[14_0_X] Protect against null VertexRef in deep_helpers.cc

[mandrenguyen]

backport of #45296

[cmsbuild]

A new Pull Request was created by @mandrenguyen for CMSSW_14_0_X.

It involves the following packages:

• RecoBTag/FeatureTools (reconstruction)

@jfernan2, @mandrenguyen, @cmsbuild can you please review it and eventually sign? Thanks.
@Ming-Yan, @hqucms, @andrzejnovak, @Senphy, @castaned, @missirol, @AlexDeMoor, @demuller this is something you requested to watch as well.
@antoniovilela, @sextonkennedy, @rappoccio you are the release manager for this.

cms-bot commands are listed here

• Backported from Protect against null VertexRef in deep_helpers.cc #45296

[cmsbuild]

cms-bot internal usage

[mandrenguyen]

type btv

[mandrenguyen]

please test

[cmsbuild]

+1

Summary: https://cmssdt.cern.ch/SDT/jenkins-artifacts/pull-request-integration/PR-6cc8d0/40054/summary.html
COMMIT: 62f7732
CMSSW: CMSSW_14_0_X_2024-06-24-2300/el8_amd64_gcc12
User test area: For local testing, you can use /cvmfs/cms-ci.cern.ch/week1/cms-sw/cmssw/45297/40054/install.sh to create a dev area with all the needed externals and cmssw changes.

Comparison Summary

Summary:

• You potentially removed 86 lines from the logs
• Reco comparison results: 46 differences found in the comparisons
• DQMHistoTests: Total files compared: 48
• DQMHistoTests: Total histograms compared: 3342528
• DQMHistoTests: Total failures: 0
• DQMHistoTests: Total nulls: 0
• DQMHistoTests: Total successes: 3342508
• DQMHistoTests: Total skipped: 20
• DQMHistoTests: Total Missing objects: 0
• DQMHistoSizes: Histogram memory added: 0.0 KiB( 47 files compared)
• Checked 202 log files, 165 edm output root files, 48 DQM output files
• TriggerResults: no differences found

[mandrenguyen]

+1

[cmsbuild]

This pull request is fully signed and it will be integrated in one of the next CMSSW_14_0_X IBs (tests are also fine) and once validation in the development release cycle CMSSW_14_1_X is complete. This pull request will now be reviewed by the release team before it's merged. @antoniovilela, @sextonkennedy, @rappoccio (and backports should be raised in the release meeting by the corresponding L2)

[mandrenguyen]

urgent
At joint ops the ORM shifter (David Lange) suggested that this PR could be patch-compatible. Otherwise, it might be a while before this is included in the release.
We could discuss this at the Offline Release Planning meeting tomorrow.

[antoniovilela]

+1