Replace svn by git in GitHub actions

[amaltaro]

Fixes #11748

Status

ready

Description

Deprecate svn from the github workflows and instead adopt git sparse-checkout for fetching only the relevant subfolders from the repository.

Documentation on the sparse-checkout can be found at: https://github.blog/2020-01-17-bring-your-monorepo-down-to-size-with-sparse-checkout/

Is it backward compatible (if not, which system it affects?)

YES

Related PRs

None

External dependencies / deployment changes

None

[vkuznet]

In my view it is more complicated and error prone than pure REST API. Said that there is nothing wrong with this approach, but based on previous git history git is not always backward compatible and options used in this approach may diverge in a future.

[cmsdmwmbot]

Jenkins results:

• Python3 Unit tests: failed
  • 4 new failures
  • 1 changes in unstable tests
• Python3 Pylint check: succeeded
• Pylint py3k check: succeeded
• Pycodestyle check: succeeded

Details at https://cmssdt.cern.ch/dmwm-jenkins/view/All/job/DMWM-WMCore-PR-test/14764/artifact/artifacts/PullRequestReport.html

[amaltaro]

unit test failures are unrelated.

Valentin, you have a point here. The sparse-checkout feature was added in 2021.
I would say, if we have another problem with the git approach in the coming year or two, it's probably better to adopt the curl approach, as you mentioned here: #11748 (comment)

Thank you for the prompt review!