machine that is watching statuses and the sequence of actions
> you are using must be going into a state I did not test.
> Are you able to provide the sequences of steps that got the
> PR into a bad state and the approximate time between steps?

So ultimately what keeps confusing me is why the "reopen pull request"
button disappeared. When I look at #441, it's still not there.

Anyway, my steps were:

(1) push branch to my edk2 clone on github, with a local "git push" command

(2) from the remote's output in my terminal, copy & paste the "open pull
request for the branch you just pushed" github.com URL, into a new
browser window's URL bar

(3) I logged in, using my permanent password, and then the OTP. May have
taken 10-15 seconds.

(4) in the PR dialog, I pasted the blurb subject into the title field,
and copied a bugzilla URL and two mailing list URLs into the PR
description field. I also unchecked the "maintainer edits" checkbox.
This was likely the lengthiest part, because I had to collect and verify
the URLs I was pasting. I guess it may have taken 30-60 seconds. Then I
clicked "create PR".

(5) Once the list of CI steps appeared, I hunted down the labels gear at
once (I can never set the label before the PR actually exists -- I had
reported this before). But, the label didn't appear in the labels box
(see above).

(6) I raced to open the PR's URL in my "other" (more recent) browser, to
set the push label before CI would complete. It may have taken 10
seconds or so -- but I was late, because the patches were very small and
only for OVMF, so CI basically didn't have to rebuild anything. The PR
had been closed as a "successful personal build" by the time I got there
in the "recent" browser.

(7) this is when I started fiddling with the branch (deletion / pushing
again), after waiting for a while. And no matter what I did: while
github reported the deletion and restoration (in fact: re-pushing) of
the same branch, it wouldn't reopen the PR, and/or restart CI. So the
"push" label (set from my other browser meanwhile) didn't make a
difference. And I couldn't manually reopen the same PR.

Thanks
Laszlo


> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: devel@edk2.groups.io <devel@edk2.groups.io> On
>> Behalf Of Laszlo Ersek
>> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2020 2:06 PM
>> To: Kinney, Michael D <michael.d.kinney@intel.com>
>> Cc: edk2-devel-groups-io <devel@edk2.groups.io>; Sean
>> Brogan <sean.brogan@microsoft.com>
>> Subject: [edk2-devel] github PRs keep breaking for me
>>
>> Hi Mike,
>>
>> (1) github stopped supporting my browser. I can no
>> longer apply the push
>> label using my current browser. The "hub" cmdline
>> utility does not seem
>> to support adding just a label to an existing PR.
>>
>> (2) github closed my PR as a personal build (due to
>> lack of the "push"
>> label), and now it even denies me the option to reopen
>> the pull request.
>> I deleted and re-pushed the (identical) branch, which
>> github noticed in
>> the PR, but it still wouldn't re-launch the CI build,
>> or honor the
>> "push" label.
>>
>> CI is good, but github+mergify have turned the merging
>> of valid patch
>> series from a 3-second git-push command into repeated
>> half-hour
>> nightmares. Sorry for the strong words, I'm livid.
>>
>> Laszlo
>>
>>
>> 
> 

Re: [edk2-devel] github PRs keep breaking for me

[Rebecca Cran]

On 3/13/20 11:27 AM, Laszlo Ersek wrote:

>
> I checked the manual / command line help.
>
> - The "hub pr" command provides listing and local fetch / checkout. So
> it didn't apply to my case.


I don't know if it'll help, but it looks like there's a new 'gh' 
application that GitHub's working on: https://cli.github.com/ 
(https://github.com/cli/cli).

Personally, this all feels way over-complicated to me. I think some of 
the 'modern' ways of doing development have been a step backward.


-- 
Rebecca Cran

Re: [edk2-devel] github PRs keep breaking for me

[Laszlo Ersek]

Hi,

On 03/12/20 22:57, Michael D Kinney wrote:

> The hub command is very flexible.  What commands did you try?

github again failed to accept the "push" label when I tried to set it.

Unlike last time, the push label *is* offered to me in the small widget
to the right. When I click the label, it even gets a check mark.
However, the label isn't actually applied to the PR. No comment saying
"lersek set the 'push' label now" is generated, and the push label is
not displayed to the right, once the small search widget is closed.

I tried both the WebUI:

  https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/pull/672

and then the "hub" utility (with "--labels push"):

  https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/pull/673

In either case, the "push" label didn't take.

Frustrating.

