# Using Build Matrix for multiple Ubuntu distributions

**URL:** <https://travis-ci.community/t/using-build-matrix-for-multiple-ubuntu-distributions/9187>\
**Category:** Travis CI Discussions & Feedback\
**Tags:** travis-yml, build-matrix\
**Created:** [July 1, 2020, 5:59am UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/using-build-matrix-for-multiple-ubuntu-distributions/9187 "2020-07-01T05:59:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rajat2004](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/rajat2004/32/4244_2.png) [@rajat2004](https://travis-ci.community/u/rajat2004)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2020, 6:00am UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/using-build-matrix-for-multiple-ubuntu-distributions/9187/1 "2020-07-01T06:00:00Z")

</div>

Hi,  
I’m trying to test some scripts on multiple Ubuntu distributions such as Xenial, Bionic, Focal, etc. There are 5 tests to be run on each distribution, and currently using Xenial & Bionic, so 5\*2=10 jobs. After adding another distribution, it would increase to 15 jobs.

Currently, each of the 10 jobs is being specified separately, so 10 entries, and I would need to add 5. That didn’t look very clean to me (even though would need to do that once) and making any change would require changing it in multiple jobs. Therefore I’m trying to use a Build Matrix to reduce all this. This is my current `travis.yml`

```auto
language: python
python: 3.7
os: linux

# Build Matrix for Travis
dist:
  - xenial
  - bionic
  - focal

# Scripts to be tested
env:
  - CIINSTALL=yes SCRIPT=12 # BasicSetup + GenSoftware
  - CIINSTALL=yes SCRIPT=3 # ML-Basic
  - CIINSTALL=yes SCRIPT=4 # Build-OpenCV
  - CIINSTALL=yes SCRIPT=14 # BasicSetup + OpenCV (Conda OpenCV)
  - CIINSTALL=yes SCRIPT=5 # BuildML

script:
  # BasicSetup + GenSoftware
  - if [[$SCRIPT -eq 12]]; then
      ./1-BasicSetUp.sh;
      export PATH=/opt/anaconda3/bin:$PATH;
      hash -r;
      ./2-GenSoftware.sh;
    fi

  # ML-Basic
  - if [[$SCRIPT -eq 3]]; then
      ./3-ML-Basic.sh;
    fi

  # Build-OpenCV
  - if [[$SCRIPT -eq 4]]; then
      ./Build-OpenCV.sh;
      ffmpeg -version;
      gdb --ex='set confirm on' -ex=run -ex=bt -ex=quit --args python3 extras/opencv_test.py;
    fi

  # BasicSetup + OpenCV (Conda OpenCV)
  - if [[$SCRIPT -eq 14]]; then
      ./1-BasicSetUp.sh;
      export PATH=/opt/anaconda3/bin:$PATH;
      hash -r;
      ./Build-OpenCV.sh;
      ffmpeg -version;
      gdb --ex='set confirm on' -ex=run -ex=bt -ex=quit --args python extras/opencv_test.py;
    fi

  # BuildML
  - if [[$SCRIPT -eq 5]]; then
      ./Build-ML.sh;
    fi

before_install:
    - sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main universe restricted multiverse"
    - sudo apt-get update -qq
    - sudo apt-get install -y software-properties-common
    - sudo apt-get install -qq build-essential curl g++ python3-dev python3-setuptools gdb
    - echo 'America/Los_Angeles' | sudo tee /etc/timezone
    - sudo dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata

```

What I was hoping for - 3 dist \* 5 env = 15 jobs  
However, I’m getting only 5 jobs - For the `xenial` distribution only ([https://travis-ci.com/github/rajat2004/Ubuntu-Setup-Scripts/builds/173785509](https://travis-ci.com/github/rajat2004/Ubuntu-Setup-Scripts/builds/173785509))  
My commit - [https://github.com/rajat2004/Ubuntu-Setup-Scripts/commit/cf7e9c9af2db11f1056e1284d51cbeb1490da10f](https://github.com/rajat2004/Ubuntu-Setup-Scripts/commit/cf7e9c9af2db11f1056e1284d51cbeb1490da10f) (Earlier use of 10 jobs an be seen in this)

Is there any way to use multiple distributions in a build matrix? I searched but didn’t find any such example.

