add the --parallel option to run *.hurl files in parallel instead of sequentially

[lepapareil]

Hi guys 😄

Currently when I launch this command

hurl a.hurl b.hurl c.hurl

hurl runs each *.hurl file sequentially, first a.hurl, then b.hurl, then c.hurl.

# tests started sequentially
hurl a.hurl b.hurl c.hurl

─ BEGIN
       ├─ a.hurl
                ├─ b.hurl
                         ├─ c.hurl
─ END

I propose you to add the --parallel option allowing hurl to run *.hurl files in parallel:

# all tests started at same time
hurl --parallel a.hurl b.hurl c.hurl

─ BEGIN
      ├─ a.hurl ├─ b.hurl ├─ c.hurl
─ END

# tests started two at a time
hurl --parallel 2 a.hurl b.hurl c.hurl

─ BEGIN
       ├─ a.hurl  ├─ b.hurl
       ├─ c.hurl
─ END

What do you think about it?

[fabricereix]

This feature could be indeed be useful in order to reduce the total test duration. It does not impact the hurl format and any existing semantics. It can not be implemented for the next release but maybe one after.

[lepapareil]

Great news :)

[gbourne1]

Was about to open this feature request. Hurl has been great and as the number of .hurl files grows it would be great to run them in parallel.

[jcamiel]

Yes! On 2023, the big features we plan to work on:

1. IDE support (starting with VSCode)
2. this feature (launch test in parallel)
3. Official apt support

We're going to work in this order as 1. might force us to rewrite the parser code. The parallel thing is (in my mind at least) one of the main feature we should address (it's in our mind since the begining, practically one of the first issues submitted). It's really adapted to a CLI tool like Hurl. We're using Hurl daily ourselves and I'm sure the parallel tests are going not only to improve tests duration but also find bugs on our web app / APIs.

[muffl0n]

Workaround I'm using

parallel -j $(ls -1 *.hurl | wc -l) -i sh -c "hurl {} --test" -- *.hurl
echo "retval: $?"

Spawns one process for each file matching *.hurl. The output is not perfect, cause you have to find the error output somewhere in the overall output. But it boosts our CI run quite nice from several minutes to some seconds.

[jcamiel]

Yes, we're really going to take inspiration on parallel to implement these features

[indy-singh]

Was just about to raise this feature request myself. I'm investigating deprecating our Runscope suite and migrating to Hurl and this would be a killer feature! <3

[jcamiel]

It's a high priority in our todo list!

[muffl0n]

Would love to to some alpha testing. Let me know if I can be of any help!