> I want to root cause this issue.  I suspect it is more related
> to Mergify than GitHub or Azure Pipelines.  There is a state 
> machine that is watching statuses and the sequence of actions
> you are using must be going into a state I did not test.
> Are you able to provide the sequences of steps that got the
> PR into a bad state and the approximate time between steps?

I'm quite certain this is not related to mergify, as mergify's role
would be in the end, when all the checks pass. Mergify correctly
interprets the absence of the "push" label. The problem is that github
does not add the label, in spite of my actions.

Thanks
Laszlo

Re: [edk2-devel] github PRs keep breaking for me

[Laszlo Ersek]

On 06/09/20 23:37, Laszlo Ersek wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On 03/12/20 22:57, Michael D Kinney wrote:
> 
>> The hub command is very flexible.  What commands did you try?
> 
> github again failed to accept the "push" label when I tried to set it.
> 
> Unlike last time, the push label *is* offered to me in the small widget
> to the right. When I click the label, it even gets a check mark.
> However, the label isn't actually applied to the PR. No comment saying
> "lersek set the 'push' label now" is generated, and the push label is
> not displayed to the right, once the small search widget is closed.
> 
> I tried both the WebUI:
> 
>   https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/pull/672
> 
> and then the "hub" utility (with "--labels push"):
> 
>   https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/pull/673
> 
> In either case, the "push" label didn't take.
> 
> Frustrating.
> 
>> I want to root cause this issue.  I suspect it is more related
>> to Mergify than GitHub or Azure Pipelines.  There is a state 
>> machine that is watching statuses and the sequence of actions
>> you are using must be going into a state I did not test.
>> Are you able to provide the sequences of steps that got the
>> PR into a bad state and the approximate time between steps?
> 
> I'm quite certain this is not related to mergify, as mergify's role
> would be in the end, when all the checks pass. Mergify correctly
> interprets the absence of the "push" label. The problem is that github
> does not add the label, in spite of my actions.

I should note that the "Preview" tab on the PR creation page also
stopped working for me. I click it, and I can see my browser generating
network traffic, and nothing happens.

I'm 100% sure it's a github server side problem, as in the last few
hours, I've successfully merged three other PRs (669 through 671). And,
the Preview tab worked with each one of those fine.

Meanwhile, <https://www.githubstatus.com/> claims everything is "Normal". :/

(I'm not going to file an issue report with github.com, because the last
time I did so, namely ticket 592107 on March 7th, I got a response on
*May* 14th.)

Thanks
Laszlo

Re: [edk2-devel] github PRs keep breaking for me

[Laszlo Ersek]

On 06/09/20 23:51, Laszlo Ersek wrote:
> On 06/09/20 23:37, Laszlo Ersek wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> On 03/12/20 22:57, Michael D Kinney wrote:
>>
>>> The hub command is very flexible.  What commands did you try?
>>
>> github again failed to accept the "push" label when I tried to set it.
>>
>> Unlike last time, the push label *is* offered to me in the small widget
>> to the right. When I click the label, it even gets a check mark.
>> However, the label isn't actually applied to the PR. No comment saying
>> "lersek set the 'push' label now" is generated, and the push label is
>> not displayed to the right, once the small search widget is closed.
>>
>> I tried both the WebUI:
>>
>>   https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/pull/672
>>
>> and then the "hub" utility (with "--labels push"):
>>
>>   https://github.com/tianocore/edk2/pull/673
>>
>> In either case, the "push" label didn't take.
>>
>> Frustrating.
>>
>>> I want to root cause this issue.  I suspect it is more related
>>> to Mergify than GitHub or Azure Pipelines.  There is a state 
>>> machine that is watching statuses and the sequence of actions
>>> you are using must be going into a state I did not test.
>>> Are you able to provide the sequences of steps that got the
>>> PR into a bad state and the approximate time between steps?
>>
>> I'm quite certain this is not related to mergify, as mergify's role
>> would be in the end, when all the checks pass. Mergify correctly
>> interprets the absence of the "push" label. The problem is that github
>> does not add the label, in spite of my actions.
> 
> I should note that the "Preview" tab on the PR creation page also
> stopped working for me. I click it, and I can see my browser generating
> network traffic, and nothing happens.

Yet another symptom is that the PR creation page is stuck at "Checking
mergeability… Don’t worry, you can still create the pull request."

So I would say that nothing AJAX-y is working at the moment.

Thanks
Laszlo