python / python/cpython

test_rollover_based_on_st_birthtime_only fails on slow CI: rotated file is outside the fixed 5-second search window

Open
#157,161 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

tests
Dominant language
Python
Stars
77.2k
Forks
35.9k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

Bug report

Bug description:

test_rollover_based_on_st_birthtime_only failed again on main, on the "Windows / Build and test (x64, tail-call)" CI job of 532b9dbd67 (2026-09-01): https://github.com/python/cpython/actions/runs/33523218872/job/99907492032

FAIL: test_rollover_based_on_st_birthtime_only (test.test_logging.TimedRotatingFileHandlerTest.test_rollover_based_on_st_birthtime_only)
AssertionError: False is not true : No rotated files found, went back 5 seconds

This is the test that gh-150960 (fixed by GH-150954, which widened the search from 5 to 6 timestamps) was about. The diagnostics the test prints show why it still fails on a slow machine:

Test time: 2026-09-01 15-10-51
The only matching files are: ['test_logging-2-p8i89g4b.log', 'test_logging-2-p8i89g4b.log.2026-09-01_15-10-45']
Contents of test_logging-2-p8i89g4b.log:
2026-09-01 15:10:51,079 testing - new record supposedly in the new file after rollover
Contents of test_logging-2-p8i89g4b.log.2026-09-01_15-10-45:
2026-09-01 15:10:45,004 testing - initial
2026-09-01 15:10:47,105 testing - update before rollover to renew the st_mtime

The rollover happened and is correct. The rotated file is named after the start of the interval, which is the creation time of the log file (TimedRotatingFileHandler.__init__() computes rolloverAt from min(creation_time, modification_time), and doRollover() uses rolloverAt - interval for the suffix), so its suffix is 15-10-45. The test then looks for a rotated file with a timestamp between now and now - 5 s. now was 15:10:51, six seconds after the file was created, because the third add_record() came 3.97 s after the second one instead of about 2.1 s. So the file with suffix 15-10-45 was one second outside the window.

The test's timing (two time.sleep(2.1) calls plus three handler set-ups and emits) is nominally 4.2 s, and any slowdown of more than 0.8 s pushes the rotated file out of the fixed 5-second window. The window should be derived from the time the test actually took, since the suffix can never be older than the moment the log file was created.

CPython versions tested on:

CPython main branch

Operating systems tested on:

Windows (CI)

Linked PRs
  • gh-157162

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with test_rollover_based_on_st_birthtime_only in test.test_logging.TimedRotatingFileHandlerTest and reproduce it on the Windows CI configuration. Review how the test searches for rotated files relative to its recorded time and verify the existing rollover behavior. Done means the test remains reliable when setup and emits take longer than expected, while still detecting the correctly rotated file.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
testing-qa
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.