2022.06.04 23:35 "Re: [Tiff] Upgrade of CI image", by Greg Troxel

Our current CI is based upon Ubuntu 20.04. Now we have a new 22.04 LTS release out, I've added a new repository for this. Initial MR here:

https://gitlab.com/libtiff/libtiff-ci-ubuntu22.04/-/merge_requests/2

(Based on experience dealing with CI for unison, file sync not geo.)

I'm surprised by "replace 20.04 by 22.04". To me the point of CI is to build and run tests on all systems where tiff might reasonably run, or at least within the scope of where the README says it ought to run. I think that's something like "all reasonable mostly-POSIX systems that are still maintained, and have [minimal toolchain requirements]". Plus probably people use it on Windows, but I'm clueless about that :-)

In particular it's important to ensure that it still builds and works with the oldest tools that are documented to work. Packages that don't do that tend to depend on things they shouldn't, like features in gcc-N++ when N is specified, and things in Linux but not POSIX.

So I would suggest adding a job for 22.04 and leaving 20.04. And testing on 18.04 if that's as simple as another duplication. After that priorities would be other CPUs and other operating systems -- but CI farms tend to be very monoculturish, or at least triculturish.

All easier said than done, I know. And I know nothing about gitlab CI; my experience is with github because that's where unison was when I became maintainer.

Greg