ci: run status check always but consider cancellations failures

[cpcloud]

This PR should address the issue of cancelled-due-to-failure-but-still-times-out shenanigans present in GitHub Actions. Details and links are in the comment.

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[cpcloud]

/ok to test

[cpcloud]

/ok to test

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Overview

Greptile Summary

This PR attempts to fix a GitHub Actions workflow issue where cancelled jobs (triggered by critical failures in dependencies) would cause timeouts but paradoxically allow builds to pass. The change modifies the final status check job in ci.yml to: (1) always run regardless of dependency status (via if: always()), (2) explicitly check if any dependent job was cancelled, and (3) fail the build if cancellations are detected. The workflow uses a final gate job pattern where checks depends on test-linux-64, test-linux-aarch64, test-windows, and doc—this is common in repos that need a single mergeable status check across multiple parallel job matrices.

PR Description Notes:

• The PR description references "Details and links are in the comment" but no such comment is visible in the provided metadata.

Critical Issues

Syntax Error: Bash cannot evaluate GitHub Actions expressions directly

Lines 222-225 contain a fatal flaw—the code attempts to use GitHub Actions template syntax ${{ ... }} inside a bash if statement:

if ${{ needs.test-linux-64.result == 'cancelled' || ... }}; then

This will fail because:

1. GitHub Actions expressions are evaluated during workflow compilation, before the runner executes bash
2. The bash interpreter will receive malformed syntax like if true || false; then (literal boolean tokens, not valid bash)
3. The correct pattern is to interpolate each expression as a string and use bash string comparison:

if [[ "${{ needs.test-linux-64.result }}" == "cancelled" ]] || \[[ "${{ needs.test-linux-aarch64.result }}" == "cancelled" ]] || \[[ "${{ needs.test-windows.result }}" == "cancelled" ]] || \[[ "${{ needs.doc.result }}" == "cancelled" ]]; then

Alternative approach: Use the if: condition at the step level with pure GitHub Actions expression syntax (no bash):

- name: Fail if any dependency was cancelledif: | needs.test-linux-64.result == 'cancelled' || needs.test-linux-aarch64.result == 'cancelled' || needs.test-windows.result == 'cancelled' || needs.doc.result == 'cancelled'run: exit 1

This will prevent merges when dependencies are cancelled, which is the intended behavior.

Confidence Score

1 out of 5 — The PR will not achieve its goal due to the syntax error. The logic is sound, but the implementation is broken and must be corrected before merge.

_{1 file reviewed, no comments}

_{Edit Code Review Agent Settings | Greptile}

[cpcloud]

/ok to test

[cpcloud]

/ok to test

[jrhemstad]

Ah yes, I feel every proper GHA-based status check workflow needs a comment expressing the dismay and astonishment that came from this discovery. See also: https://github.com/NVIDIA/cccl/blob/main/.github/workflows/ci-workflow-pull-request.yml#L259-L263

🙂

[cpcloud]

Seems like cancellation is working: https://github.com/NVIDIA/cuda-python/actions/runs/18721400957/job/53395760809?pr=1174

I manually cancelled and that caused the status check to fail.

[cpcloud]

/ok to test

[github-actions]

Doc Preview CI
🚀 View preview at https://nvidia.github.io/cuda-python/pr-preview/pr-1174/
https://nvidia.github.io/cuda-python/pr-preview/pr-1174/cuda-core/
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https://nvidia.github.io/cuda-python/pr-preview/pr-1174/cuda-pathfinder/
Preview will be ready when the GitHub Pages deployment is complete.

[cpcloud]

/ok to test

[cpcloud]

/ok to test

[cpcloud]

/ok to test

[mdboom]

🙃