Travis Build Failures in Robot WB

[wandererfan]

I see a couple of Travis failures in gcc/py2 builds - PR2552 and
PR2551 - that are related to Robot WB.

Should we be concerned?

Code: Select all

CMakeFiles/Robot.dir/Robot6Axis.cpp.o: file not recognized: File truncated
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
src/Mod/Robot/App/CMakeFiles/Robot.dir/build.make:1262: recipe for target 'Mod/Robot/Robot.so' failed
make[2]: *** [Mod/Robot/Robot.so] Error 1
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:2978: recipe for target 'src/Mod/Robot/App/CMakeFiles/Robot.dir/all' failed
make[1]: *** [src/Mod/Robot/App/CMakeFiles/Robot.dir/all] Error 2
make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

[vocx]

Should we be concerned?

Robot hasn't been touched by people in years. Werner recently edited a few things to force strict ISO C++ compliance.

https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/comm ... 63f54f375c

Before that, I remember pull request #2428, just to remove compiler warnings, nothing major.

But other than that, Robot compiles fine. It's only in Travis that it fails. Also, no error message with a specific line of code, just "File truncated". What does this mean?

File not recognized: File truncated GCC error

Just remove the object file.

This error most likely appeared after the previous build was interrupted and object file was not generated completely.

Your CI system should not run incremental builds. Developers cannot afford to wait for a clean build after every edit; conversely a CI system cannot afford the lack of reliability inherent to incremental builds.

I don't think FreeCAD uses incremental builds, but maybe somebody should check? Who's responsible?

Another problem (with the same error) could be, that you are using the ccache for faster compilation. In this case, the corrupt *.o file is there as well. So for that reason you have to clean the cache with

ccache -C (note the upper case C!)

I think FreeCAD does use ccache in Travis, no?

[wmayer]

I also think it's a problem with ccache and that the object file is broken for some reason. Years ago I had a similar problem with ccache and I ended up in disabling ccache and removing its directory.

What we could try is to slightly modify the file Robot6Axis.cpp in the hope that the object file will be re-created.

[sgrogan]

What we could try is to slightly modify the file Robot6Axis.cpp in the hope that the object file will be re-created.

I have permissions to delete the cache if desired. Let me know.

[wmayer]

git commit d40b4f66a improves some white spaces of Robot6Axis.cpp.
If the build then still fails please go ahead and clean-up the cache.

[triplus]

Yes, this is a problem with ccache. Whenever "File truncated" issue is detected in the log file on Travis:

I have permissions to delete the cache if desired. Let me know.

This should resolve it. A bit of background, on why such issue can occur from time to time:

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38657

Bionic (GCC) toolchain is slightly slower, compared to the Trusty one. 2 h 30 min time limit, currently set, therefore isn't enough anymore, to compile FreeCAD. A workaround is currently being used, that forcefully stops the build procedure at around 2 h 15 min. That gives Travis enough time to still upload created ccache. Restarting the build, or one of the next scheduled builds, will be able to use the existing ccache, and to complete faster. Now one of the possible issues, forcibly terminnating the build, can be the mentioned issue. On a local build such file can simply get deleted, on Travis, the easiest solution is to clear ccache.

P.S. Ideally somebody will ask Travis people if they can extend the time limit to 3 h. If granted, the workaround can get removed and we get to compile FreeCAD again without such potential issues. That is until FreeCAD grows again, and exceeds 3 h limit.