`group_vars/matrix_servers` selects postgres whenever postgres is enabled, which
is the default, so postgres is what essentially every deployment runs. The
scenarios were testing sqlite - a path almost nobody is on.
How little that path is used is not a guess: the mautrix-meta bridges could not
start at all under sqlite, and nobody reported it. Testing the engine users are
actually on is worth more than keeping coverage of the one they are not, so no
scenario is left behind on sqlite.
Four of the eight scenarios have a database and are converted; the other four
have none and are untouched.
molecule-shared/tasks/postgres.yml stands Postgres up on the scenario's network,
with the data directory on a tmpfs since it is thrown away with the container.
The image is pinned at the major the postgres role deploys to new installations
and left to Renovate: when a new major lands, the PR bumping that pin runs every
scenario against it, which is the earliest warning we get that a component does
not cope.
Each scenario gives its database and user names that differ from the role's
defaults, so the component reaching the database proves the role built its
connection string out of them. The assertions moved from "a file appeared at the
path we configured" to "these tables exist", which is strictly stronger: tables
can only appear once the component has resolved the hostname, authenticated with
the credentials the role rendered, and run its migrations to completion.
Costs about 10 seconds per affected scenario (115s to 125s locally for
mautrix-whatsapp), on jobs that run in parallel.
Gotcha worth recording: since Postgres 18 the image puts PGDATA in a versioned
subdirectory and refuses to start if it finds a mount at the old
/var/lib/postgresql/data, so the tmpfs is mounted at /var/lib/postgresql.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SEH3vxYSQ5SV4N5z61eyGT
They were hard-wrapped at 80 characters, broke mid-parenthesis, and spent lines
restating what the code below them does.
Rewrapped at natural boundaries instead, with the narration dropped and only the
reasons, gotchas and surprises kept. Section dividers stay - they delineate long
plays rather than narrate them.
Comments only; no scenario behaviour changes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SEH3vxYSQ5SV4N5z61eyGT
Scenarios install their Galaxy dependencies with `force: true`, so two roles
running at once re-extract the same collections and roles into ~/.ansible and
pull them out from under each other mid-play. It surfaces as a collection that
was working moments earlier going missing:
the connection plugin 'community.docker.docker' was not found
Found while running five scenarios in parallel, where it cost a run.
ANSIBLE_HOME relocates both `collections/` and `roles/`, so one variable covers
both halves; the scenarios' ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH workaround now follows it rather
than hardcoding ~/.ansible/roles. Left alone if already set, and unset in CI,
where each role runs in its own job and has nothing to collide with.
Verified by removing var/molecule-ansible-home entirely and running
matrix-alertmanager-receiver from cold: green through idempotence, with the
collections and roles landing under the per-role directory - which also shows
nothing was quietly relying on the shared ~/.ansible being populated.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SEH3vxYSQ5SV4N5z61eyGT
The second scenario, chosen to be a bridge rather than another HTTP
component: bridges are roughly 40 of the 70 roles here, and validating the
shape on role two is cheaper than discovering it on role forty. It found
two things the first role could not.
Bridges read a whole family of variables from outside themselves -
matrix_bridges_relay_enabled, _encryption_enabled, _encryption_default,
_msc4190_enabled, _self_sign_enabled, plus matrix_admin - all defined in
matrix-base. Since every bridge reads them, they belong in shared context
rather than in each bridge's scenario: molecule-shared/playbook-context.yml
now carries them along with the identity and path variables the first
scenario had inline. Note it is loaded through vars_files, which outranks
inventory group_vars, so it is authoritative; a scenario that wants to prove
one of these reaches the rendered configuration should say so explicitly.
Appservices call /whoami while starting and refuse to run if the id returned
is not the bot user they were configured as - mautrix-whatsapp exits 17 with
"Unexpected user ID in whoami call". The shared stub now takes the id it
should claim to be. Expect every bridge and bot to need this.
What the scenario proves: the bridge starts and stays up, opens its
appservice port, its rendered config and appservice registration carry the
scenario's tokens and bot user, it created its sqlite database under the
role's data path as the role's uid, and it runs the version the role pins.
It does not bridge anything and never will.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>