Cron Tests workflow (astropy/halotools)

The Cron Tests workflow from astropy/halotools, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

CI health: D - needs work

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Source: astropy/halotools.github/workflows/cron_tests.yamlLicense BSD-3-ClauseView source

What it does

This is the Cron Tests workflow from the astropy/halotools repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its BSD-3-Clause license.

Below, Latchkey shows a faster, safer version produced by its optimization engine.

The workflow

workflow (.yml)

name: Cron Tests

on:
  workflow_dispatch: null
  schedule:
    # Runs "First of every month at 3:15am Central"
    - cron: '15 8 1 * *'
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - master

jobs:
  # Github Actions supports ubuntu, windows, and macos virtual environments:
  # https://help.github.com/en/actions/reference/virtual-environments-for-github-hosted-runners
  ci_tests:
    name: ${{ matrix.name }}
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - name: Ubuntu - Python 3.11 with all optional dependencies
            os: ubuntu-latest
            python: "3.11"
            toxenv: 'py311-test-alldeps'

          - name: MacOs - Python 3.11 with all optional dependencies
            os: macos-latest
            python: "3.11"
            toxenv: 'py311-test-alldeps'

          - name: Ubuntu - Python 3.12 with all optional dependencies
            os: ubuntu-latest
            python: "3.12"
            toxenv: 'py312-test-alldeps'

          - name: MacOs - Python 3.12 with all optional dependencies
            os: macos-latest
            python: "3.12"
            toxenv: 'py312-test-alldeps'

    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0  # v7.0.0
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0
    - name: Set up python ${{ matrix.python }} on ${{ matrix.os }}
      uses: actions/setup-python@ece7cb06caefa5fff74198d8649806c4678c61a1  # v6.3.0
      with:
        python-version: ${{ matrix.python }}
    - name: Install base dependencies
      run: |
        python -m pip install --upgrade pip
        python -m pip install tox codecov
    - name: Test with tox
      run: |
        tox -e ${{ matrix.toxenv }}

The same workflow, on Latchkey

Estimated ~20% faster on cache hits, plus fewer wasted runs and a safer supply chain. Added and changed lines are highlighted.

name: Cron Tests
 
on:
  workflow_dispatch: null
  schedule:
    # Runs "First of every month at 3:15am Central"
    - cron: '15 8 1 * *'
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - master
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  # Github Actions supports ubuntu, windows, and macos virtual environments:
  # https://help.github.com/en/actions/reference/virtual-environments-for-github-hosted-runners
  ci_tests:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    name: ${{ matrix.name }}
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - name: Ubuntu - Python 3.11 with all optional dependencies
            os: ubuntu-latest
            python: "3.11"
            toxenv: 'py311-test-alldeps'
 
          - name: MacOs - Python 3.11 with all optional dependencies
            os: macos-latest
            python: "3.11"
            toxenv: 'py311-test-alldeps'
 
          - name: Ubuntu - Python 3.12 with all optional dependencies
            os: ubuntu-latest
            python: "3.12"
            toxenv: 'py312-test-alldeps'
 
          - name: MacOs - Python 3.12 with all optional dependencies
            os: macos-latest
            python: "3.12"
            toxenv: 'py312-test-alldeps'
 
    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@9c091bb21b7c1c1d1991bb908d89e4e9dddfe3e0  # v7.0.0
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0
    - name: Set up python ${{ matrix.python }} on ${{ matrix.os }}
      uses: actions/setup-python@ece7cb06caefa5fff74198d8649806c4678c61a1  # v6.3.0
      with:
        cache: 'pip'
        python-version: ${{ matrix.python }}
    - name: Install base dependencies
      run: |
        python -m pip install --upgrade pip
        python -m pip install tox codecov
    - name: Test with tox
      run: |
        tox -e ${{ matrix.toxenv }}

What changed

Cancel superseded runs when a branch or PR gets a newer push.
Cache dependency installs on the setup step so they are served from cache.
Add a job timeout so a hung step cannot burn hours of runner time.

What Latchkey heals here

This workflow has steps that commonly fail on transient issues (network, registries, flaky browsers). On Latchkey managed runners they are detected, retried, and self-healed instead of failing your build:

Dependency installs

This workflow runs 1 job per trigger. On Latchkey the same minutes cost up to 58% less than GitHub-hosted, with zero queue time.

Actions used in this workflow

actions/checkout actions/setup-python