Thorsten, would you mind testing a snapshot version of the plugin? I've changed the behavior for matrix builds so that the Xvfb is only started for matrix jobs, not the build itself. You'll need to install (upload) the plugin in your Jenkins instance as this is a snapshot version not a released. I will release the plugin as soon as you confirm that it fixes your problem.

The url for the snapshot version is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tdakwhdxq9glae5/xvfb.hpi

thanks!

Zoran

Hi Zoran,

I tried version 1.0.3-SNAPSHOT (private-07/21/2012 12:32-zregvart) on Jenkins 1.434 without success: Xvfb is still started on the matrix build too.

console output:

...
Ignoring Matrix build, waiting for Matrix jobs to follow
Xvfb starting$ /usr/bin/Xvfb :2 -screen 0 1024x768x24 -fbdir ${JENKINS_HOME}/2012-07-23_16-22-104384832168309393644xvfb
...

Hi Thorsten, sorry for not getting back earlier, the new version is up on Dropbox (same url), this version should fix this issue – only one Xvfb server will be launched: the one for matrix build, for individual matrix jobs no attempt will be made to start more Xvfb servers, when the build/jobs finish Xvfb should stop and the temp directory should be removed.

If you have the time to test this version I would much appreciate it.

Thanks!

Hi Zoran,

I justed tested the new version with following observations (according to console log) on Jenkins 1.434:

• Xvfb is only started with matrix job
• Xvfb is stopped with configuration jobs

The result is that the first configuration works fine and properly stops the Xvfb process. But then there's no available X server for the following configuration jobs and so they fail (message: webkit_server: cannot connect to X server :16; F-webkit_server: cannot connect to X server :16).
I've only tested on a standalone Jenkins server but I think that this behaviour will fail especially in master-slave setups: if Xvfb is started on the master and the configuration jobs run on a slave every job will fail.

Sorry for the bad news

Cheers,
Thorsten

Thorsten, I've uploaded a new version on Dropbox. I think that I've finally cracked it, although I'm not all too happy about the implementation: Xvfb is started with matrix build, subsequent axis jobs are run and counted, when the matrix job finishes total that count is decreased and if it gets to zero Xvfb is stopped. You see, I could not find a way to get notified that all matrix jobs are done, so counting is the best thing I could think of. Anyways I realized that I needed to test better as well, and it seems to workout nice in my environment.

Thank you for your patience, I hope that this will finally fix it. If you can test in your environment once again and confirm that I would much appreciate it.

Thanks!

Hi Zoran,

I'm sorry but it still doesn't work I think Xvfb shouldn't be started with the matrix job itself but only with every configuration - and stopped there as well. For a standalone Jenkins your current approach might work if Xvfb would not be stopped with configuration jobs (see excerpts from console log below). But as mentionend before with a master-slave setup IMHO the only way would be to start and stop Xvfb with the configuration jobs.

Cheers,
Thorsten

Output of my latest test:

Matrix job:

Xvfb starting$ /usr/bin/Xvfb :60 -screen 0 1024x768x24 -fbdir /...
[EnvInject] - Preparing an environment for the job.
[EnvInject] - Jenkins system variables are kept.
[EnvInject] - Jenkins build variables are kept.
Couldn't open RGB_DB '/usr/share/X11/rgb'
_XSERVTransmkdir: Owner of /tmp/.X11-unix should be set to root
[EnvInject] - Injecting as environment variables the properties content 
# ...
error opening security policy file /usr/lib64/xserver/SecurityPolicy
[EnvInject] - Variables injected successfully.

Deleting project workspace... done

Triggering <configuration_1>
FreeFontPath: FPE "unix/:7100" refcount is 2, should be 1; fixing.
Couldn't open RGB_DB '/usr/share/X11/rgb'
error opening security policy file /usr/lib64/xserver/SecurityPolicy
FreeFontPath: FPE "unix/:7100" refcount is 2, should be 1; fixing.
Couldn't open RGB_DB '/usr/share/X11/rgb'
error opening security policy file /usr/lib64/xserver/SecurityPolicy
FreeFontPath: FPE "unix/:7100" refcount is 2, should be 1; fixing.
Triggering <configuration_2>
<configuration_2> completed with result FAILURE
Finished: FAILURE

configuration_1 (touchstone build):

gnoring Matrix job, Matrix build (the parent of this job) should have started Xvfb
[EnvInject] - Using environment variables injected by the matrix job.

