Conda: Windows conda package not building on GHA

[samtygier-stfc]

Summary

The build and publish package stage is regularly failing.

It seems to get stuck and hit a timeout. The GHA interface does not handle it very well, so its hard to see the problem

Steps To Reproduce

A success:
https://github.com/mantidproject/mantidimaging/actions/runs/24713716016/job/72284631097

A fail
https://github.com/mantidproject/mantidimaging/actions/runs/24660244623/job/72104041977

Current Behaviour

Expected Behaviour

Context

Failure Logs

Screenshot(s)

[samtygier-stfc]

We do see an error message due to conda-forge/gl2ps-feedstock#13
But this occurs on the successful runs too.

[samtygier-stfc]

From running a test on #3132

• A timeout on the "publish package" means that stop early and get actual logs. (if you hit the GHA 6 hour limit the logs are incomplete)
• I don't think this is a case of being close to the time out limit. Success takes 10 minutes, on fail it seems to hang from 10 minutes
• I don't think this is an issue with running out of storage, there are 24GB free before starting the publish package step. On the successful run there 23GB free at the end

[samtygier-stfc]

On a local build on windows, the conda mambabuild $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/conda does seem to be able to hang for 45 minutes and then complete. No indication of what it is doing in that time.

[samtygier-stfc]

There also seem to be 2 distict places that the workflow can hang, with the same workflow file. The last few lines in the message are below.

In the build step: conda --debug mambabuild $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/conda

%SRC_DIR%>set "USERNAME=runneradmin" 
%SRC_DIR%>set "USERPROFILE=C:\Users\runneradmin" 
%SRC_DIR%>set "windir=C:\Windows" 
%SRC_DIR%>set "PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64" 
The system cannot find the path specified.
Error: The action has timed out.

https://github.com/mantidproject/mantidimaging/actions/runs/25003003933/job/73236293409?pr=3132

or in the upload step: anaconda -v upload --user ${{ inputs.repository }} --label ${{ inputs.label }} ${CONDA_PREFIX}/conda-bld/*/mantidimaging*.tar.bz2

Preparing transaction: ...working... done
ERROR:conda.stderr:
ClobberWarning: This transaction has incompatible packages due to a shared path.
  packages: conda-forge/win-64::gl2ps-1.4.2-h26c196c_2, conda-forge/win-64::libhwloc-2.12.1-default_h88281d1_1000
  path: 'library/readme.txt'

Verifying transaction: ...working... done
ERROR:conda.stderr:
ClobberWarning: Conda was asked to clobber an existing path.
  source path: C:\Users\runneradmin\conda_pkgs_dir\libhwloc-2.12.1-default_h88281d1_1000\Library\README.txt
  target path: C:\Users\runneradmin\miniconda3\envs\build-env\conda-bld\mantidimaging_1777303252354\_test_env\Library\README.txt

Error: The action has timed out.

https://github.com/mantidproject/mantidimaging/actions/runs/25003003933/job/73218174184?pr=3132

The The system cannot find the path specified. message appears earlier in the second log. So it not stopping because of that.

2026-04-27T15:23:39.7434859Z %SRC_DIR%>set "USERPROFILE=C:\Users\runneradmin" 
2026-04-27T15:23:39.7435324Z %SRC_DIR%>set "windir=C:\Windows" 
2026-04-27T15:23:39.7435730Z %SRC_DIR%>set "PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64" 
2026-04-27T15:23:39.7481942Z The system cannot find the path specified.
2026-04-27T15:23:50.9014987Z %SRC_DIR%>set "PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=AMD64 Family 25 Model 17 Stepping 1, AuthenticAMD" 
2026-04-27T15:23:50.9015782Z %SRC_DIR%>set "BUILD=amd64-pc-windows-19.0.0" 
2026-04-27T15:23:50.9016597Z %SRC_DIR%>set "extend_keys={'ignore_version', 'extend_keys', 'ignore_build_only_deps', 'pin_run_as_build'}" 

Likewise the ClobberWarning is also there in the successful build in the original description.

I looked more at a diff of the logs between the hang in build and hang in upload case. I could not see any significant difference between them. Only differences azure region (centralus, eastus), pydantic-settings-2.14.0 build number, in directory names, download speeds, test run orders.