[CI][C#] Verification jobs for C# are currently failing

[raulcd]

Describe the bug, including details regarding any error messages, version, and platform.

Tests are failing with several errors that seem to be related to (see the logs for more details):

 ----- Inner Stack Trace -----
   at Apache.Arrow.Tests.CDataSchemaPythonTest.PythonNet..ctor() in /Users/runner/work/crossbow/crossbow/arrow/csharp/test/Apache.Arrow.Tests/CDataInterfacePythonTests.cs:line 48
   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Void** arguments, Signature sig, Boolean isConstructor)
   at System.Reflection.MethodBaseInvoker.InvokeWithNoArgs(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr)
  Failed Apache.Arrow.Tests.CDataSchemaPythonTest.ImportSchema [1 ms]
  Error Message:
   Class fixture type 'Apache.Arrow.Tests.CDataSchemaPythonTest+PythonNet' threw in its constructor

Job failures:

• verify-rc-source-csharp-linux-almalinux-8-amd64
• verify-rc-source-csharp-linux-conda-latest-amd64
• verify-rc-source-csharp-linux-ubuntu-20.04-amd64
• verify-rc-source-csharp-linux-ubuntu-22.04-amd64
• verify-rc-source-csharp-macos-amd64
• verify-rc-source-csharp-macos-arm64

The failures started when those commits were merged:
ff9921f...f904928
There are several bump versions from dependabot on those that involves C#.

Component(s)

C#, Continuous Integration

[raulcd]

@CurtHagenlocher @adamreeve @eerhardt any idea what is happening? this is a blocker for 17.0.0

[CurtHagenlocher]

The inner exception seems to be "Xunit.SkipException : PYTHONNET_PYDLL not set; skipping C Data Interface tests". This would happen if the environment variable PYTHONNET_PYDLL was not set on the VM image and is independent of any changes to product code. Something must have changed in the VM configurations?

[adamreeve]

It looks like these tests are supposed to be skipped in the verification jobs:

arrow/csharp/test/Apache.Arrow.Tests/CDataInterfacePythonTests.cs

Line 39 in 6680dcf

bool inVerificationJob = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEST_CSHARP") == "1";

arrow/csharp/test/Apache.Arrow.Tests/CDataInterfacePythonTests.cs

Lines 42 to 44 in 6680dcf

	if (inCIJob && !inVerificationJob && !pythonSet)
	{
	throw new Exception("PYTHONNET_PYDLL not set; skipping C Data Interface tests.");

Maybe the TEST_CSHARP environment variable is no longer being set, or it's now set to something other than "1"?

[adamreeve]

Actually the logs show that these are throwing an Xunit.SkipException rather than an Exception so it seems like the check for inVerificationJob is correct, but the skip is being incorrectly treated as an error.

So I think this is probably due to the either #41842 or #41848

[adamreeve]

I can reproduce this locally and the tests pass (are skipped properly) if I revert #41842

[adamreeve]

I've created a bug for xunit: xunit/xunit#2965

[CurtHagenlocher]

I guess I don't have a firm grasp on the semantics of TEST_CSHARP or GITHUB_ACTIONS. These tests should certainly be run for at least some of the CI/checkin tests but perhaps not for all of them?

In any event, the xunit change is clearly a bug.

[raulcd]

I can reproduce this locally and the tests pass (are skipped properly) if I revert #41842

Should we revert this temporarily for the release and create a follow up issue to update once the downstream issue is fixed?

[adamreeve]

Should we revert this temporarily for the release and create a follow up issue to update once the downstream issue is fixed?

Yes I think that makes sense, I've made #43074 to revert the update and #43076 for the follow up.

[kou]

Issue resolved by pull request 43074
#43074