On 2023-08-23 10:28:48 -0700 (-0700), Ghanshyam Mann wrote: [...]
Can we do the same for Debian experimental version? and just keep them in our infra with the risk of unstability. That unstability risk should be fine as we are just running some non voting testing on those to test the next python version.
[...]
Let's set aside for a moment that there is no "experimental" version of Debian (there is an experimental package suite but it's intended for use mostly with the unstable and testing versions, it's not a complete distribution of Debian on its own). What we're lacking is someone to put in the time and effort to get minimal Debian unstable (or testing) images building reliably in diskimage-builder, added to our nodepool configuration, package mirroring in place (possibly cleaning up other unused distro versions to make sufficient room for that), and then adding jobs.
Unlike, say, Ubuntu LTS or Debian stable versions, unstable and testing are constantly changing, getting new versions of packages, and (in the case of unstable) sometimes entirely uninstallable due to transition-related package conflicts. Keeping updated images for that also means having someone who is going to spend some of their time keeping on top of the image build logs from Nodepool, and making the constant adjustments and fixes it needs so that we continue to have fresh images for that platform. If volunteers step forward for this sort of thing then we generally don't tell them to go away, but also if they disappear for an extended period of time we absolutely will delete and clean it all up.
So it's fine to talk about how "easy" this would be, but who's planning to do it?