Bug#848859: getfem++: FTBFS randomly (failing tests)

[Santiago Vila]

Package: src:getfem++
Version: 5.1+dfsg1-3
Severity: serious

Dear maintainer:

I tried to build this package in stretch with "dpkg-buildpackage -A"
(which is what the "Arch: all" autobuilder would do to build it)
but it failed:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
 debian/rules build-indep
dh build-indep --with python2 --parallel --with autoreconf
   dh_testdir -i -O--parallel
   dh_update_autotools_config -i -O--parallel
   dh_autoreconf -i -O--parallel
libtoolize: putting auxiliary files in '.'.
libtoolize: copying file './ltmain.sh'
libtoolize: putting macros in AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS, 'm4'.
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/libtool.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/ltoptions.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/ltsugar.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/ltversion.m4'
libtoolize: copying file 'm4/lt~obsolete.m4'

[... snipped ...]

Testing  ./gmm_torture10_qr.cc
Testing  ./gmm_torture15_sub.cc
============================================
|      An error has been detected !!!      |
============================================
Error in auto_gmm_torture15_sub.cc, line 68 : 
Error too large: 0.864692

g++ -Wall -g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/getfem++-c8buNu/getfem++-5.1+dfsg1=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -O3 -Wall -W -fmessage-length=0 -ftemplate-depth-100 -std=c++11 -fPIC -pedantic -Wshadow -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Wno-variadic-macros -Wno-unused-but-set-variable -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-qual -Wwrite-strings -Wconversion -Wredundant-decls -Wno-long-long -I./../src -I./../include -I../src -I../include auto_gmm_torture15_sub.cc -o auto_gmm_torture15_sub -lm

******************************************************
* Execution error, please submit this bug to
* Yves.Renard at insa-lyon.fr, with the file
* auto_gmm_torture15_sub.cc
* produced in directory "tests".
******************************************************
FAIL make_gmm_test.pl (exit status: 1)

============================================================================
Testsuite summary for getfem 5.1
============================================================================
# TOTAL: 30
# PASS:  29
# SKIP:  0
# XFAIL: 0
# FAIL:  1
# XPASS: 0
# ERROR: 0
============================================================================
See tests/test-suite.log
============================================================================
Makefile:1171: recipe for target 'test-suite.log' failed
make[4]: *** [test-suite.log] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory '/build/getfem++-c8buNu/getfem++-5.1+dfsg1/tests'
Makefile:1277: recipe for target 'check-TESTS' failed
make[3]: *** [check-TESTS] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory '/build/getfem++-c8buNu/getfem++-5.1+dfsg1/tests'
Makefile:1553: recipe for target 'check-am' failed
make[2]: *** [check-am] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/build/getfem++-c8buNu/getfem++-5.1+dfsg1/tests'
Makefile:543: recipe for target 'check-recursive' failed
make[1]: *** [check-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/build/getfem++-c8buNu/getfem++-5.1+dfsg1'
dh_auto_test: make -j1 check VERBOSE=1 returned exit code 2
debian/rules:3: recipe for target 'build-indep' failed
make: *** [build-indep] Error 2
dpkg-buildpackage: error: debian/rules build-indep gave error exit status 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above is just an example. The way it fails is not always the same.
The failure happens randomly. Sometimes it fails, sometimes it does not.

The failure rate is around 5%, so if you try to reproduce this,
please try a *lot* of times.

As a summary, these are the tests I've seen to fail:

FAIL make_gmm_test.pl (exit status: 1)
FAIL test_continuation.pl (exit status: 1)

I attach several build logs. 

Thanks.
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