curl errors with reject future index states test

[philderbeast]

I've noticed more than one failure of RejectFutureIndexStates/cabal.test.hs for Validate ubuntu-latest ghc-8.6.5 with a curl error:

-----BEGIN CABAL OUTPUT-----
Warning: Caught exception during _mirrors lookup:DnsNoData
-----END CABAL OUTPUT-----
-----BEGIN CABAL OUTPUT-----
Warning: No mirrors found for http://localhost:8000/
-----END CABAL OUTPUT-----
Selected mirror http://localhost:8000/
Downloading root
Running: /usr/bin/curl 'http://localhost:8000/root.json' --output /tmp/transportAdapterGet224304-2 --location --write-out '%{http_code}' --user-agent 'cabal-install/3.11.0.0 (linux; x86_64)' --silent --show-error --dump-header /tmp/curl-headers224304-3.txt
Waiting to acquire cache lock on /home/runner/work/cabal/cabal/cabal-testsuite/PackageTests/NewUpdate/RejectFutureIndexStates/cabal.dist/home/.cabal/packages/repository.localhost/hackage-security-lock
Acquired cache lock on /home/runner/work/cabal/cabal/cabal-testsuite/PackageTests/NewUpdate/RejectFutureIndexStates/cabal.dist/home/.cabal/packages/repository.localhost/hackage-security-lock
Released cache lock on /home/runner/work/cabal/cabal/cabal-testsuite/PackageTests/NewUpdate/RejectFutureIndexStates/cabal.dist/home/.cabal/packages/repository.localhost/hackage-security-lock
-----BEGIN CABAL OUTPUT-----
Downloading the latest package list from repository.localhost
-----END CABAL OUTPUT-----
Selected mirror http://localhost:8000/
Downloading timestamp
Running: /usr/bin/curl 'http://localhost:8000/timestamp.json' --output /tmp/transportAdapterGet224304-5 --location --write-out '%{http_code}' --user-agent 'cabal-install/3.11.0.0 (linux; x86_64)' --silent --show-error --dump-header /tmp/curl-headers224304-6.txt
Downloading snapshot
Running: /usr/bin/curl 'http://localhost:8000/snapshot.json' --output /tmp/transportAdapterGet224304-8 --location --write-out '%{http_code}' --user-agent 'cabal-install/3.11.0.0 (linux; x86_64)' --silent --show-error --dump-header /tmp/curl-headers224304-9.txt
Downloading mirrors
Running: /usr/bin/curl 'http://localhost:8000/mirrors.json' --output /tmp/transportAdapterGet224304-11 --location --write-out '%{http_code}' --user-agent 'cabal-install/3.11.0.0 (linux; x86_64)' --silent --show-error --dump-header /tmp/curl-headers224304-12.txt
dieVerbatim: user error (CallStack (from HasCallStack):
  withMetadata, called at src/Distribution/Simple/Utils.hs:439:12 in Cabal-3.11.0.0-inplace:Distribution.Simple.Utils
-----BEGIN CABAL OUTPUT-----
Error: cabal: '/usr/bin/curl' exited with an error:
curl: (56) Recv failure: Connection reset by peer
-----END CABAL OUTPUT-----

[philderbeast]

Another curl error for a related test, for NewUpdate/UpdateIndexState/update-index-state.test.hs:

-----BEGIN CABAL OUTPUT-----
Error: cabal: '/usr/local/opt/curl/bin/curl' exited with an error:
curl: (7) Failed to connect to localhost port 8000 after 0 ms: Couldn't connect to server
-----END CABAL OUTPUT-----

[ffaf1]

I found that relaunching the specific job fixes it, although this is obviously a workaround and not a solution.

[andreabedini]

I wrote withRemoteRepo and I acknowlege it's too fragile. I think we can switch the tests to use a secure repo with a local url. I'll give it a go.

[ulysses4ever]

#9540 seems stuck with the hardest problem in computer science -- Windows paths. To unblock many people tired of restarting pipelines, I submitted #9593 which disables the tests. This idea was coined at the last cabal meeting (2023-01-04).

[philderbeast]

Thanks @ulysses4ever #9593 will be a great help in getting pull requests through CI. Even with babysitting and restarting failed jobs, it was taking more than 6 hrs to get CI to run green. Some of that time would have been delays in noticing the failures.