Remove stale with_actor(nil) scaffolding from CI config specs

Summary

Four spec files carry around/before blocks wrapping Gitlab::Ci::Config::FeatureFlags.with_actor(nil) for feature flags that no longer exist.

  • spec/lib/gitlab/ci/config/header/input_spec.rb
  • spec/lib/gitlab/ci/config/header/inputs_spec.rb
  • spec/lib/gitlab/ci/config/header/inputs/validator_spec.rb
  • spec/lib/gitlab/ci/config/normalizer_spec.rb

spec/lib/gitlab/ci/config/feature_flags_spec.rb also has it and should keep it, because it tests the mechanism.

Why it matters

spec/spec_helper.rb wraps every example in Gitlab::Ci::Config::FeatureFlags.ensure_correct_usage, so a flag read with no actor reaches track_and_raise_for_dev_exception and fails the spec. with_actor(nil) stores NO_ACTOR_VALUE, so current_actor returns nil without raising.

While the block is in place, a future flag added to those code paths without a real actor evaluates against nil instead of failing the spec. The block removes a guard that exists to catch exactly that.

This keeps happening

Each block came from a different flag's work, and every one of those flags is already gone.

file added by flag
header/input_spec.rb, header/inputs_spec.rb, header/inputs/validator_spec.rb 2bb09e170622 Use FeatureFlags instead of Feature for flag check since removed
normalizer_spec.rb a654e20689e0 Expand policy job needs for parallelized jobs since removed

!255832 (merged) removed the same scaffolding from 11 more files after ci_reject_yaml_tags_in_inputs was removed. That makes three separate changes that left it behind. Deleting these four fixes the current instances. The reason it recurs is that a flag cleanup does not obviously own the spec scaffolding its rollout added.

Proposal

  1. Remove the blocks from the four files and confirm the specs still pass. !256154 (merged)
  2. Consider whether with_actor(nil) belongs in specs at all. An opt-out per example would make suppressing the guard explicit and visible, rather than a block that outlives the flag that needed it.
  3. If the pattern stays, note in the feature flag docs that cleaning up a CI config flag includes removing the spec scaffolding its rollout added.

Related

Edited by Oleg Yakovenko