feat: add make test-release command running without debug mode

.github/workflows/build.yml

@@ -66,4 +66,4 @@ jobs:
             # cache hits and cache evictions (github has a 10GB cache limit).
             save-if: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/next' }}
         - name: build benches
-          run: cargo bench --no-run
+          run: cargo build --benches

.github/workflows/test.yml

@@ -31,9 +31,9 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install rust
         run: rustup update --no-self-update 
       - name: Build tests
-        run: make test-build
+        run: make test-release-build
       - name: test
-        run: make test
+        run: make test-release # runs without debug mode
 
   doc-tests:
     name: doc-tests

Makefile

@@ -75,16 +75,29 @@ serve-docs: ## Serves the docs
 
 # --- testing -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-.PHONY: test-build
-test-build: ## Build the test binary
-	$(BUILD_GENERATED_FILES_IN_SRC) cargo nextest run --cargo-profile test-dev --features concurrent,testing,std --no-run
+.PHONY: test-release-build
+test-release-build: ## Build the test binary
+	$(BUILD_GENERATED_FILES_IN_SRC) cargo nextest run --cargo-profile test-dev --no-default-features --features concurrent,testing,std --no-run
 
 
+# Run all tests without debug mode. This is fast but produces worse error message.
+# Running `make test-release name=test_name` will only run the test `test_name`.
+.PHONY: test-release
+test-release:
+	$(BUILD_GENERATED_FILES_IN_SRC) $(BACKTRACE) cargo nextest run --profile default --cargo-profile test-dev --no-default-features --features concurrent,testing,std $(name)
+
+# Shorthand for make test-release.
+.PHONY: test-release testr
+testr: test-release
+
+# Run all tests with debug mode. This is slower but produces better error message.
+# Running `make test name=test_name` will only run the test `test_name`.
 .PHONY: test
-test: ## Run all tests. Running `make test name=test_name` will only run the test `test_name`.
+test:
 	$(BUILD_GENERATED_FILES_IN_SRC) $(BACKTRACE) cargo nextest run --profile default --cargo-profile test-dev --features concurrent,testing,std $(name)
 
 
+# Run all tests except the proving tests (imperfectly filtered based on name) with debug mode.
 # This uses the std feature to be able to load the MASM source files back into the assembler
 # source manager (see `source_manager_ext::load_masm_source_files`).
 .PHONY: test-dev

crates/miden-agglayer/build.rs

@@ -300,8 +300,9 @@ pub proc load_zeros_to_memory\n",
 
     zero_constants.push_str("\tdrop\nend\n");
 
-    // write the resulting masm content into the file
-    fs::write(target_dir.join("canonical_zeros.masm"), zero_constants).into_diagnostic()?;
+    // write the resulting masm content into the file only if it changed to avoid
+    // invalidating the cargo fingerprint for the `asm/` directory
+    shared::write_if_changed(target_dir.join("canonical_zeros.masm"), zero_constants)?;
 
     Ok(())
 }
@@ -546,11 +547,26 @@ mod shared {
             .into_diagnostic()?;
         }
 
-        std::fs::write(module.file_name, output).into_diagnostic()?;
+        write_if_changed(module.file_name, output)?;
 
         Ok(())
     }
 
+    /// Writes `contents` to `path` only if the file doesn't exist or its current contents
+    /// differ. This avoids updating the file's mtime when nothing changed, which prevents
+    /// cargo from treating the crate as dirty on the next build.
+    pub fn write_if_changed(path: impl AsRef<Path>, contents: impl AsRef<[u8]>) -> Result<()> {
+        let path = path.as_ref();
+        let new_contents = contents.as_ref();
+        if path.exists() {
+            let existing = std::fs::read(path).into_diagnostic()?;
+            if existing == new_contents {
+                return Ok(());
+            }
+        }
+        std::fs::write(path, new_contents).into_diagnostic()
+    }
+
     pub type ErrorName = String;
 
     #[derive(Debug, Clone)]

crates/miden-protocol/build.rs

@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ fn generate_kernel_proc_hash_file(kernel: KernelLibrary) -> Result<()> {
         txt
     }).collect::<Vec<_>>().join("\n");
 
-    fs::write(
+    shared::write_if_changed(
         KERNEL_PROCEDURES_RS_FILE,
         format!(
             r#"// This file is generated by build.rs, do not modify
@@ -247,7 +247,6 @@ pub const KERNEL_PROCEDURES: [Word; {proc_count}] = [
 "#,
         ),
     )
-    .into_diagnostic()
 }
 
 fn parse_proc_offsets(filename: impl AsRef<Path>) -> Result<BTreeMap<String, usize>> {
@@ -784,11 +783,26 @@ mod shared {
             .into_diagnostic()?;
         }
 
-        std::fs::write(module.file_name, output).into_diagnostic()?;
+        write_if_changed(module.file_name, output)?;
 
         Ok(())
     }
 
+    /// Writes `contents` to `path` only if the file doesn't exist or its current contents
+    /// differ. This avoids updating the file's mtime when nothing changed, which prevents
+    /// cargo from treating the crate as dirty on the next build.
+    pub fn write_if_changed(path: impl AsRef<Path>, contents: impl AsRef<[u8]>) -> Result<()> {
+        let path = path.as_ref();
+        let new_contents = contents.as_ref();
+        if path.exists() {
+            let existing = std::fs::read(path).into_diagnostic()?;
+            if existing == new_contents {
+                return Ok(());
+            }
+        }
+        std::fs::write(path, new_contents).into_diagnostic()
+    }
+
     pub type ErrorName = String;
 
     #[derive(Debug, Clone)]

crates/miden-standards/build.rs

@@ -427,11 +427,26 @@ mod shared {
             .into_diagnostic()?;
         }
 
-        std::fs::write(module.file_name, output).into_diagnostic()?;
+        write_if_changed(module.file_name, output)?;
 
         Ok(())
     }
 
+    /// Writes `contents` to `path` only if the file doesn't exist or its current contents
+    /// differ. This avoids updating the file's mtime when nothing changed, which prevents
+    /// cargo from treating the crate as dirty on the next build.
+    pub fn write_if_changed(path: impl AsRef<Path>, contents: impl AsRef<[u8]>) -> Result<()> {
+        let path = path.as_ref();
+        let new_contents = contents.as_ref();
+        if path.exists() {
+            let existing = std::fs::read(path).into_diagnostic()?;
+            if existing == new_contents {
+                return Ok(());
+            }
+        }
+        std::fs::write(path, new_contents).into_diagnostic()
+    }
+
     pub type ErrorName = String;
 
     #[derive(Debug, Clone)]

crates/miden-testing/Cargo.toml

@@ -13,7 +13,12 @@ rust-version.workspace = true
 version.workspace      = true
 
 [features]
-std = ["miden-protocol/std", "miden-standards/std", "miden-tx/std"]
+default = ["tx_context_debug"]
+std     = ["miden-protocol/std", "miden-standards/std", "miden-tx/std"]
+# Enables debug mode in the transaction context, which in turn enables debug mode in the transaction
+# executor. It is enabled by default and should generally be enabled. Can be opted out of to improve
+# CI test performance.
+tx_context_debug = []
 
 [dependencies]
 # Workspace dependencies

crates/miden-testing/src/tx_context/builder.rs

@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ impl TransactionContextBuilder {
             signatures: Vec::new(),
             note_scripts: BTreeMap::new(),
             is_lazy_loading_enabled: true,
-            is_debug_mode_enabled: true,
+            is_debug_mode_enabled: cfg!(feature = "tx_context_debug"),
         }
     }