CircleCI tests for Desktop app failed (all 3 apps)

[therocket-gr]

Context and steps to reproduce

Trying to deploy some simple changes (the PR link is here i was getting failed tests link to the results here

i think the circleci tests are flaky

also, I was sometimes getting issues in the e3e pre-release tests - but those also succeeded finally and was able to deploy

Site owner impact

Fewer than 20% of the total website/platform users

Severity

Critical

What other impact(s) does this issue have?

No response

If a workaround is available, please outline it here.

No response

Platform

No response

[github-actions]

OpenAI suggested the following labels for this issue:

• [Feature Group] Other Infrastructure: The issue relates to CI/CD and testing infrastructure, which falls under miscellaneous infrastructure features.
• [Feature] GitHub Deployments: The issue involves deploying changes through CircleCI, which is closely tied to GitHub integrations for deployment.
• [Feature] Performance: Flaky tests directly affect the performance and reliability of the deployment process.

[lancewillett]

Better title: CircleCI tests for Desktop app failed

i think the circleci tests are flaky

This appears to be a case of: "The tests aren't flaky, the test code might be out of date or not working properly. Or, we shouldn't be running these tests at all, right?"

Instead of blaming the test... Please take a moment to investigate the test run and/or the code it is testing. Then, fix or make the issue here so someone else can take a look.

Relating to Desktop app builds... we can likely remove those tests from build pipeline since that project is not in active development; and we could add them back later.

[therocket-gr]

Better title: CircleCI tests for Desktop app failed

i think the circleci tests are flaky

This appears to be a case of: "The tests aren't flaky, the test code might be out of date or not working properly. Or, we shouldn't be running these tests at all, right?"

Instead of blaming the test... Please take a moment to investigate the test run and/or the code it is testing. Then, fix or make the issue here so someone else can take a look.

Relating to Desktop app builds... we can likely remove those tests from build pipeline since that project is not in active development; and we could add them back later.

Hi, thanks for your comment. I’d like to provide more context, though to be honest, I’m not entirely sure why the CI failed in this case. My PR only includes a few lines of changes—a static string addition and some style file modifications—so at first glance, it seems unrelated to the test failures.

I did review the test run, but I couldn’t identify a direct link between the failures and my changes. That said, I’m happy to dig deeper or pair with someone to investigate further if needed.

Appreciate any pointers on where to look or how best to proceed.

[lancewillett]

@therocket-gr Appreciated.

I couldn’t identify a direct link between the failures and my changes

It's less about causation, unless simple & obvious. More about correlation and escalation—if you can take a quick look, you might see a pattern ("Did the same tests fail every day over last week?" and "Which exact tests are they?") — then use that quick look to log a more specific bug report for someone like me to investigate.

Don't worry; I looked at this case, and the failures relate to WordPress.com desktop app builds.