Package: autopkgtest Version: 5.37 Severity: normal The idea of dropping the schroot virt server has been discussed informally; this bug is to make the discussion more public and to serve as future reference. Somehow related is [1].
The schroot virt server has a number of issues: * There is no tools/autopkgtest-build-schroot script that prepares autopkgtest schroots by also running setup-testbed, which is the script that customizes and in part "normalizes" images for execution of autopkgtests. This means that schroot runs may differ from autopkgtst runs done using other virt server. * It has no isolation capabilities, which are offered by the container based virt servers, which are equally fast. * I am not aware of Debian (or Ubuntu) developers actively using it. This includes autopkgtest developers, and makes the virt server not well tested. * There are better options which AFAIK have no significant drawbacks. Dropping the schroot virt server would lower the maintenance burden. * Using a schroot does not play well the idea of standardizing the communication channel to the testbed to always be SSH. If we agree we want this, I can do the code removal and update the documentation. Cheers, -- Paride [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2024/06/msg00265.html
