[Qgis-psc] Blacksmith runners / macOS builds

[Matthias Kuhn]

Dear PSC,

We are currently producing macOS builds entirely within our CI/CD pipelines
(github workflows/actions). With this approach, we can create dmg installer
packages for currently supported QGIS 3 and QGIS 4 versions for releases,
pull requests, and branch (latest) builds.

For QGIS 4, one important component is currently missing: we cannot build
QtWebEngine (HTML rendering) because building it takes over six hours (the
maximum threshold for workflows) on the (free-tier) github runners. This
limitation is significant, and several tickets request its addition (for
QGIS itself and for plugins like dataplotly). We only need to rebuild this
component when there's an update, so it won't add time to every pipeline
build. However, we must ensure it builds once every few days.

I recently was in touch with blacksmith <https://www.blacksmith.sh/> which
is an independent provider of runners for github actions. They have very
performant runners, I was able to build QtWebEngine in less than 1.5 hours
(compared to more than 6 hours on github). They would allow us to use their
infrastructure as part of their open-source engagement and ask for a blog
post in return.

Blacksmith would also help us reduce CI time for other workflows either by
moving some workflows over to blacksmith or by reducing the load on github
actions cache. This would significantly improve the developer experience.

One remaining challenge will be providing mac packages for Intel devices.
Blacksmith does not offer this platform. Apple stopped selling Intel macOS
devices in mid-2023. Apple will officially support Intel devices until
2028, after which support will be reduced, ending entirely in 2030.
Offering QGIS 4 support for Intel devices would be nice, but we would need
to find another interim solution for the next 2-4 years.

I'd like to propose that we create an account with blacksmith, install its
github app and move the macOS arm64 workflow and potentially a few others
over to blacksmith. If this goes well and improves the situation, I'd like
to write a blog post about our experiences as part of this agreement. This
will improve the situation for macOS packages for arm64 (i.e. for all mac
devices sold in the last 3 years and more sold since 2020). For Intel, we
would continue to build packages but without QtWebEngine until we find a
suitable solution.

Thanks a lot and best regards
Matthias

-- 
<https://conference.qgis.org>


*Matthias Kuhn* - Mr. Noproblemo

CTO | Co-Founder
[image: email]
matthias at opengis.ch

[image: www]
opengis.ch

[image: linkedin] <https://www.linkedin.com/company/opengisch/> [image:
mastodon] <https://fosstodon.org/@opengisch> [image: github]
<https://github.com/opengisch/>
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