Re: [PATCH] gitlab-ci.yml: Avoid recompiling the sources in the test jobs

[Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>]

On 26/01/2021 08.36, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé wrote:
> On 1/26/21 7:57 AM, Thomas Huth wrote:
>> Currently, our check-system-* jobs are recompiling the whole sources
>> again. This happens due to the fact that the jobs are checking out
>> the whole source tree and required submodules again, and only try
>> to use the "build" directory with the binaries and object files as an
>> artifact from the previous stage - which simply does not work right
>> anymore (with the current version of meson). Due to some changed
>> time stamps, meson/ninja are always trying to rebuild the whole tree.
>>
>> In the long run, we could likely use "meson test --no-rebuild", but
>> there is still some work going on in that area to improve the user
>> experience. So until this has been done, simply avoid recompiling the
>> sources with a trick: pass NINJA=":" to the make process in the test
>> jobs. Also check out the submodules manually before updating the
>> timestamps in the build folder, so that the binaries are definitely
>> newer that all the source files.
>> This saves ca. 10 - 15 minutes of precious CI cycles in each run.
>>
>> Suggested-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
>> Signed-off-by: Thomas Huth <thuth@redhat.com>
>> ---
>>   .gitlab-ci.yml | 4 +++-
>>   1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
>> index de3a3d25b5..16fea25ba9 100644
>> --- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
>> +++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
>> @@ -38,9 +38,11 @@ include:
>>     stage: test
>>     image: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/qemu/$IMAGE:latest
>>     script:
>> +    - scripts/git-submodule.sh update
>> +        $(grep GIT_SUBMODULES build/config-host.mak | sed 's/GIT_SUBMODULES=//')
>>       - cd build
>>       - find . -type f -exec touch {} +
>> -    - make $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS
>> +    - make NINJA=":" $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS
> 
> This ninja trick deserves a comment in the YAML file.

I'll add:

     # Avoid recompiling by hiding ninja with NINJA=":"

Ok?

  Thomas