[RFC] Closing pull requests while a new build is starting causes failures

[maldoinc]

Build failures often indicate a fault with the software being built such as compilation or test failures. However, there is a subset of build failures (called environmental or non-verification failures) that are not expected within a standard application development lifecycle, such as build configuration failures, dependency resolution failures, infrastructure failures, and so on.

Problem: One type of environmental failure is due to due to git references being no longer available at the time a build job starts. For example, pull requests are merged shortly before the start of the scheduled build, causing a build failure due to an unfound (because merged) branch. In your project, we detected 36 failures of this type over the May-June timespan. For instance, we found that Build #11849 did not pass due to the above issue.

Solution: It is generally recommended to wait for the build results before merging a pull request. If you wish to skip builds you may also use the SKIP CI tag in your commit message. Additionally, it is also possible to skip builds containing non-code changes as shown in this example and below:

+ before_install:
+  - |
+      if ! git diff --name-only $TRAVIS_COMMIT_RANGE | grep -qvE '(.md)|(.png)|(.pdf)|(.html)|^(LICENSE)|^(docs)'
+      then
+        echo "Only doc files were updated, not running the CI."
+        exit
+      fi

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Disclaimer: I developed a tool that repairs environmental build failures and I am now evaluating its usefulness for open-source projects.

Please up/downvote the issue to indicate whether you agree/disagree with the report and the proposed fix.

[github-actions]

To provide a cleaner slate for the maintenance of the library, this PR/Issue is being labeled stale after 60 days without activity. It will be closed in 14 days unless you comment with an update regarding its applicability to the current build. Thank you!