Re: [PATCH] gitlab-ci: Remove unused container images

[Thomas Huth]

On 19/02/2021 13.00, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
> On 2/19/21 12:09 PM, Thomas Huth wrote:
> > We're building a lot of containers in the gitlab-CI that we never use.
> > This takes away network bandwidth and CPU time from other jobs for no
> > use, so let's remove them for now. The individual containers could be
> > re-added later when we really need them.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
> > ---
> >   .gitlab-ci.d/containers.yml | 92 -------------------------------------
> >   1 file changed, 92 deletions(-)
>
> I'm not enthusiast with this patch because I use various in this list
> from time to time for testing or cross build/disas binaries.

When I look at our current huge list of containers, I wonder how do we know 
which containers still get used (in the sense of not only build), and which 
ones are likely already bit-rotten? And why do we need that many containers? 
Why both, debian-arm64-test-cross.docker and debian-arm64-cross.docker and 
not combine them? And why do we need that many individual cross-compiler 
docker files if we already have debian-all-test-cross.docker that can be 
used to test most of them? ... for me, as a docker ignorant, this is all 
very opaque and some clean up IMHO could really help here.

> Not having
> these containers used mainstream probably show the failure of the
> project to add good testing coverage on these targets. Most of them are
> for hobbyist with little time. Removing them will make it even harder
> to add tests.

Do you really use the docker files from the gitlab registry? I'd rather 
expected that people build those locally in case they need them...?

> Can't we keep them disabled? Or put them in manual mode?

Well, I guess manual mode is fine, too, as long as they don't waste CPU 
cycles and network bandwidth anymore for most people who don't need them.

 Thomas