--local_test_jobs causes bazel to ignore local resource limitations

[drewmacrae]

Description of the bug:

I apply a cpu:4 tag to a set of sh_tests that requires 4 cores to run without timing out. When I set --local_tests_jobs the tests are dispatched regardless of the requirement.

What's the simplest, easiest way to reproduce this bug? Please provide a minimal example if possible.

Run 2 sh_tests that "sleep 10" with a cpu:1000 tag and --local_tests_jobs=2 on a multicore system and observe that they finish in ~10s total.

Which operating system are you running Bazel on?

Rolling debian testing Rodette

What is the output of bazel info release?

release 5.3.2

If bazel info release returns development version or (@non-git), tell us how you built Bazel.

No response

What's the output of git remote get-url origin; git rev-parse master; git rev-parse HEAD ?

https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel
d2aaf0cd66f10745aedee16330c2c053b848a507
ea1646d8d58f5252e55bb891b5eaee67778f23c7

Have you found anything relevant by searching the web?

No response

Any other information, logs, or outputs that you want to share?

This is related to and motivated by work on #16785 but affects bazel in general and the cpu tag in an undocumented way.

[drewmacrae]

Here's what it says in the docs:
"--local_test_jobs=<an integer, or a keyword ("auto", "HOST_CPUS", "HOST_RAM"), optionally followed by an operation ([-|]) eg. "auto", "HOST_CPUS.5"> default: "auto"
The max number of local test jobs to run concurrently. Takes an integer, or a keyword ("auto", "HOST_CPUS", "HOST_RAM"), optionally followed by an operation ([-|]) eg. "auto", "HOST_CPUS.5". 0 means local resources will limit the number of local test jobs to run concurrently instead. Setting this greater than the value for --jobs is ineffectual."

It does document that if 0, local resource limitations will limit the number, which implies that if non-zero they might not, but it's not explicitly stated, and having the cpu:n tags become a no-op isn't so user friendly and contradicts the spec here: https://bazel.build/reference/test-encyclopedia#other-resources

[github-actions]

Thank you for contributing to the Bazel repository! This issue has been marked as stale since it has not had any activity in the last 1+ years. It will be closed in the next 90 days unless any other activity occurs. If you think this issue is still relevant and should stay open, please post any comment here and the issue will no longer be marked as stale.

[DavidANeil]

I ran into this too. I only figured out what was going on by reading the bazel source code.