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You've probably experienced this. CI times slowly creep up over time and now it takes 20, 30, 40 minutes to run your suite. Multi-hour runs are not uncommon. All of a sudden, all you're doing is waiting for CI all day, trying to context switch between different PRs. And then, a flaky test hits, and you start waiting all over again. It doesn't have to be like this. In this talk I'll cover several strategies for improving your CI times by making computers work harder for you, instead of having to painstakingly rewrite your tests.
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In the video titled "Speed up your test suite by throwing computers at it," speaker Daniel Magliola discusses strategies to improve continuous integration (CI) times, emphasizing the need to reduce the amount of waiting time associated with CI processes. Acknowledging the common frustration developers face when CI runs become lengthy, the speaker presents a variety of techniques aimed at optimizing CI without the need to rewrite tests. Key points include: - **Rationale for Speeding Up CI:** Daniel highlights the time wasted by developers while waiting for CI results and advocates for a systematic approach to leverage parallel processing by utilizing multiple machines. - **Parallel Test Execution:** The approach focuses on running tests in parallel rather than optimizing individual test performance. This can be achieved by splitting the test suite into manageable chunks, both manually and automatically, to facilitate running them on various servers simultaneously. - **Managing CI Resources:** By strategically managing CI resources, such as selecting appropriate instance sizes for different test types and implementing a catch-all job, teams can avoid the pitfalls of long CI times due to neglected test files. - **Containerization Insights:** The speaker explains how to optimize Docker container initialization times, which often constitute the majority of CI time. Suggestions include using popular and cached images and minimizing unnecessary layers in Docker images. - **Reducing Setup Times:** Magliola delves into specifics such as implementing gem caching, shallow clones for git repositories, and efficient Docker strategies to mitigate latency and enhance speeds. - **Handling Flaky Tests:** Addressing the issue of flaky tests, which exacerbate CI delays, Daniel proposes automating the detection of these tests to streamline reporting and tracking for resolution. - **Critical Path Optimization:** Finally, he emphasizes the importance of identifying critical paths in the CI workflow, advising that efforts should concentrate on optimizing these paths rather than peripheral processes to ensure a faster overall CI time. Conclusively, the video encourages teams to adopt these approaches to better utilize CI resources, thereby minimizing wasteful waiting and ultimately contributing to improved productivity in software development.
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