Improve act4-build image caching

[nazar-pc]

This reduced the diff to a single layer when dependencies remain the same.

As a small piece of related feedback, it'd be nice if /work was the only writable directory during ELF building. Currently other directories are modified too.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Updates the ACT4 build Docker image to improve layer caching by separating dependency installation from the full repo copy, aiming to reduce rebuild cost when only source files change.

Changes:

• Copy only tool/dependency manifest files into the dependency-warm stage to improve Docker layer cache hit rate.
• Adjust dependency warm commands (bundle install, uv sync) and only copy the resulting /act4/.venv into the final image.
• Move the full-repo COPY to the end of the Dockerfile (with --chmod=777) so typical source changes affect only the last layer.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

[nazar-pc]

#1362 caused regression for container image since the user running inside container apparently can't change permissions of files despite it it is able to read/write/delete the files, but not change permissions because of owner mismatch:

Details

ubuntu@7ba16c926d80:/act4$ CONFIG_FILES=config/cores/cve2/cv32e20/test_config.yaml make
Generating covergroups... ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━   0% -:--:--
╭─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Traceback (most recent call last) ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ /act4/generators/coverage/src/covergroupgen/cli.py:44 in run                                                                                                                                                                     │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│   41 │   ] = "",                                                                                                                                                                                                                 │
│   42 ) -> None:                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│   43 │   """Generate functional covergroups for RISC-V instructions from CSV testplans."""                                                                                                                                       │
│ ❱ 44 │   generate_covergroups(testplan_dir, output_dir, extensions, exclude)                                                                                                                                                     │
│   45                                                                                                                                                                                                                             │
│   46                                                                                                                                                                                                                             │
│   47 def main() -> None:                                                                                                                                                                                                         │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│ /act4/generators/coverage/src/covergroupgen/generate.py:592 in generate_covergroups                                                                                                                                              │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│   589 │   │   test_plans = all_test_plans                                                                                                                                                                                        │
│   590 │                                                                                                                                                                                                                          │
│   591 │   templates = read_covergroup_templates()                                                                                                                                                                                │
│ ❱ 592 │   write_covergroups(test_plans, templates, output_dir)                                                                                                                                                                   │
│   593 │   write_coverage_headers(all_test_plans, output_dir, templates)                                                                                                                                                          │
│   594 │   write_instruction_sample_file(all_test_plans, templates, output_dir)                                                                                                                                                   │
│   595                                                                                                                                                                                                                            │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│ /act4/generators/coverage/src/covergroupgen/generate.py:486 in write_covergroups                                                                                                                                                 │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│   483 │   │   lines.append(customize_template(templates, sample_end, arch))                                                                                                                                                      │
│   484 │   │                                                                                                                                                                                                                      │
│   485 │   │   # Write both files                                                                                                                                                                                                 │
│ ❱ 486 │   │   _write_readonly(unpriv_dir / f"{arch}_coverage.svh", "".join(lines))                                                                                                                                               │
│   487 │   │   _write_readonly(unpriv_dir / f"{arch}_coverage_init.svh", "".join(init_lines))                                                                                                                                     │
│   488                                                                                                                                                                                                                            │
│   489                                                                                                                                                                                                                            │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│ /act4/generators/coverage/src/covergroupgen/generate.py:54 in _write_readonly                                                                                                                                                    │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│    51 def _write_readonly(path: Path, content: str) -> None:                                                                                                                                                                     │
│    52 │   """Write content to a generated file and mark it read-only to deter manual edits."""                                                                                                                                   │
│    53 │   if path.exists():                                                                                                                                                                                                      │
│ ❱  54 │   │   path.chmod(_WRITABLE_MODE)                                                                                                                                                                                         │
│    55 │   path.write_text(content)                                                                                                                                                                                               │
│    56 │   path.chmod(_READONLY_MODE)                                                                                                                                                                                             │
│    57                                                                                                                                                                                                                            │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│ /home/shared/.local/share/uv/python/cpython-3.14.4-linux-x86_64-gnu/lib/python3.14/pathlib/__init__.py:1027 in chmod                                                                                                             │
│                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
│   1024 │   │   """                                                                                                                                                                                                               │
│   1025 │   │   Change the permissions of the path, like os.chmod().                                                                                                                                                              │
│   1026 │   │   """                                                                                                                                                                                                               │
│ ❱ 1027 │   │   os.chmod(self, mode, follow_symlinks=follow_symlinks)                                                                                                                                                             │
│   1028 │                                                                                                                                                                                                                         │
│   1029 │   def lchmod(self, mode):                                                                                                                                                                                               │
│   1030 │   │   """                                                                                                                                                                                                               │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: 'coverpoints/unpriv/D_coverage.svh'
make: *** [Makefile:146: work/stamps/covergroupgen.stamp] Error 1


ubuntu@7ba16c926d80:/act4$ ls -alh coverpoints/unpriv/D_coverage.svh
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 189K Apr 25 02:39 coverpoints/unpriv/D_coverage.svh
ubuntu@7ba16c926d80:/act4$ chmod 644 coverpoints/unpriv/D_coverage.svh
chmod: changing permissions of 'coverpoints/unpriv/D_coverage.svh': Operation not permitted

In fact I'm not sure why it is trying to modify those files unconditionally all the time, that feels wrong. If you want to avoid file changes, you can commit them to the repo and then add to .gitignore, which will stop tracking further changes unless added explicitly with git add.

[nazar-pc]

@jordancarlin what is your preference to dealing with ^ regression? Should I just delete the filed from the image and let it re-generate with correct permissions at the execution moment or will it be fixed on some other level?

[jordancarlin]

@jordancarlin what is your preference to dealing with ^ regression? Should I just delete the filed from the image and let it re-generate with correct permissions at the execution moment or will it be fixed on some other level?

I'm hoping #1393 should fix that. Can you give it a try?

In terms of the overall Docker image, I am thinking about doing a more significant overhaul that splits things into an act-build container that does not contain the repo and is updated only when the Dockerfile or dependencies change and a separate act4 image that includes the repo and is only published whenever there is a new release. That should help to avoid the package store bloat. Thoughts?

[nazar-pc]

With this PR it mostly means moving the last line and .venv copying into a separate stage and then specifying the stage to build as target.

Though I'm more generally skeptical on usefulness of building :latest in the first place and vote for not building anything on act4 branch by default.

[nazar-pc]

Let me know if you still prefer to have two images and I'll include corresponding changes in this PR.

[nazar-pc]

Just rebased on act4, no other changes. When combined with #1393 it works as expected.

[jordancarlin]

There are still lots of rapid enhancements happening on the latest act4 branch, so I think it is worthwhile to make it easy for people to use the latest version. I agree that constantly rebuilding the image is unnecessary though, which is why I thought the two image approach might make more sense.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

[nazar-pc]

Let me try the split in my branch then, will probably take an hour or so to run a CI build to test it on my end and I'll push it here

[nazar-pc]

I think the latest revision should be doing what you suggested

[nazar-pc]

@jordancarlin do you have any other feedback here?