Windows Pipeline

Windows Build and Other Things in the openCFS CI/CD Pipeline

GitLab CI/CD

• modular system

• runners process jobs in a pipeline

• Pipeline is defined in gitlab-ci YML file

• ensures CFS builds with all relevant compiler combinations

• runs our Testsuite for a range of build configurations

• creates releases for download

Runners

• runners can be any machine with gitlab runner installed and registered with the GitLab instance
• handle the execution of jobs
• jobs can be executed by executors:
  • shell
  • docker
  • VirtualBox
  • ...
• exist as GitLab SaaS, with free pipeline minutes for projects within the GitLab open-source program
• Linux runners exist in several sizes and performance levels
• Windows, MacOS and GPU runners are in beta state

GitLab SaaS Windows runners

• based on a virtual machine image (2 vCPU, 7.5GB RAM, 75GB disk) with predefined software installed
  • Visual Studio 2019
  • CMake
  • wget, curl, 7zip, ...
  • PowerShell
• Other CFS-build-dependencies must be installed for a CFS build job
  • git (for patch)
  • Intel MKL and Fortran compiler
• Installation templates of Intel oneAPI tools found via googling "Intel MKL in GitLab CI": https://gitlab.com/mmzakhar/oneapi-ci/
  • some tedious experimentation with variable expansion in the various shells
  • scripted download of oneAPI HPC-Kit (for Fortran Compiler) and Base-kit (for MKL): see
  • scripted install into a directly that is cached on gitlab runners: .gitlab/ci/install_windows.bat
  • defined in .gitlab/ci/windows.yml
• Build of openCFS must be done via CMD.exe script because VS-build-tools and Intel-setvars scripts are not PowerShell compatible
  • build steps in script: section of .windows-shared-build
  • set environment variables vi variables and execute windows-shared-runner_build.bat
• Templates defined in Windows YML, running jobs in main YML
  • cfsdeps:MSVC2019-Ifort2021 builds cfsdeps (only on changes)
  • windows:MSVC2019-Ifort2021 builds CFS binary
  • stable_ser:MSVC2019-Ifort2021:windows ... run the testsuite (stable|unstalbe|broken and ser|par)
• builds of the master branch are automatically deployed to package registry
• Current build based on MSVC2019 does not use openMP (within CFS)
• SaaS runners will be upgrade to Windows 2022 with GitLab 17.0

Linux Runners

• We use a combination of runners: GitLab SaaS and one machine at TU Wien
• based on docker executor
• docker image defines the build environment: system, compiler, ...
• images defined in Build Environment and published to Docker Hub

Recent pipeline novelties

• Different pipelines for different cases

  • test: runs all tests that need to pass (example: https://gitlab.com/openCFS/cfs/-/pipelines/1182123585)
    • pushes to open merge requests (not in Draft: mode)
    • pushes to branches called test* or *test
    • triggerd via the Web-UI
  • manual: creates a test pipeline but sets all jobs to manual (example: https://gitlab.com/openCFS/cfs/-/pipelines/1182121948)
    • pushed to Draft: merge requests
    • triggered via Web-UI with variable CFS_PIPELINE_TYPE == "manual"
  • nightly: runs also broken tests (daily) and platform stage (weekly) (example: https://gitlab.com/openCFS/cfs/-/pipelines/1184274293)
    • triggerd via GitLab schedule, published to CDash
    • allows to monitor broken tests
    • platform builds check build instructions
  • release: create assets for download (example: https://gitlab.com/openCFS/cfs/-/pipelines/1181703798)
    • Windows / Linux build
    • doxygen docu
    • XML schema

• Pipeline name shows type & source: https://gitlab.com/openCFS/cfs/-/pipelines

• Pipelines show failed test details:

  1. test report: https://gitlab.com/openCFS/cfs/-/pipelines/1184274293/test_report
  2. click on one test: https://gitlab.com/openCFS/cfs/-/pipelines/1184274293/test_report?job_name=no-slow_ser%3Agcc7max-debug%3Alinux
  3. click on View details

• CDash-Links on job page: https://gitlab.com/openCFS/cfs/-/jobs/6219082998

1. go to page with job output
2. click on the link on the right

• musl libc based build for Linux binary
  • GCC13 on Alpine Linux
  • fully static binary (no dependency on Glibc)
  • should work on any Linux system

Open Issues

• some builds & tests might be obsolete: What systems are in use?
• We do complete rebuilds on a large number of configurations: Is it worth the effort?
• Make builds faster and more efficient: ccache in pipeline!
• Make pipelines public!