Deleting project workspace... done

No emails were triggered.
[<configuration_1>] $ /bin/bash -le /tmp/hudson3288844765556768259.sh
[EnvInject] - Injecting environment variables from a build step.
[EnvInject] - Injecting as environment variables the properties file path '/.../<confiugration_1>/build_environment.properties'
[EnvInject] - Variables injected successfully.
# ...
# doing deployment of PHP app
# running some Jasmine smoke tests
# ...
Xvfb stopping
Archiving artifacts
# ...

configuration_2:

Ignoring Matrix job, Matrix build (the parent of this job) should have started Xvfb
[EnvInject] - Using environment variables injected by the matrix job.

Deleting project workspace... done

No emails were triggered.
[<confiugration_2>] $ /bin/bash -le /tmp/hudson4841252131230113695.sh
[EnvInject] - Injecting environment variables from a build step.
[EnvInject] - Injecting as environment variables the properties file path '/.../<confiugration_2>/build_environment.properties'
[EnvInject] - Variables injected successfully.
# ...
# doing deployment of PHP app
# trying to run some Jasmine smoke tests:
Call smoketest (product) for URL http://<configuration_2.domain>/
Using the ci-smoketest profile...
webkit_server: cannot connect to X server :60
F-webkit_server: cannot connect to X server :60
F

(::) failed steps (::)

# error message

1 scenario (1 failed)
2 steps (1 failed, 1 skipped)
0m30.454s
Build step 'Use builders from another project' marked build as failure
Xvfb stopping
Archiving artifacts

Thorsten, thank you for testing!

I agree the best way would be to run Xvfb with each matrix job, that was my initial approach – but all matrix jobs share the same BuildWrapper instance, so process handle that is used for Xvfb termination/cleanup would be overwritten with each subsequent matrix job. I have to rethink my options here; I'll ask on jenkins-dev mailing list for starters – I must be missing something.

Anyways thank you for following this issue for so long and I hope to find the solution for it soon.

Thorsten, Chris Johnson helped me a great deal on the jenkins-dev mailing list (https://groups.google.com/d/topic/jenkinsci-dev/KQVDCV9ATm8/discussion) so I'm pretty confident that the version I've uploaded to Dropbox, finally, solves this issue. Now Xvfb is launched only for individual matrix jobs and should terminate and clean up when the job finishes. If I may be so bold to ask you to test on your end one more time, so that when you confirm that it's OK I can release version 1.0.4.

Thank you!

Hi Zoran, this is the error message (in matrix job) after installing your latest snapshot version:

Started by user Thorsten Kahler
[EnvInject] - Preparing an environment for the job.
[EnvInject] - Jenkins system variables are kept.
[EnvInject] - Jenkins build variables are kept.
[EnvInject] - [ERROR] - SEVERE ERROR occurs: null
Finished: FAILURE

This might be a compatibility issue with our outdated Jenkins version 1.434?

I'm guessing that env-inject plugin catches NullPointerException (probably here: https://github.com/jenkinsci/envinject-plugin/blob/master/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/envinject/EnvInjectListener.java#L60), this could be due to setup method of xvfb plugin now returning null (https://github.com/jenkinsci/xvfb-plugin/blob/master/src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/xvfb/XvfbBuildWrapper.java#L255) on non unix platforms. Can it be that one of your slave is non-unix (windows)? It would probably be better for backward compatibility that the xvfb plugin does not return null on non-unix platforms, as it did in previous versions. I'll make that change and upload a new version on dropbox in a few minutes.

Code changed in jenkins
User: Zoran Regvart
Path:
src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/xvfb/XvfbBuildWrapper.java
http://jenkins-ci.org/commit/xvfb-plugin/a53ce0e6cf6acc96ad5a2020d1f0492e9e7b6492
Log:
JENKINS-14483 Remaining Xvfb processes in matrix jobs

return empty environment instead of null from setUp method

Thorsten, I've uploaded a new snapshot on Dropbox, if it's OK now I'll release 1.0.4 later this afternoon.

Hi Zoran, still the same error.

Code changed in jenkins
User: Zoran Regvart
Path:
src/main/java/org/jenkinsci/plugins/xvfb/XvfbBuildWrapper.java
http://jenkins-ci.org/commit/xvfb-plugin/81e7a1ff832b99bf2652b022c56eb1e81c96163c
Log:
JENKINS-14483 Remaining Xvfb processes in matrix jobs

fix NPE with Environment Injector Plugin installed

Hi Thorsten I was able to reproduce your problem with Environment Injector Plugin installed, luckily it was a very simple fix, and as usual I need your help testing the new version I've just uploaded to Dropbox.

Thank you

fixed in 1.0.4, changes in behavior are noted in the wiki (https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Xvfb+Plugin)