Skip to content

Ignore ImageMagick alerts in pipelines

Context and Problem Statement

We've received alerts from CI pipelines when end-to-end tests with Cypress wanted to render the link to an embedded PDF with a thumbnail. The problem was that ImageMagick was called to create the thumbnail, but PDF files are not available to pipelines, so that an error was logged about that missing file.

Decision Drivers

Alerts always require attention, and their root cause needs to be fixed. Ignoring alerts is unacceptable.

Considered Options

  • Provide all files from the live site to the pipeline
  • Prevent alerts in pipelines generally
  • Ignore that specific alert in pipelines
  • Ignore that specific alert generally

Decision Outcome

Chosen option: "Ignore that specific alert generally", because it is acceptable to ignore ImageMagick errors that are caused by a missing source file.

Consequences

  • Good, because the unnecessary alert will not be created any loinger
  • Bad, because we won't get alerts in production, if a thumbnail of a missing file would be requested

Pros and Cons of the Options

Provide all files from the live site to the pipeline

  • Good, because the pipeline would exactly match the live system and create the greatest possible certainty that the site actually works correctly
  • Bad, because the data volume can be far too big to make it available in pipelines

Prevent alerts in pipelines generally

  • Bad, because potential errors would remain unnoticed

Ignore that specific alert in pipelines

  • Good, because it's a known issue that doesn't hurt
  • Neutral, because it would require extra complexity to the alert setup to be aware of the stage

Ignore that specific alert generally

  • Good, because it's a known issue that doesn't hurt
  • Neutral, because it may theoretically miss a similar alert in production