Update spec action is failing / not working / brittle

[chalin]

The spec update action has been failing since ~ Dec 13, see https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io/actions/workflows/update-spec-integration-branch.yml.

@vitorvasc - it seems to match the time you closed:

• DRAFT Update opentelemetry-specification to unreleased v1.52.0-dev #8444

[chalin]

I'm not sure I understand the error reported by the actions, eg https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io/actions/runs/20778625436/job/59670420974, from the "Merge from main" setp:

Run previous=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
hint: Recursive merging with submodules currently only supports trivial cases.
hint: Please manually handle the merging of each conflicted submodule.
hint: This can be accomplished with the following steps:
hint: - come back to superproject and run:
hint:
hint: git add content-modules/opentelemetry-specification
hint:
hint: to record the above merge or update
hint: - resolve any other conflicts in the superproject
hint: - commit the resulting index in the superproject
hint:
hint: Disable this message with "git config set advice.submoduleMergeConflict false"
Auto-merging .gitmodules
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in .gitmodules
Failed to merge submodule content-modules/opentelemetry-specification (not checked out)
CONFLICT (submodule): Merge conflict in content-modules/opentelemetry-specification
Auto-merging scripts/content-modules/adjust-pages.pl
Auto-merging static/refcache.json
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in static/refcache.json
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

[chalin]

I wonder if the source of the problem was that the branch of #8444 was not deleted when the PR was closed?

Yes it was, the script will pick up whatever branch there is, see https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io/actions/runs/20778625436/job/59670420974 under "Checkout or create branch" (and the step before):

  env:
    REPO: opentelemetry-specification
    ABBR: spec
    VERSION: v1.52.0
    BRANCH: otelbot/spec-integration-v1.52.0-dev

[vitorvasc]

Thanks for catching this!

Looking at the "set environment variables" step, that behavior makes sense.

We could update that step to fetch the latest release tag and use it to calculate the next expected version; so it won't happen again even if the branch isn't deleted after a PR is closed. WDYT?

[chalin]

Actually, it's useful to have the last commit of X.Y be applied to the X.Y-dev branch, not the X.(Y+1)-dev branch. So, ... I think that a test to see if there's an associated PR and whether it is closed might be an alternative.

[chalin]

I've adjusted the title. The action isn't failing anymore, but it is a no-op if the previous release branch hasn't been deleted, as for this PR which has many empty commits:

• DRAFT Update opentelemetry-specification to unreleased v1.55.0-dev #9193