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SCons Build workflow (SCons/scons)

The SCons Build workflow from SCons/scons, explained and optimized by Latchkey.

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Source: SCons/scons.github/workflows/scons-package.ymlLicense MITView source

What it does

This is the SCons Build workflow from the SCons/scons repository, a real project running GitHub Actions. It is shown here with attribution under its MIT license.

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

The workflow

workflow (.yml)
# This action builds SCons, mainly to make sure the docs generate.

name: SCons Build

on:
  push:
    branches: [ master ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master ]

jobs:
  package:

    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4

    - name: Set up Python 3.14
      uses: actions/setup-python@v5
      with:
        python-version: '3.14'
        cache: 'pip'

    - name: Install dependencies
      run: |
        python -m pip install --progress-bar off --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
        #python -m pip install flake8 pytest
        if [ -f requirements-pkg.txt ]; then pip install --progress-bar off -r requirements-pkg.txt; elif [ -f requirements.txt ]; then pip install --progress-bar off -r requirements.txt; fi
        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get -y install docbook-xml docbook-xsl xsltproc fop docbook-xsl-doc-pdf
        # try to keep the texlive install as small as we can to save some time/space
        sudo apt-get -y --no-install-recommends install texlive biber texmaker ghostscript texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-extra texlive-bibtex-extra texlive-font-utils latexmk

    # This is disabled until the run can be configured to only
    # check the code that matters, else we fail on non-essentials
    # like the bench/ stuff.
    #- name: Lint with flake8
    #  run: |
    #    # stop the build if there are Python syntax errors or undefined names
    #    flake8 . --count --select=E9,F63,F7,F82 --show-source --statistics
    #    # exit-zero treats all errors as warnings. The GitHub editor is 127 chars wide
    #    flake8 . --count --exit-zero --max-complexity=10 --max-line-length=127 --statistics

    - name: Update Doc sources (some parts are generated)
      run: |
        python bin/docs-update-generated.py
        python bin/docs-validate.py
        python bin/docs-create-example-outputs.py

    - name: Build SCons packages
      run: |
        python scripts/scons.py

    - name: Verify package
      run: |
        ls -l build/dist
        python build/scons-local/scons.py --version

The same workflow, on Latchkey

Removes redundant runs and caps runaway jobs. Added and changed lines are highlighted.

# This action builds SCons, mainly to make sure the docs generate.
 
name: SCons Build
 
on:
  push:
    branches: [ master ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master ]
 
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true
 
jobs:
  package:
    timeout-minutes: 30
 
    runs-on: latchkey-small
 
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
    - name: Set up Python 3.14
      uses: actions/setup-python@v5
      with:
        python-version: '3.14'
        cache: 'pip'
 
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: |
        python -m pip install --progress-bar off --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
        #python -m pip install flake8 pytest
        if [ -f requirements-pkg.txt ]; then pip install --progress-bar off -r requirements-pkg.txt; elif [ -f requirements.txt ]; then pip install --progress-bar off -r requirements.txt; fi
        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get -y install docbook-xml docbook-xsl xsltproc fop docbook-xsl-doc-pdf
        # try to keep the texlive install as small as we can to save some time/space
        sudo apt-get -y --no-install-recommends install texlive biber texmaker ghostscript texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-extra texlive-bibtex-extra texlive-font-utils latexmk
 
    # This is disabled until the run can be configured to only
    # check the code that matters, else we fail on non-essentials
    # like the bench/ stuff.
    #- name: Lint with flake8
    #  run: |
    #    # stop the build if there are Python syntax errors or undefined names
    #    flake8 . --count --select=E9,F63,F7,F82 --show-source --statistics
    #    # exit-zero treats all errors as warnings. The GitHub editor is 127 chars wide
    #    flake8 . --count --exit-zero --max-complexity=10 --max-line-length=127 --statistics
 
    - name: Update Doc sources (some parts are generated)
      run: |
        python bin/docs-update-generated.py
        python bin/docs-validate.py
        python bin/docs-create-example-outputs.py
 
    - name: Build SCons packages
      run: |
        python scripts/scons.py
 
    - name: Verify package
      run: |
        ls -l build/dist
        python build/scons-local/scons.py --version
 

What changed

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:

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