I’m not very experienced in using Travis, and this is my first time posting here, so please let me know if any more details are required, etc.

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jinscoe123](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/jinscoe123/32/5000_2.png) [@jinscoe123](https://travis-ci.community/u/jinscoe123)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 2:19am UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/using-build-matrix-for-multiple-ubuntu-distributions/9187/2 "2020-08-03T02:19:38Z")

</div>

I am also experiencing the same difficulty when trying to build with multiple distributions. If anyone has an answer to this question, it would be much appreciated. I [posted](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63222478/how-to-use-travis-ci-build-matrix-with-multiple-ubuntu-distributions) the same question on SO before seeing this. One piece of insight that I can provide is that it doesn’t seem possible to specify `dist` as a list. See the reference for `dist`, [here](https://config.travis-ci.com/ref/dist), and compare it to, say, the reference for `os`, [here](https://config.travis-ci.com/ref/os).

If any Travis CI staff happen to read this comment, may I ask why this is the case? And would it be possible to update Travis to use the build matrix for multiple distributions?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![native-api](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/native-api/32/430_2.png) [@native-api](https://travis-ci.community/u/native-api)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 8:09am UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/using-build-matrix-for-multiple-ubuntu-distributions/9187/3 "2020-08-03T08:09:02Z")

</div>

`dist:` is not an axis. So you need to create jobs with different `dist:` manually:

```auto
jobs:
  include:
   - dist: xenial
   - dist: bionic
   - dist: focal

```

See [https://travis-ci.org/github/native-api/test\_travis/builds/555132125/config](https://travis-ci.org/github/native-api/test_travis/builds/555132125/config) for an example.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rajat2004](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/rajat2004/32/4244_2.png) [@rajat2004](https://travis-ci.community/u/rajat2004)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 5:01am UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/using-build-matrix-for-multiple-ubuntu-distributions/9187/4 "2020-08-04T05:01:58Z")

</div>

@native-api Thanks for the info! I tried it out, however it’s creating 7 jobs, 5 for `xenial` (which is not present in config right now) and 1 each for `bionic` & `focal`. The matrix is being expanded on `xenial` only.  
Travis build - [https://travis-ci.com/github/rajat2004/Ubuntu-Setup-Scripts/builds/178315503](https://travis-ci.com/github/rajat2004/Ubuntu-Setup-Scripts/builds/178315503)  
Am I doing something wrong here?

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![native-api](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/native-api/32/430_2.png) [@native-api](https://travis-ci.community/u/native-api)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 9:29am UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/using-build-matrix-for-multiple-ubuntu-distributions/9187/5 "2020-08-04T09:29:18Z")

</div>

Since it’s not an axis, matrix expansion only uses the value specified at global level (you have nothing specified and `xenial` is currently the default). You’ll need to specify all jobs for `bionic` and `focal` by hand under `jobs: include:`.

* * *

You can create a feature request to change that, or perhaps create a pull request against [https://github.com/travis-ci/travis-yml](https://github.com/travis-ci/travis-yml) (I believe they use it for matrix expansion logic now, at least with build config validation enabled).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rajat2004](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/rajat2004/32/4244_2.png) [@rajat2004](https://travis-ci.community/u/rajat2004)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 1:07pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/using-build-matrix-for-multiple-ubuntu-distributions/9187/6 "2020-08-04T13:07:01Z")

</div>

@native-api Yup, currently doing that only - [https://github.com/rsnk96/Ubuntu-Setup-Scripts/blob/master/.travis.yml](https://github.com/rsnk96/Ubuntu-Setup-Scripts/blob/master/.travis.yml)  
I’ve opened an issue - [https://github.com/travis-ci/travis-yml/issues/187](https://github.com/travis-ci/travis-yml/issues/187)  
Haven’t contributed to Travis before, or actually even coded in Ruby, so let’s see. But would love to contribute, should be fun!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![native-api](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/native-api/32/430_2.png) [@native-api](https://travis-ci.community/u/native-api)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 9:09am UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/using-build-matrix-for-multiple-ubuntu-distributions/9187/7 "2020-09-25T09:09:29Z")

</div>

2 posts were split to a new topic: [Specify multiple compilers](https://travis-ci.community/t/specify-multiple-compilers/10003)