Unreliable test test_clipboard:test_round_trip_frame

[ghost]

=============================================================================
FAILURE: test_round_trip_frame (pandas.io.tests.test_clipboard.TestClipboard)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\Python33-AMD64\Lib\unittest\case.py", line 384, in _executeTestPart
    function()
  File "C:\workspace\pandas_tests\BITS\64\PYTHONVER\33\pandas\io\tests\test_clipboard.py", line 67, in test_round_trip_frame
    self.check_round_trip_frame(dt)
  File "C:\workspace\pandas_tests\BITS\64\PYTHONVER\33\pandas\io\tests\test_clipboard.py", line 55, in check_round_trip_frame
    tm.assert_frame_equal(data, result, check_dtype=False)
  File "C:\workspace\pandas_tests\BITS\64\PYTHONVER\33\pandas\util\testing.py", line 477, in assert_frame_equal
    assert_index_equal(left.columns, right.columns)
  File "C:\workspace\pandas_tests\BITS\64\PYTHONVER\33\pandas\util\testing.py", line 423, in assert_index_equal
    right.dtype))
AssertionError: [index] left [object Index(['TeN9hs1zZI', 'gvGSK2jSbR', 'AvE1VqQppQ'], dtype='object')], right [Index(['Y3XElgd5QX', 'Xp1Xv4NQF2', 'SoKJHMsx3C'], dtype='object') object]

Many of the spurious failures on the CI status page come from this test
sporadically failing on windows.

Figure out if it's a real issue or not.

[cpcloud]

I'll take this ... I think I wrote that test

[ghost]

related #5895, #4778 (comment), #4396.

This test is a major offender, we need to disable it. I thought it might be caused by me RDPing
into the box and using the clipboard during tests (unlikely but possible), but now that I think of
it it's clear the test is inherently racy. If you run multiple CI jobs on the same
box they will ocassionally step on each other's toes. The clipboard is a shared global resource.

[jreback]

how about a decorator that is only run on demand with nose (so done only manually). Cn do it as part of the release cycle.

[cpcloud]

I suppose a lock would be overkill...decorator sounds good ... just have to remember to actually use it :)

[jreback]

yep...but at least they will generally run locally by default (unless you exclude them )