CI verifies that Lotus works with existing common smart contract developer tools

[BigLep]

Done Criteria

We have a CI check that asserts that https://github.com/filecoin-project/fevm-contract-tests still pass against Lotus.

Why Important

Currently many Lotus maintainers aren't cognizant of EVM developer toolchains and may not be able to anticipate breakages. if a Lotus change breaks common EVM developer tools we at the minimum want to know about it and likely want to address the issue then.

User/Customer

Maintainers/contributors to make sure they don't cause regressions. This is being done in service of those doing smart contract development with FEVM.

Notes

1. https://github.com/filecoin-project/fevm-contract-tests needs updating so it can be run against Lotus.
2. If there are things in that repo that aren't passing because of FEVM/Lotus issues, I think we should disable them but have the tracking item in Lotus' repo to fix and then reenable. That way we know where we stand with existing/common tool support and Lotus can still hold the line to not regress further.
3. This is being done in partnerhsip between Lotus maintainers and FIL-B since they are more experienced with these toolchains (e.g., hardhat, openzeppelin). FIL-B owns making sure https://github.com/filecoin-project/fevm-contract-tests is a good test suite, and Lotus maintainers own making sure it runs in Lotus CI and responding/fixing issues. That said, others are welcome to jump in and contribute here!
4. #fil-lotus-dev conversation where this was first discussed: https://filecoinproject.slack.com/archives/CP50PPW2X/p1723073155821379

[snissn]

Check this repo out where I think a lot of the concerns of "FEVM/Lotus issues" are fixed:

https://github.com/consensus-shipyard/fevm-contract-tests

and

consensus-shipyard/ipc#662

here's a recent run of the CI https://github.com/consensus-shipyard/ipc/actions/runs/10368566513/job/28702463734

[BigLep]

Thanks @snissn. Are you suggesting we should be able to follow what consensus-shipyard/ipc does to have these tests run in Lotus' CI?

Also, do you know why this was forked from filecoin-project vs. being updated there?

[rvagg]

That's pretty cool, does this CI touch Lotus at all as it is, or is this all fendermint and the rest of the IPC stack?

[BigLep]

For visibility, work is being done to update fevm-contract-tests in filecoin-project/fevm-contract-tests#26

[BigLep]

2024-09-04 maintainer conversation notes: this is going to need to run on a periodic basis (and not against each PR) because the tests can take a long time to run.

Implementation note: we can follow a similar pattern of #12234 to run this on cron and open/update an issue on failure.