Tests workflow (automl/Auto-PyTorch)

The Tests workflow from automl/Auto-PyTorch, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

What it does

This is the Tests workflow from the automl/Auto-PyTorch repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its Apache-2.0 license.

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

The workflow

name: Tests

on:
  schedule:
    # Every Truesday at 7AM UTC
    # TODO teporary set to every day just for the PR
    #- cron: '0 07 * * 2'
    - cron: '0 07 * * *'

jobs:

  ubuntu:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      fail-fast:  false
      matrix:
        python-version: [3.8]

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      with:
        ref: development
        submodules: recursive
    - name: Setup Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
      uses: actions/setup-python@v2
      with:
        python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}

    - name: Install test dependencies
      run: |
        python -m pip install --upgrade pip
        pip install -e .[forecasting,test]

    - name: Run tests
      run: |
        python -m pytest --durations=200 cicd/test_preselected_configs.py -vs

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: Tests
 
on:
  schedule:
    # Every Truesday at 7AM UTC
    # TODO teporary set to every day just for the PR
    #- cron: '0 07 * * 2'
    - cron: '0 07 * * *'
 
jobs:
 
  ubuntu:
    timeout-minutes: 30
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    strategy:
      fail-fast:  false
      matrix:
        python-version: [3.8]
 
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      with:
        ref: development
        submodules: recursive
    - name: Setup Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
      uses: actions/setup-python@v2
      with:
        cache: 'pip'
        python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
 
    - name: Install test dependencies
      run: |
        python -m pip install --upgrade pip
        pip install -e .[forecasting,test]
 
    - name: Run tests
      run: |
        python -m pytest --durations=200 cicd/test_preselected_configs.py -vs
 

What changed

• Run on Latchkey managed runners with one line (runs-on), which apply the fixes below automatically and self-heal transient failures. This example uses latchkey-small; pick the runner size that fits the job.
• 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