continuous integration

[isysd-mirror]

There are many tasks that would be nice to run using continuous integration upon an event like a Pull Request. Tests are the obvious case.

Though we're missing the tests, we're also missing the ability to run them on sandboxed instances, using different OSs and environments. I recently introduced a windows-only bug, which had to get caught by Luis, since I develop on Linux. This is exactly the sort of problem CI is helpful at avoiding / automating.

In the past, I've used travis-ci.org for this sort of CI functionality. That's been retired, and the New & Improved™ travis-ci.com starts at $30/mo. I see many previously free cloud computing services going paid, these days.

Anyway, why should we trust some company to basically run a linux server to launch docker instances? We should support and use transparent, open source software. Presumably we already run an HTTP server, and probably many Superalgos servers. Why not add a gitlab instance? Or jenkins?

In the end, even if self-hosted, it may end up having a cost, which needs to be financed. The options are worth investigating and discussing, however, since it would save a lot of precious human capital!

[ssplatt]

we have github actions. https://github.com/Superalgos/Superalgos/actions