Optimizing GitHub Actions with Matrix Builds for Concurrent Testing Across Multiple Environments

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I'm struggling to optimize my GitHub Actions workflows. I have multiple jobs that are running sequentially, but they could easily be parallelized. How can I use matrix builds to run my tests across different Node.js versions and OS environments simultaneously, and how do I avoid unnecessary reruns of these jobs?

[SheatA3Vp]

Matrix builds allow you to run your jobs across multiple environments simultaneously by defining a matrix strategy in your workflow YAML file. In your case, you can specify Node.js versions and OS environments in the matrix keyword. This helps run tests concurrently, significantly reducing the execution time of your workflows. To avoid unnecessary reruns, you can use the concurrency key in your workflow file to prevent running the same job multiple times for the same branch or PR. Here's an example of how to set up a matrix build:

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        node: [14, 16, 18]
        os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macos-latest]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v2
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install
      - name: Run tests
        run: npm test

This setup will run tests across the three Node.js versions and three OS platforms.