Re: [PATCH] tests/acceptance/ppc_prep_40p: Use cdn.netbsd.org hostname

[Willian Rampazzo]

> That certainly sounds like an improvement.  I still don't love the
> idea that the test results will vary based on something outside of the
> tested code, even if a cancel is definitely better than a fail.

During the development of Avocado release 76.0, we have discussed how
to implement a new resolver that gathers requirements listed for a
test and fulfills them before the test starts. The discussion resulted
in blueprint BP002 [1]. We are in the last development week of release
77.0, so the development of this new feature should start during the
next release cycle.

>
> > +Willian can explain how it works, and if found to be suitable, and work
> > on a patch.
>
> Ok.  That would be good to know - will there be some command to run in
> advance to attempt to download all the necessary images?  Would that
> run without a timeout - or at least a much longer timeout than the
> testcase itself has.

In the current release development (77.0), we are adding a feature
that makes it possible to cancel a test if an asset is not available
in the cache. It should be as simple as setting two parameters during
the fetch call, like:

bios_path = self.fetch_asset(bios_url, asset_hash=bios_hash,
find_only=True, cancel_on_missing=True)

Release 77.0 of Avocado is scheduled for the beginning of next week.
As soon as it is available, I can send a patch to bump the Avocado
version for qemu tests and a patch to this test enabling this new
feature.

Since avocado 73.0, it is possible to fetch the assets from a test
without actually running the test. It is a feature that parses the
test code looking for the fetch_asset call and its parameters defined
as variables, at a limited depth. I have tested it on ppc_prep_40p.py,
and it works as expected. This command does not have a timeout for
fetching the assets and is as follows:

avocado assets fetch ppc_prep_40p.py

The upcoming feature to cancel the test when an asset is not available
used in conjunction with the command line fetch should give some
flexibility to people running this test while the resolver is under
development.

[1] https://avocado-framework.readthedocs.io/en/latest/blueprints/BP002.html