[Qgis-psc] Blacksmith runners / macOS builds
regis at qgis.org
regis at qgis.org
Fri Oct 9 00:44:31 PDT 2026
Hi Matthias, thanks for pushing and testing this idea.
In fact, listening at Jürgen yesterday in the conference, I realised that github runners are also a limiting factor for a OSGEO4W port to CI builds.
As Blacksmith offers an open source partnership, I strongly support your proposal too as away to unlock our current github limitations fast and efficiently.
As for long term plans to own a sovereign infrastructure, Blacksmith is a US based company, so it doesn't change this situation, but it would allow us to size more what kind of infrastructure we require.
Best regards
Régis
On 09/10/2026 07:17, Alessandro Pasotti via QGIS-PSC <qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
> Hello Matthias,
>
> This looks a very good idea to me.
>
> Thank you for exploring this opportunity!
>
>
> ---
> Alessandro Pasotti
> QCooperative: www.qcooperative.net <https://www.qcooperative.net>
> ItOpen: www.itopen.it <http://www.itopen.it>
>
> Il ven 9 ott 2026, 07:07 Matthias Kuhn via QGIS-PSC <qgis-
> psc at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org>> ha scritto:
>
> Hi Martin,
>
> Yes, running tests sounds reasonable too.
> So far the build itself was taking too long and I didn't want to
> increase this even more.
>
> Matthias
>
> On Thu, Oct 8, 2026, 22:45 Martin Dobias <wonder.sk at gmail.com
> <mailto:wonder.sk at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hi Matthias
>
> That all sounds good to me. And maybe we could also start to run
> auto tests for mac plarform in CI? It seems quite a few are
> broken on macOS, but we don't really know about that :-)
>
> Cheers
> Martin
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 8, 2026 at 1:59 PM Matthias Kuhn via QGIS-PSC <qgis-
> psc at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org>> wrote:
>
> 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
>
> email
> matthias at opengis.ch <mailto:matthias at opengis.ch>
> www
> opengis.ch <https://opengis.ch>
>
> linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/company/opengisch/>
> mastodon <https://fosstodon.org/@opengisch> github <https://
> github.com/opengisch/>
>
> _______________________________________________
> QGIS-PSC mailing list
> QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org>
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc <https://
> lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc>
>
> _______________________________________________
> QGIS-PSC mailing list
> QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org>
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc <https://
> lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> QGIS-PSC mailing list
> QGIS-PSC at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>
More information about the QGIS-PSC
mailing list