Simple loadtest on RHEL now failing because of ImportError on cffi

[jbonacci]

Well this also seems to be new.
Following basic steps to "npm install" the master branch of picl-idp
then
make build
make test
Gets me this on both AWS (rhel) and SciLinux (rhel):

./bin/loads-runner --hits=1 --external-process-timeout=30 --test-runner="pwd/lib/loads.js/runner.js {test}" "pwd/loadtests.js"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./bin/loads-runner", line 9, in
load_entry_point('loads==0.3', 'console_scripts', 'loads-runner')()
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 378, in load_entry_point
return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2566, in load_entry_point
return ep.load()
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2260, in load
entry = import(self.module_name, globals(),globals(), ['name'])
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/loads/init.py", line 4, in
from loads.case import TestCase # NOQA
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/loads/case.py", line 6, in
from loads.results import LoadsTestResult, UnitTestTestResult
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/loads/results/init.py", line 3, in
from loads.results.zmqrelay import ZMQTestResult # NOQA
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/loads/results/zmqrelay.py", line 5, in
import zmq.green as zmq
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/zmq/init.py", line 62, in
from zmq.backend import *
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/zmq/backend/init.py", line 22, in
_ns = select_backend('zmq.backend.cffi')
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/zmq/backend/select.py", line 31, in select_backend
mod = import(name, fromlist=public_api)
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/zmq/backend/cffi/init.py", line 12, in
from zmq.backend.cffi import (constants, error, message, context, socket,
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/zmq/backend/cffi/constants.py", line 4, in
from ._cffi import C, c_constant_names
File "/home/ec2-user/picl-idp/loadtest/lib/python2.6/site-packages/zmq/backend/cffi/_cffi.py", line 18, in
from cffi import FFI
ImportError: No module named cffi
make: *** [test] Error 1

I do not remember seeing this before...

[jbonacci]

Duplicated on AWS (second attempt), SciLinux 6.4, and Fedora 19.
Not an issue for Mac or Ubuntu 13-10.

[rfk]

It looks like a new major version of pyzmq was relased a few days ago (v14.0.0) so my first guess is some compatibility problem with the new lib. /cc @tarekziade @ametaireau in case they're seen this before.

[rfk]

@jbonacci if you have a pastebin of the make build output for this one that would be very helpful. It looks like the cython zmq backend failed to compile for some reason, so it's trying to call back to the cffi backend, which is also failing.

[jbonacci]

I will generate some new ones as soon as this is working again:
https://registry.npmjs.org/

I keep getting errors during the "make build" step do to server issues at that site.
http://status.npmjs.org/
https://twitter.com/npmjs

[jbonacci]

@rfk
OK, here you go:
AWS box - "make build" :
Part One: https://jbonacci.pastebin.mozilla.org/3431386
Part Two: https://jbonacci.pastebin.mozilla.org/3431389
AWS box "make test" : https://jbonacci.pastebin.mozilla.org/3431390

[jbonacci]

Duplicated while running "make test" for loads repo.

[jbonacci]

OK. So I created a new AWS rhel instance and skipped the step where I manually installed zmq.
I installed the loads repo and ran the tests w/o incident.
I installed the picl-idp repo and ran the following:

cd picl-idp
git checkout loads-moar-load
npm install
cd loadtest
make build

This still fails as follows: https://jbonacci.pastebin.mozilla.org/3441919

So, I am kinda stuck on my workaround for this issue...

[jbonacci]

@rfk made a change to the Make file in the loads-moar-load branch to force a specific version of zmq for node.

Running this again:
cd picl-idp
git checkout loads-moar-load
npm install
cd loadtest
make build

This still fails, unfortunately:
https://jbonacci.pastebin.mozilla.org/3442162
and
https://jbonacci.pastebin.mozilla.org/3442173

[rfk]

I managed to get the build working on the RHEL machine you gave me access to, with the following steps:

• install zeromq 3.X to the machine
  • tarball from http://download.zeromq.org/zeromq-3.2.4.tar.gz
  • ./configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib64 to ensure the libs are in the right place
• build loads-moar-load branch with the forced downgrade to pyzmq 13.X

It would be worth exploring other combinations here, e.g. trying zmq 4.X wit pyzmq 13.X. But hopefully this procedure will unblock you in the meantime.

[jbonacci]

This I always do: ./configure --prefix=/usr
This is really good to know: --libdir=/usr/lib64

👍

Will look into this more tomorrow.

Thanks for finding a solution.

[jbonacci]

Closing in favor of #279

[jbonacci]

FYI - this does appear to be fixed with the latest loads-moar-load branch and updated Makefile.