Skip PR builds via commit message

[mikeharder]

We should try to add a mechanism to allow skipping PR builds via a commit message, to avoid running unnecessary builds when a change is known to be very low-risk. DevOps has a built-in feature to do this, but it only works for CI builds, not PR builds:

microsoft/azure-pipelines-agent#858 (comment)
microsoft/azure-pipelines-agent#1270 (comment)

We might be able to implement this using custom code which inspects the commit message and either stops the build or sets a flag which tells other steps to no-op.

[pllim]

Please, please, make this happen. I have been waiting for this.

[jhunkeler]

Yes, please implement this.

[mihaimircea]

This would be useful.

[AutumnEvans418]

We really need this as well.

[StephenHodgson]

any update on this?

[weshaggard]

No we don't have much of an update here. We do have some potential ideas to get some level of this functionality but unfortunately we cannot do this completely on our side it would require changes from Azure DevOps which I don't see happening.

cc @benbp

[mscheltienne]

I think MNE has a workaround that enables [skip azp] in a PR commit message to skip the Azure CI: https://github.com/mne-tools/mne-python/blob/948f0dc2745ba44d5add4faabc4090075bf1a770/azure-pipelines.yml#L16-L32

[weshaggard]

Thanks for the pointer. This is a similar workaround that we have been considering but just haven't implemented it yet.

[github-actions]

Hi @mikeharder, we deeply appreciate your input into this project. Regrettably, this issue has remained inactive for over 2 years, leading us to the decision to close it. We've implemented this policy to maintain the relevance of our issue queue and facilitate easier navigation for new contributors. If you still believe this topic requires attention, please feel free to create a new issue, referencing this one. Thank you for your understanding and ongoing support.