As part of the [datalad/git-annex](https://github.com/datalad/git-annex) builds setup there is work to enable testing on some target deployments, but there is problem (see [git-annex/pull/102#issuecomment-1054561966](https://github.com/datalad/git-annex/pull/102#issuecomment-1054561966)) that overall sweep of `git annex test` of the standalone build on a target system takes over 5,000 seconds (over an hour!).

Clearly that system is "unique" in its "performance" (most likely due to nfs4'ed filesystem tests go under, not due to "Standalone" but I can't change the issue title at this moment) and here is the timing spread we see from other runs on CI:

```shell
(git)smaug:/mnt/datasets/datalad/ci/git-annex/builds/2022/02[master]git
$> git grep 'All 9.. tests passed (' | sort -t '(' -n -k 3 | head -n 5
cron-20220222/build-ubuntu.yaml-586-85dd9355-failed/1_test-annex (normal, ubuntu-latest).txt:2022-02-22T02:57:08.4002055Z All 994 tests passed (239.44s)
cron-20220222/build-ubuntu.yaml-586-85dd9355-failed/test-annex (normal, ubuntu-latest)/7_Run tests.txt:2022-02-22T02:57:08.4002052Z All 994 tests passed (239.44s)
pr-102/build-ubuntu.yaml-600-12c9bb39-failed/1_test-annex (normal, ubuntu-latest).txt:2022-02-25T18:47:54.5577129Z All 994 tests passed (240.31s)
pr-102/build-ubuntu.yaml-600-12c9bb39-failed/test-annex (normal, ubuntu-latest)/7_Run tests.txt:2022-02-25T18:47:54.5577125Z All 994 tests passed (240.31s)
cron-20220225/build-ubuntu.yaml-595-85dd9355-failed/1_test-annex (normal, ubuntu-latest).txt:2022-02-25T03:01:16.8138190Z All 994 tests passed (240.87s)

$> git grep 'All 9.. tests passed (' | sort -t '(' -n -k 3 | tail -n 5
cron-20220227/build-macos.yaml-604-85dd9355-failed/test-annex (normal, macos-latest)/8_Run tests.txt:2022-02-27T02:32:31.2444240Z All 994 tests passed (1284.60s)
cron-20220203/build-macos.yaml-578-85dd9355-success/3_test-annex (normal, macos-latest).txt:2022-02-03T02:27:38.5945050Z All 991 tests passed (1292.09s)
cron-20220203/build-macos.yaml-578-85dd9355-success/test-annex (normal, macos-latest)/8_Run tests.txt:2022-02-03T02:27:38.5945040Z All 991 tests passed (1292.09s)
manual-20220222/build-macos.yaml-599-85dd9355-failed/3_test-annex (normal, macos-latest).txt:2022-02-22T18:44:42.5220730Z All 994 tests passed (1340.62s)
manual-20220222/build-macos.yaml-599-85dd9355-failed/test-annex (normal, macos-latest)/8_Run tests.txt:2022-02-22T18:44:42.5220720Z All 994 tests passed (1340.62s)
```

so we have runs as short as 4 minutes (`cron-20220222/build-ubuntu.yaml-586-85dd9355-failed`) and as "long" as 20 minutes (`manual-20220222/build-macos.yaml-599-85dd9355-failed`) .

but at >5k seconds it made me wonder if worth looking into making operation on such system a bit more "snappy".  FWIW, here are the slowest tests:

```
[d31548v@discovery7 git-annex]$ grep 's)' tests.out | sort -t '(' -n -k 2 | tail -n 10
    conflict resolution:                                  OK (55.24s)
    adjusted branch merge regression:                     OK (56.63s)
    conflict resolution movein regression:                OK (60.02s)
    transition propagation:                               OK (60.61s)
OK (61.00s)
OK (70.30s)
OK (78.37s)
    union merge regression:                               OK (91.15s)
    transition propagation:                               OK (97.68s)
All 994 tests passed (5576.99s)

```

> [[done]] --[[Joey]]
