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Course Library · Lesson 5 of 6
Digital · Guided lesson

Stop a failed release and preserve the previous artifact

About 29 minutes · 7 reading + 22 practice and checks
Time includes reading, practice, and questions. Extra videos or further study are optional.
See this course’s project requirements

A local Python release script that validates source, runs tests, packages only allowlisted files, writes checksums and stops on a failing stage.

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • Create an ordered stage/gate map with explicit failure branches.
  • Document the exact child command, working directory, timeout, and failure interpretation.
  • Create and inspect an actual archive whose member list exactly matches the release allowlist.
  • Recompute the delivered archive digest and explain integrity versus correctness/provenance.
  • Demonstrate failed-test stop and byte-preserving overwrite refusal in isolated copies.
  • Deliver one declared local release with stage, package, checksum, failure, and operational-limit evidence.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • The implementation or declared simulation follows the supplied contract and retains inspectable original inputs.
  • Normal, boundary and rejected cases are recorded with expected versus observed results.
  • The changed case has a correct explanation and does not rely on hidden state.
  • The project includes source, outputs, instructions and honest tool, privacy and verification limits.
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Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

Original local greeting project: greeting.py, test-greeting.py, usage.txt, release.py and test-pipeline.py. Its release archive may contain only greeting.py and usage.txt. No external CI account, deployment, or package installation is required.

The idea

A failed test must not create a new release, and a retry must not silently overwrite a retained artifact. Recovery should use a new declared output or a repaired fresh copy.

Follow along

Stop a failed release and preserve the previous artifact — original worked practice

A failed test must not create a new release, and a retry must not silently overwrite a retained artifact. Recovery should use a new declared output or a repaired fresh copy.

Original local greeting project: greeting.py, test-greeting.py, usage.txt, release.py and test-pipeline.py. Its release archive may contain only greeting.py and usage.txt. No external CI account, deployment, or package installation is required.

  1. 1. Step 1

    Read test-pipeline.py using separate temporary good and bad source folders.

    You should see: The failure test cannot touch the retained working source.

    A failed test must not create a new release, and a retry must not silently overwrite a retained artifact. Recovery should use a new declared output or a repaired fresh copy.

  2. 2. Step 2

    Inspect the bad copy changing only the expected greeting assertion.

    You should see: The child test fails while source remains valid Python.

    A failed test must not create a new release, and a retry must not silently overwrite a retained artifact. Recovery should use a new declared output or a repaired fresh copy.

  3. 3. Step 3

    Run python3 test-pipeline.py and inspect the failed-test-stop and overwrite-refusal assertions.

    You should see: No ZIP is created for the bad copy; the previous good ZIP remains byte-identical after refused overwrite.

    A failed test must not create a new release, and a retry must not silently overwrite a retained artifact. Recovery should use a new declared output or a repaired fresh copy.

  4. 4. Step 4

    Record the bounded retry procedure: repair, test, and use a fresh named output.

    You should see: A fail-stop and checkpoint-preservation record.

    A failed test must not create a new release, and a retry must not silently overwrite a retained artifact. Recovery should use a new declared output or a repaired fresh copy.

Now change one thing

release-one already contains a ZIP. May a repeated command silently replace it under this contract?

Your work

What to finish

Demonstrate failed-test stop and byte-preserving overwrite refusal in isolated copies.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Overwriting a known artifact during retry or packaging after a failed assertion.

How can I tell I understand it?

Demonstrate the rule: A failed test must not create a new release, and a retry must not silently overwrite a retained artifact. Recovery should use a new declared output or a repaired fresh copy. Use the supplied variant to distinguish a changed result from a broken implementation.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1What does the bad-test pipeline case require?
2Why test overwrite refusal against the good archive bytes?
3What is an appropriate bounded retry after repairing a failed assertion?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
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Finish this lesson

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Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

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Sources and further reading

Explore the references behind this lesson.

docs.python.org — subprocess.html
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Relevant documented module/API behavior inspected during expansion authoring; actual execution evidence is recorded separately. No grant eligibility is established.

Access: Official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01. Documentation reading does not certify execution in every native tool or browser.

Reuse: Original local practice files, fictional data, worked examples and questions. Concepts paraphrased and linked; source exercises are not copied.

docs.python.org — zipfile.html
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Relevant documented module/API behavior inspected during expansion authoring; actual execution evidence is recorded separately. No grant eligibility is established.

Access: Official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01. Documentation reading does not certify execution in every native tool or browser.

Reuse: Original local practice files, fictional data, worked examples and questions. Concepts paraphrased and linked; source exercises are not copied.

docs.python.org — hashlib.html
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Relevant documented module/API behavior inspected during expansion authoring; actual execution evidence is recorded separately. No grant eligibility is established.

Access: Official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01. Documentation reading does not certify execution in every native tool or browser.

Reuse: Original local practice files, fictional data, worked examples and questions. Concepts paraphrased and linked; source exercises are not copied.

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