Spread tests fail on openstack: "remote directory /root/proj ... is not empty"
Metadata
Current evaluation
OpenStack-only nested testcraft failure: the inner spread run cannot populate /root/proj because a freshly allocated image already contains files; provenance and the fix require backend investigation.
Suggested action: keep open
Reason: The issue is explicitly triaged as a bug and provides an exact CI task plus a repeated allocation failure showing that /root/proj is non-empty before prepare runs. The maintainer states that direct backend access is needed, and the same commit and seed pass on multipass, so the OpenStack-specific investigation remains unresolved rather than stale or fixed.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
52
Quick Win:
15
Complexity:
61
Confidence:
89
Actionability:
76
Issue body
### Bug Description
The `test-cmd` spread test fails on the openstack backend. `testcraft test` starts an inner spread run using its generated `craft` adhoc backend, which fails while sending project content: `/root/proj` already exists and is non-empty on the freshly allocated system, so all three allocation retries are discarded and the run aborts. The failure happens before any test or backend `prepare` runs, so the directory must be created by `./spread/.extension allocate ci` or shipped in the openstack image.
The test passes on multipass (same commit, same seed), both as a single task and as part of the full `multipass:ubuntu-24.04-64` suite, so this appears openstack-specific.
Likely we'll need to look at what's actually in `/root/proj` using `spread -debug` to determine the provenance of the stuff in that directory. I suspect it might be the outer project.
### To Reproduce
Run the test-cmd spread test on the openstack backend, e.g. the CI job for `openstack:ubuntu-24.04-64:tests/spread/testcraft/test-cmd`.
### Relevant log output
```shell
2026-09-28 17:06:21.840 :: Allocating craft:ubuntu-24.04...
2026-09-28 17:06:22.374 :: Waiting for craft:ubuntu-24.04 to make SSH available at localhost...
2026-09-28 17:06:22.375 :: Allocated craft:ubuntu-24.04.
2026-09-28 17:06:23.278 :: Connecting to craft:ubuntu-24.04...
2026-09-28 17:06:23.363 :: Connected to craft:ubuntu-24.04 at localhost.
2026-09-28 17:06:23.363 :: Sending project content to craft:ubuntu-24.04...
2026-09-28 17:06:23.742 :: Discarding craft:ubuntu-24.04, cannot send project content: remote directory /root/proj on craft:ubuntu-24.04-64 is not empty
2026-09-28 17:06:26.781 :: Cannot allocate craft:ubuntu-24.04 after too many retries.
2026-09-28 17:06:26.781 :: Successful tasks: 0
2026-09-28 17:06:26.781 :: Aborted tasks: 1
2026-09-28 17:06:26.781 :: error: unsuccessful run
```
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
52
Quick Win:
15
Complexity:
61
Confidence:
89
Actionability:
76
|
keep open | OpenStack-only nested testcraft failure: the inner spread run cannot populate /root/proj because a freshly allocated image already contains files; provenance and the fix require backend investigation. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
72
Quick Win:
28
Complexity:
38
Confidence:
86
Actionability:
62
|
keep open | OpenStack-only nested testcraft failure: the inner spread run cannot populate /root/proj because the freshly allocated image already contains a non-empty directory; its contents and provenance still need confirmation. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
canonical/craft-application#1091
(confidence 84%)
Commit 826edb3f migrated Spread CI to OpenStack, which is now the sole backend in the workflow's test matrix; this is infrastructure context, not a resolving change.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1279 test(spread): migrate from google to openstack | rockcraft | merged | PR #1279 by tigarmo migrated rockcraft's spread test setup from Google to OpenStack (spread.yaml, spread workflows, 14 files, +192/-17); merged as commit 132b18c4. Proxy-related spread failures were knowingly deferred. |