Run github actions on mdolab docker images

[A-CGray]

Purpose

The current github action for running the OAS tests is a bit of a mess, it tries to build OpenMPI, PETSc and OpenVSP, and it uses "latest" and "old" package versions that don't match the rest of our packages. It would be much cleaner if we could run the OAS CI jobs on our docker containers where we have working environments with all the dependencies OAS needs and with stable and latests versions of things that match our other packages.

Expected time until merged

Type of change

• Bugfix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (non-backwards-compatible fix or feature)
• Code style update (formatting, renaming)
• Refactoring (no functional changes, no API changes)
• Documentation update
• Maintenance update
• Other (please describe)

Testing

Checklist

• I have run flake8 and black to make sure the Python code adheres to PEP-8 and is consistently formatted
• I have formatted the Fortran code with fprettify or C/C++ code with clang-format as applicable
• I have run unit and regression tests which pass locally with my changes
• I have added new tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
• I have added necessary documentation

[A-CGray]

For reasons I'm clearly too stupid to understand, GitHub actions can only run in a docker container if they run as the root user in the container (see actions/checkout#1014 and actions/checkout#956). This doesn't work for our docker containers because we install things under the mdolabuser account.

The only option I see if we want to run OAS's CI on our docker images is to migrate it to using Azure. Any other ideas @eirikurj ?

[A-CGray]

@eirikurj do we need to merge this PR first before we can add OpenAeroStruct as a pipeline on azure? I'm trying to add it now but it needs an azure config yaml file to point to

[eirikurj]

Yes, I agree that moving testing to our docker containers is the way to go. I can add an Azure pipeline, but it will need to depend on this branch if you want to test it, and once merged we need to change it to main. Let me know what you prefer.

[A-CGray]

I can add an Azure pipeline, but it will need to depend on this branch if you want to test it, and once merged we need to change it to main. Let me know what you prefer.

Will that work given that this PR is from my fork? If so then yes let's do that to make sure it works

[eirikurj]

Will that work given that this PR is from my fork? If so then yes let's do that to make sure it works

No, the branch needs to be on under the mdolab account to have access to it.

[A-CGray]

Will that work given that this PR is from my fork? If so then yes let's do that to make sure it works

No, the branch needs to be on under the mdolab account to have access to it.

OK, are you able to make a copy of this branch on the mdolab fork then? I don't have the permissions to do it

[eirikurj]

Hmm, strange MDO Lab member only have triage permissions, but we typically have write for members. Not sure why, but we can discuss this during next maintenance meeting. New branch is here https://github.com/mdolab/OpenAeroStruct/tree/GHAImprovement

[A-CGray]

Thanks, closing now as this is superseded by #438