--- /dev/null
+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)
+
+```