Transitioning away from Boots

[gctucker]

KernelCI has been running boot tests for years. We're now ready to transition to functional tests, including a baseline test plan which is the equivalent of boot-to-login-prompt tests plus some extra sanity checks. Dropping support for boot tests will simplify a lot of the code in kernelci-backend and kernelci-frontend, and we need to keep making progress on this but without confusing KernelCI users. Below is the schedule for doing this smoothly before the v5.8 merge window:

• 12th May

  • Email sent to relevant mailing lists with summary of the schedule:
    https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/66aae710-1ee9-fb67-1a1b-997eeb70dc04@collabora.com/
    • kernelci@groups.io
    • kernel-build-reports@lists.linaro.org
    • automated-testing@lists.yoctoproject.org
    • linux-next@vger.kernel.org
    • stable@vger.kernel.org
    • + all other recipients of boot email reports taken from the kernel-arch-complete.sh script
  • staging running exact same version as what production will be running on 18th May, freezing for 4 working days to fix any last minute issues we may find

• 18th May

  • New Tests tab rolled out on kernelci.org and all views updated to show test results rather than boots
  • Boots tab still available but marked as deprecated and new Tests tab moved next to Builds
  • Frame added to all the views under the Boots tab saying they will be removed on 5th June
  • Paragraph added to boot email reports explaining that they will stop on 5th June
  • Links to corresponding baseline results added to boot email reports, in addition to the "legacy" boot links
  • Test email report template simplified to only show regressions and links to frontend test views
  • staging goes back to development mode with all open pull requests being deployed

• 1st June

  • staging freeze until production update on 5th June

• 5th June

  • Boots tab link now points to Tests with ?baseline filter
  • Boot email reports are stopped, all former recipients now receive baseline reports instead
  • Boot tests stop to be run in labs

• 26th June

  • Boots views are fully removed from frontend

[gctucker]

Leaving the boot views actually available on the frontend for a bit longer, to avoid broken links from boot emails and also get the time to check there are no regressions when deleting the code.

[gctucker]

All the boot views have now been removed.