Connecting rspec profiler results via URL no longer works

I removed the RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL variable from the CI/CD pipelines variable in CE and EE because specs were failing hard on the setup step:

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/builds/15786192

$ bundle exec ruby -Ispec -e 'require "spec_helper" ; TestEnv.init'
WARNING: This version of GitLab depends on gitlab-shell 5.0.3, but you're running Unknown. Please update gitlab-shell.
/builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:248:in `resolve_symbol_connection': '' database is not configured. Available: ["production", "development", "staging", "test"] (ActiveRecord::AdapterNotSpecified)
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:211:in `resolve_connection'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:139:in `resolve'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:169:in `spec'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.8/lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:50:in `establish_connection'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/config/initializers/rspec_profiling.rb:4:in `establish_connection'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec_profiling-0.0.5/lib/rspec_profiling/collectors/psql.rb:21:in `initialize'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec_profiling-0.0.5/lib/rspec_profiling/rspec.rb:4:in `new'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec_profiling-0.0.5/lib/rspec_profiling/rspec.rb:4:in `block in <top (required)>'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec-core-3.5.0/lib/rspec/core.rb:97:in `configure'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/rspec_profiling-0.0.5/lib/rspec_profiling/rspec.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.8/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `require'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.8/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `block in require'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.8/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:240:in `load_dependency'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/vendor/ruby/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.8/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `require'
	from /builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/spec/spec_helper.rb:21:in `<top (required)>'
	from -e:1:in `require'
	from -e:1:in `<main>'
ERROR: Job failed: exit code 1

You can reproduce this by setting a postgresql:// URL as RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL and running any spec.

I'm not quite sure what changed that suddenly broke this. We have been using ActiveRecord 4.2.8 for quite some time.

Related issue: https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/14495

The error message suggests we have to move this database configuration into database.yml and then reference the connection that way.

/cc: @nick.thomas, @rymai, @lbennett, @jschatz1

mentioned in merge request !11150 (merged)

mentioned in issue #31923 (closed)

Wow, that's weird!

Given the error, it seems that RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL was actually empty (i.e. '' database) so I think the issue was with CI variables instead?

Also, the only way we could get into this branch of the code is if RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL was interpreted as a symbol...

FYI, this started failing on rspec pg jobs at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/commit/8c9114683dcf0b79e7f405e814c5da63fa8b1ece/pipelines (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/builds/15786192 only started failing during the setup-test-env phase because of this change: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/commit/58d1cd6beb02c7dd41aabab81aa7e2d84b7725b7).

This means that the connection to the RSpec profiling DB was working for setup-test-env but was failing for rspec pg jobs...).

I have the feeling that the RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL variable was somehow mistakenly changed to "" at some point?

Oh, perhaps the root cause of this is #31929 (closed).

/cc: @tmaczukin, @ayufan

@stanhu It definitely looks like the same problem, indeed!

Was it problem of transient CI Empty Secret variable error?

Yes, I think so.

@rymai Should we make the if ENV['RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL'] smarter, such as if ENV['RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL'].present??

Should we make the if ENV['RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL'] smarter, such as if ENV['RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL'].present??

Should we make the if ENV['RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL'] smarter, such as if ENV['RSPEC_PROFILING_POSTGRES_URL'].present??

Good idea, yes!

mentioned in merge request !11543 (merged)

assigned to @rymai

changed milestone to %9.3

closed via merge request !11543 (merged)

mentioned in commit 9d29eb7e