1801963 - Limit date range for `mozregression -n fennec` to prevent 404s

Status: NEW

(Testing :: mozregression, defect, P3)

Description

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

STR:

1. Connect an Android device to your computer, so that you can launch mobile builds via mozregression.
2. (optional but recommended) Verify that you can launch gve:

mozregression -n gve --launch 2022-11-22

3. Try to launch mozregression for fennec (the only other mobile-flavored option listed in `mozregression --help). Like so (first command):

mozregression -n fennec --launch 2022-11-22

...or like so (second command):

mozregression -n fennec

ACTUAL RESULTS:
First command above gives:

ERROR: 404 Client Error: Not Found for url: https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/mobile/nightly/2022/11/

The second command gives:

 0:00.19 INFO: No 'bad' option specified, using 2022-11-22
 0:00.19 INFO: No 'good' option specified, using 2021-11-22
 0:00.29 WARNING: Skipping build 2021-11-22: 404 Client Error: Not Found for url: https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/mobile/nightly/2021/11/
 0:00.30 WARNING: Skipping build 2022-11-22: 404 Client Error: Not Found for url: https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/mobile/nightly/2022/11/
[...]
 0:04.79 WARNING: Skipping build 2022-07-24: 404 Client Error: Not Found for url: https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/mobile/nightly/2022/07/
 0:04.79 INFO: Unable to get valid builds within the given range. You should try to launch mozregression again with a larger date range.

EXPECTED RESULTS:
Fennec should either work (and get/launch Firefox Nightly for Android builds), or it should be removed as an option from mozregression.

I'm using mozregression 5.1.0 on Ubuntu 22.04.

Comment 1

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

I know fennec is/was the codename for pre-GeckoView Firefox on Android. Maybe that's still what it means in mozregression? If so, I don't imagine (and my notes in comment 0 seem to confirm) that we have any useful artifacts for mozregression to discover for it at this point.

Comment 2

[Botond Ballo [:botond]]

My understanding is that Firefox for Android left the "Fennec" codename behind when it moved to be based on GeckoView in 2019.

-n fennec does still work for launching / bisecting between nightlies dating back to the Fennec period, e.g. mozregression -n fennec --launch 2019-05-01 works, and I think should probably be kept for the time being.

To my knowledge, mozregression has never supported post-GeckoView versions of Firefox for Android (i.e. "Fenix"), because that depends on components outside of mozilla-central, though bug 1556042 is on file for it.

Comment 3

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(In reply to Botond Ballo [:botond] from comment #2)

To my knowledge, mozregression has never supported post-GeckoView versions of Firefox for Android (i.e. "Fenix"), because that depends on components outside of mozilla-central, though bug 1556042 is on file for it.

That was my suspicion; maybe I knew this at one point but had forgotten. But yeah, folks in #fenix-team on slack confirmed that for me and linked me to bug 1556042.

-n fennec does still work for launching / bisecting between nightlies dating back to the Fennec period, e.g. mozregression -n fennec --launch 2019-05-01 works, and I think should probably be kept for the time being.

Interesting! I assumed those old builds would have been purged like gve/fenix builds were (for a while) per bug 1763040. Nice that they weren't!

I agree that it's useful to keep those bisectable, as long as they exist. Given the existence of those old builds, my amended request here would be for mozregression to make that "sunset threshold" clearer somehow -- e.g. by making a no-dates-provided mozregression -n fennec pick at least one build from back then, or by adding a note about dates alongside the mention of of fennec in mozregression --help, or by including some sort of extra warning if you explicitly request a fennec build from after the valid dates.

Comment 4

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:zeid, could you have a look please?

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