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[Heather Ellsworth <2002455@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This debdiff is for a package built with patches unapplied.

** Attachment added: "debdiff-kinetic_old_new1.txt"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/autopkgtest/+bug/2002455/+attachment/5640801/+files/debdiff-kinetic_old_new1.txt

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2002455

Title:
  [SRU] autopkgtest missing -a ARCH + pocket priority pinning

Status in autopkgtest package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in autopkgtest source package in Kinetic:
  New

Bug description:
  [Impact]

  This SRU has two main impacts: cross-architecture testing, and pocket
  pinning

  1. cross-architecture testing

  autopkgtest currently does not have the -a ARCH capability needed to
  permit cross-architecture testing. This is notably useful for i386
  local testing [0] and was noted to be missing since the focal release.

  The goal is to be able to create an amd64 VM where autopkgtest can run
  on an i386 package.

  There was an existing patchset for this functionality from ~3 years
  ago that needed tweaking and is in a working state now[1].

  2. pocket pinning (blurb copied from commit[2])

  Ubuntu is switching to NotAutomatic: yes for the proposed pocket:
  the change is already operative on >= Lunar and under consideration
  for older stable releases. This means that by default packages from
  -proposed won't be installed unless explicitly requested.

  The change is meant to make it easier for end users to keep -proposed
  enabled (for SRU verification or individual package installation)
  without manually adding a pin to avoid pulling in all of -proposed.

  However when running autopkgtests with --apt-pocket=proposed we do want
  to pull in all the pocket, so let's always give it Pin-Priority: 500.
  This is similar to what Launchpad does with the buildds.

  Note: This change does not really treat -proposed in a special way:
  any pocket will get Pin-Priority: 500. It makes sense to keep the tool
  behavior consistent, and we're not aware of cases where this could be
  cause issues.

  [0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/i386
  [1] https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release/autopkgtest/+git/development/+merge/376169
  [2] https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release/autopkgtest/+git/development/commit/?id=c92df58ae5f3bc55aa58bbfb93ca60cb38b2615c

  [ Test Plan ]

  1. cross-architecture testing

  Create an amd64 VM where autopkgtest can run on an i386 package:

  ## Generate the VM
  $ sudo autopkgtest-buildvm-ubuntu-cloud -a amd64 -r kinetic -s 15G

  ## Run autopkgtest on the i386 vlc package, finishes quickly
  ## Note that you should run the autopkgtest binary directly (so use the path to your
  ## runner/autopkgtest) and point to the .img file created in the last step
  $ sudo ~/autopkgtest-5.25ubuntu2/runner/autopkgtest --setup-commands="dpkg --add-architecture i386; apt-get update" --architecture i386 vlc  -- qemu --ram-size=1536 --cpus 2 ~/autopkgtest-kinetic-amd64.img

  A passing result  looks like autopkgtest setting up the testbed and
  launching the tests while a failing result looks something like this:

  autopkgtest: error: unrecognized arguments: --architecture

  2. pocket pinning testing

  Using the --apt-pocket=proposed option, you should see that the
  proposed pocket is used when running autopkgtests.

  Also if there are any packages in proposed, then you should be able to
  track the pocket and update without pulling in any proposed packages.

  [ Where problems could occur ]

  1. cross-architecture testing
  It is possible for the img file to find itself in a bad state, affecting the tests run, but simply recreating the VM is a quick fix. Without this patchset i386 testing less accessible, since i386 hardware is required, so the improvement greatly outweighs potentially introduced risk.

  2. pocket pinning
  We are not aware of any issues that may arise from this patch.

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