GitHub Actions jobs out of memory

[KrisThielemans]

We have some cases where a GHA action fails, but the log doesn't say why.

This happened first in #1605. The log of the gcc-12, C++=20 job contained lines up to the install step, but nothing else. I tried to debug this with tmate, but all was fine there. So, I disabled that job in #1605.

I see this now in #1592 with the gcc-14 job. The same "up to install" happens in https://github.com/UCL/STIR/actions/runs/17897628450/job/50890961904.
Interesting is a previous job in that PR https://github.com/UCL/STIR/actions/runs/17852412177/job/50763741374, where the log ends with

+ ctest --output-on-failure -C RelWithDebInfo
Test project /home/runner/work/STIR/STIR/build
      Start  1: test_ROIs
 1/71 Test  #1: test_ROIs .......................................................................   Passed    0.46 sec
      Start  2: test_warp_image
 2/71 Test  #2: test_warp_image .................................................................   Passed    0.13 sec
      Start  3: test_DynamicDiscretisedDensity
 3/71 Test  #3: test_DynamicDiscretisedDensity ..................................................   Passed    0.12 sec
      Start  4: test_ScatterSimulation

[KrisThielemans]

Ah, I now see that all of these have

Unhandled exception. System.IO.IOException: No space left on device : '/home/runner/actions-runner/cached/_diag/Worker_20250922-071000-utc.log'

full log

``` System.IO.IOException: No space left on device : '/home/runner/actions-runner/cached/_diag/Worker_20250921-221639-utc.log' at System.IO.RandomAccess.WriteAtOffset(SafeFileHandle handle, ReadOnlySpan`1 buffer, Int64 fileOffset) at System.IO.StreamWriter.Flush(Boolean flushStream, Boolean flushEncoder) at System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener.Flush() at GitHub.Runner.Common.HostTraceListener.WriteHeader(String source, TraceEventType eventType, Int32 id) at System.Diagnostics.TraceSource.TraceEvent(TraceEventType eventType, Int32 id, String message) at GitHub.Runner.Worker.Worker.RunAsync(String pipeIn, String pipeOut) at GitHub.Runner.Worker.Program.MainAsync(IHostContext context, String[] args) System.IO.IOException: No space left on device : '/home/runner/actions-runner/cached/_diag/Worker_20250921-221639-utc.log' at System.IO.RandomAccess.WriteAtOffset(SafeFileHandle handle, ReadOnlySpan`1 buffer, Int64 fileOffset) at System.IO.StreamWriter.Flush(Boolean flushStream, Boolean flushEncoder) at System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener.Flush() at GitHub.Runner.Common.HostTraceListener.WriteHeader(String source, TraceEventType eventType, Int32 id) at System.Diagnostics.TraceSource.TraceEvent(TraceEventType eventType, Int32 id, String message) at GitHub.Runner.Common.Tracing.Error(Exception exception) at GitHub.Runner.Worker.Program.MainAsync(IHostContext context, String[] args) Unhandled exception. System.IO.IOException: No space left on device : '/home/runner/actions-runner/cached/_diag/Worker_20250921-221639-utc.log' at System.IO.RandomAccess.WriteAtOffset(SafeFileHandle handle, ReadOnlySpan`1 buffer, Int64 fileOffset) at System.IO.StreamWriter.Flush(Boolean flushStream, Boolean flushEncoder) at System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener.Flush() at System.Diagnostics.TraceSource.Flush() at GitHub.Runner.Common.Tracing.Dispose(Boolean disposing) at GitHub.Runner.Common.Tracing.Dispose() at GitHub.Runner.Common.TraceManager.Dispose(Boolean disposing) at GitHub.Runner.Common.TraceManager.Dispose() at GitHub.Runner.Common.HostContext.Dispose(Boolean disposing) at GitHub.Runner.Common.HostContext.Dispose() at GitHub.Runner.Worker.Program.Main(String[] args) ```

[KrisThielemans]

#1592 I attempted to use https://github.com/easimon/maximize-build-space/. See https://github.com/UCL/STIR/actions/runs/17920496599/job/50953841144. This made the gcc-14 job work ok. However, the MacOS job fails due to missing free, so this Action shouldn't be used on MacOS. In addition, the cuda job fails with

Warning: Failed to restore: Cache service responded with 400
/usr/bin/tar --posix -cf cache.tzst --exclude cache.tzst -P -C /home/runner/work/STIR/STIR --files-from manifest.txt --use-compress-program zstdmt
zstd: error 70 : Write error : cannot write block : No space left on device 
/usr/bin/tar: cache.tzst: Wrote only 8192 of 10240 bytes
/usr/bin/tar: Child returned status 70
/usr/bin/tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
Warning: Failed to save: "/usr/bin/tar" failed with error: The process '/usr/bin/tar' failed with exit code 2
/usr/bin/sudo /home/runner/work/STIR/STIR/cuda_installer-linux-6.11.0-1018-azure-12.6.1/cuda_installer-linux-6.11.0-1018-azure_12.6.1.run --silent --toolkit
/home/runner/work/STIR/STIR/cuda_installer-linux-6.11.0-1018-azure-12.6.1/cuda_installer-linux-6.11.0-1018-azure_12.6.1.run: 234: cannot create /dev/tty: No such device or address
/home/runner/work/STIR/STIR/cuda_installer-linux-6.11.0-1018-azure-12.6.1/cuda_installer-linux-6.11.0-1018-azure_12.6.1.run: 234: cannot create /dev/tty: No such device or address
Signal caught, cleaning up

Presumably, we'd need some configuration of the maximize-build-space Action.

@casperdcl would you have some experience with this? Or do you have an alternative (easier) suggestion to solve this problem?