Bug#862495: liblocale-maketext-gettext-perl: FTBFS randomly (failing tests)

[Santiago Vila]

Package: src:liblocale-maketext-gettext-perl
Version: 1.28-2
Severity: important

Dear maintainer:

I tried to build this package in stretch with "dpkg-buildpackage -A"
but it failed:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
 debian/rules build-indep
dh build-indep
dh: Compatibility levels before 9 are deprecated (level 8 in use)
   dh_testdir -i
   dh_update_autotools_config -i
   dh_auto_configure -i
dh_auto_configure: Compatibility levels before 9 are deprecated (level 8 in use)
	perl -I. Build.PL --installdirs vendor
Created MYMETA.yml and MYMETA.json
Creating new 'Build' script for 'Locale-Maketext-Gettext' version '1.28'
   dh_auto_build -i
dh_auto_build: Compatibility levels before 9 are deprecated (level 8 in use)
	perl Build
Building Locale-Maketext-Gettext

[... snipped ...]

ok 58
ok 59
ok 60
ok 61
ok 62
ok 63
ok
t/11-command-line.t .. 
1..10
# Running under perl version 5.024001 for linux
# Current time local: Sat May  6 13:35:54 2017
# Current time GMT:   Sat May  6 13:35:54 2017
# Using Test.pm version 1.28_01
ok 1
ok 2
ok 3
ok 4
ok 5
ok 6
ok 7
ok 8
ok 9
ok 10
ok
t/99-pod.t ........... 
1..3
ok 1 - POD test for blib/script/maketext
ok 2 - POD test for blib/lib/Locale/Maketext/Gettext.pm
ok 3 - POD test for blib/lib/Locale/Maketext/Gettext/Functions.pm
ok

Test Summary Report
-------------------
t/08-f-errors.t    (Wstat: 0 Tests: 39 Failed: 2)
  Failed tests:  38-39
Files=12, Tests=352,  1 wallclock secs ( 0.05 usr  0.00 sys +  0.51 cusr  0.05 csys =  0.61 CPU)
Result: FAIL
Failed 1/12 test programs. 2/352 subtests failed.
dh_auto_test: perl Build test --verbose 1 --test_files=t/01-basic.t t/02-big-endian.t t/03-errors.t t/04-encodings.t t/05-switching.t t/06-racing.t t/07-f-basic.t t/08-f-errors.t t/09-f-encodings.t t/10-f-switching.t t/11-command-line.t t/99-pod.t returned exit code 255
debian/rules:9: recipe for target 'override_dh_auto_test' failed
make[1]: *** [override_dh_auto_test] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/<<PKGBUILDDIR>>'
debian/rules:6: recipe for target 'build-indep' failed
make: *** [build-indep] Error 2
dpkg-buildpackage: error: debian/rules build-indep gave error exit status 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is just how the build ends, not necessarily the relevant part.

I've put several build logs here:

https://people.debian.org/~sanvila/build-logs/liblocale-maketext-gettext-perl/

If this is really a bug in one of the build-depends, please use reassign and affects,
so that this is still visible in the page for this package.

The bug should be reproducible with sbuild on a single CPU virtual machine,
provided you try enough times (as the failure happens randomly).

Note: The failure rate is quite low (around 3.5%), I would recommend
taking a look at the build logs and the code and try to guess how it
may happen.

Thanks.