using an action option via mode configuration does not work

[dmargala]

A colleague noticed that some of our execution mode configurations are no longer working as expected after upgrading to reframe 4.7 and pinpointed the specific commit where the behavior seemed to change:

After some manual bisection on git tag -l I found that this seems to have started breaking between 4.6.4 and 4.7.0. It looks like commit aa75c37 was the one where it started failing.

It seems like maybe an initial parsing of the cli arguments is failing before the options for the specified mode are added.

Here's a minimal reproducer:

> cat test-config.py
site_configuration = {
    'modes': [
        {
            'name': 'run',
            'options': ['--run']
        }
    ]
}
> reframe --version
4.7.1
> reframe -C test-config.py --mode=run
usage: reframe [-h] [--compress-report] [--dont-restage] [--keep-stage-files]
               [-o DIR] [--perflogdir DIR] [--prefix DIR] [--report-file FILE]
               [--report-junit FILE] [-s DIR] [--save-log-files]
               [--timestamp [TIMEFMT]] [-c PATH] [-R] [--cpu-only] [--failed]
               [--gpu-only] [--maintainer PATTERN] [-n PATTERN] [-p PATTERN]
               [-T PATTERN] [-t PATTERN] [-x PATTERN] [-E EXPR]
               (--ci-generate FILE | --delete-stored-sessions QUERY | --describe | --describe-stored-sessions QUERY | --describe-stored-testcases QUERY | --detect-host-topology [FILE] | --dry-run | -L [{C,T}] | --list-stored-sessions [QUERY] | --list-stored-testcases QUERY | -l [{C,T}] | --list-tags | --performance-compare CMPSPEC | -r | --show-config [PARAM] | -V)
               [--disable-hook NAME] [--duration TIMEOUT] [--exec-order ORDER]
               [--exec-policy POLICY] [--flex-alloc-nodes {all|STATE|NUM}]
               [--flex-alloc-strict] [-J OPT] [--max-retries NUM]
               [--maxfail NUM] [--mode MODE] [--reruns N]
               [--restore-session [REPORT]] [--retries-threshold VALUE[%]]
               [-S [TEST.]VAR=VAL] [--skip-performance-check]
               [--skip-prgenv-check] [--skip-sanity-check]
               [--skip-system-check] [-M MAPPING] [-m MOD]
               [--module-mappings FILE] [--module-path PATH]
               [--non-default-craype] [--purge-env] [-u MOD]
               [--distribute [{all|avail|STATE}]] [-P VAR:VAL0,VAL1,...]
               [--repeat N] [--performance-report [PERFORMANCE_REPORT]]
               [--session-extras KV_DATA] [-C FILE] [--failure-stats]
               [--nocolor] [--system SYSTEM]
               [--table-format {csv,pretty,plain}] [-v] [-q]
reframe: error: one of the arguments --ci-generate --delete-stored-sessions --describe --describe-stored-sessions --describe-stored-testcases --detect-host-topology --dry-run -L/--list-detailed --list-stored-sessions --list-stored-testcases -l/--list --list-tags --performance-compare -r/--run --show-config -V/--version is required

[vkarak]

Indeed, this will not work with ReFrame >= 4.7. You will have to pass the action option outside the mode. This change of behaviour for modes has gone undocumented and we should update the docs.

Making the --mode option an "action" mode would automatically require the mode's options to include a real action (-r, -l etc.), which is against the original intent of execution modes.

[dmargala]

ah okay, thanks for the explanation!