ci: faster release builds

.github/actions/linux-deps/action.yml

@@ -7,14 +7,45 @@ description: >
 runs:
   using: composite
   steps:
-    - shell: bash
+    # The .deb files are cached because the runners' Ubuntu mirror is sometimes
+    # very slow: the same 64 MB took 20 s on one run and 13-18 minutes on
+    # others. The key is the exact set of files apt would download, so a new
+    # package version or runner image makes a new cache instead of installing
+    # stale ones.
+    - id: debs
+      shell: bash
+      env:
+        PACKAGES: >-
+          libdbus-1-dev
+          libgtk-3-dev
+          libayatana-appindicator3-dev
+          librsvg2-dev
+          libsoup-3.0-dev
+          libjavascriptcoregtk-4.1-dev
+          libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev
       run: |
         sudo apt-get update
-        sudo apt-get install -y \
-          libdbus-1-dev \
-          libgtk-3-dev \
-          libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
-          librsvg2-dev \
-          libsoup-3.0-dev \
-          libjavascriptcoregtk-4.1-dev \
-          libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev
+        # Field 2 is the file name (package_version_arch.deb); the URL in field
+        # 1 names whichever mirror this runner got, so it stays out of the key.
+        key=$(sudo apt-get install -y -qq --print-uris $PACKAGES | awk '{print $2}' | sort | sha256sum | cut -c1-16)
+        echo "packages=$PACKAGES" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+        echo "key=$key" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+        echo "dir=$RUNNER_TEMP/apt-debs" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+
+    - uses: actions/cache@v6
+      with:
+        path: ${{ steps.debs.outputs.dir }}
+        key: apt-debs-${{ runner.os }}-${{ runner.arch }}-${{ steps.debs.outputs.key }}
+
+    - shell: bash
+      env:
+        PACKAGES: ${{ steps.debs.outputs.packages }}
+        DEBS: ${{ steps.debs.outputs.dir }}
+      run: |
+        # apt reads and downloads its archives in our directory instead of
+        # /var/cache/apt/archives, so a restored cache is used as it is and a
+        # fresh download lands where the cache step saves from.
+        mkdir -p "$DEBS/partial"
+        sudo apt-get install -y -o Dir::Cache::Archives="$DEBS" $PACKAGES
+        # apt's lock file is root-only; the cache is saved as the runner user.
+        sudo rm -rf "$DEBS/lock" "$DEBS/partial"

.github/workflows/release.yml

@@ -117,7 +117,11 @@ jobs:
           cache: pnpm
           cache-dependency-path: app/main/pnpm-lock.yaml
       - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable
-      - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
+      # No rust-cache. The version stamp rebuilds our crates anyway, and a
+      # release's cache was always evicted before the next release (the repo
+      # sits at GitHub's 10 GB cache limit), so saving one cost time and pushed
+      # out the caches Build and Check do reuse.
+
       # protoc for prost-build. A composite action (no Node runtime):
       # arduino/setup-protoc is still on the deprecated Node 20.
       - uses: taiki-e/install-action@v2

Cargo.toml

@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ version = "1.0.0"
 
 # Profiles must live at the workspace root (per-crate profiles are ignored).
 [profile.release]
-lto = true
+# Thin LTO with the default 16 codegen units, not fat LTO with one. A release
+# always compiles from scratch, and fat LTO's single-threaded final step was
+# over half of it: ~4 of ~7.5 minutes per OS in CI. A cold local build went
+# from 207 s to 118 s. The exe grows about 3 MB (15.5 to 18.9 MB on Windows);
+# transfers are bound by the network and Bluetooth, not the CPU.
+lto = "thin"
 opt-level = 3
-codegen-units = 1