Bug#995020: macaulay2: autopkgtest regression and flaky test: SIGSEGV

[Torrance, Douglas]

On Fri 24 Sep 2021 05:15:25 PM EDT, Torrance, Douglas <dtorrance at piedmont.edu> wrote:
> On Fri 24 Sep 2021 04:40:29 PM EDT, Paul Gevers <elbrus at debian.org> wrote:
>> Hi Torrance,
>>
>> On 24-09-2021 22:30, Torrance, Douglas wrote:
>>> I had noticed this as well.  My guess is that it has something to do with
>>> the transition of ntl.  libntl43 is in testing, and libntl44 recently
>>> appeared
>>> in unstable.  The unstable autopkgtests, using only libntl44, run without
>>> issue, e.g., [1], but the testing autopkgtests, which use both, have these
>>> segfaults.  We even see both soname versions appearing in the stacktrace:
>>
>> But as the transition isn't finished yet, we'd keep both versions of
>> libntl in testing. So, what's loading the old one?
>
> Possibly flint and/or singular?  Both are dependencies of Macaulay2 which
> also link against libntl, and both have also already gone through binNMU's
> for libntl44 in unstable.

I'm pretty certain this is the issue.  macaulay2 depends on both
libsingular4m1 and libflint-2.8.0, which in turn depend on libntl43 (in
testing) and libntl44 (in sid after recent binNMU's).  Once libntl44 and these
two binNMU's migrate, then I think the tests should work again like they do
in sid.

There's a problem though -- this macaulay2 autopkgtest regression is now
preventing ntl from migrating to testing! [1]  This seems like a chicken and
egg situation -- we need it to migrate for the tests to pass, but we need
the tests to pass for it to migrate...

Is there a good solution for this?  One very hacky idea would be to upload
a new macaulay2 package with a very basic autopkgtest that's guaranteed to
pass for the time being until everything migrates.  Is there a better solution?
Cc'ing the Debian Science list for suggestions.

Thanks!
Doug

[1] https://qa.debian.org/excuses.php?package=ntl
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