[debian-mysql] Bug#1059904: mariadb autopkgtest "upstream" is flaky, time sink

[Chris Hofstaedtler]

Source: mariadb
Version: 1:10.11.6-1
Severity: important

Hi,

the "upstream" autopkgtest appears to be flaky. On various test runs
that I've inspected in the last few weeks, it often ended up with
the following message, and a re-run seemingly passed without any
other changes.

>  356s Only  1242  of 1240 completed.
...
> 356s Completed: Failed 3/1048 tests, 99.71% were successful.

Somehow it would seem great if these numbers would actually add up.
Also, from the log output I can see only *one* test marked as "[
fail ]". Even that one apparently gets retried automatically and
then passes?

But more importantly, if these tests cannot be made to pass or
succeed consistently, please mark them as flaky, as right now this
is just a waste of everybodys time. mariadb gets tested as part of
the migration tests for so many other packages, it's not funny.

Thanks,
Chris