docs: clarify server shutdown

[MikeMcC399]

This PR closes #360 and modifies the README > Start server section.

When a server is started in a job, it continues running until the job completes. The shutdown of a server is not linked to the end of testing as such. The current text was misleading in this respect.

An example can be seen by viewing actions/workflows/example-start.yml, for example job 8915428534

[MikeMcC399]

See Start server to review.

[chrisbreiding]

Thanks, @MikeMcC399!

[MikeMcC399]

@chrisbreiding

You're welcome!

@karlhorky

If you feel that the topic of killing server processes needs to be followed up, then I suggest opening a new issue and/or taking the discussion to the Discord chat board.

[karlhorky]

I think it's clear enough from the community discussion over there that it's a confusing issue. This PR should not have closed #360.

[MikeMcC399]

@karlhorky

• Issue Does the server started with the start parameter shut down at the end? #360 from @bahmutov in April 2021 originally contained just a question, and that question was actually already answered by the documentation. The documentation was however inconsistent, and this PR corrected the description in README > Start server. So in my view the issue was not incorrectly closed.

You would like the ability to kill a server process and you would like that documented. I don't believe that re-opening #360 would serve that purpose well, however I'm happy to let @nagash77 comment on that and decide. This is a complex topic and to do it justice it should have a clear separate new issue.

[nagash77]

@karlhorky if you feel there is functionality missing that you feel would be a beneficial addition to Cypress please open a feature request ticket and our product team will review and give it consideration.

[karlhorky]

My comment above does not have to do with missing behavior from Cypress.

It has to do with the original reason for #360 existing - that it was unusual behavior that the process was not stopping (a bug). #360 was about a bug, not lacking documentation, as I believe @MikeMcC399 incorrectly interpreted.

This bug will be a sharp edge that some of your users will run into, with (now that #360 was closed) no open issue mentioning it.

This behavior feels like a bug.

What I was suggesting in my comment above was documenting alternatives for these points already here in #915 (because @MikeMcC399 decided that this PR closes #360):

• how to stop a server started by cypress-io/github-action:
  1. using multiple jobs
  2. using a command to allow stopping between steps in a single job

For 1., apparently using multiple jobs should be fairly straightforward according to @MikeMcC399. So it would be a documentation block showing multiple jobs.

For 2., if you check out #360, there are two workarounds for how to run another step after the Cypress GitHub action (and maybe the Cypress team has other recommendations for different commands). This works around the weird behavior of the Cypress GitHub Action, and offers clear recourse to users having this problem.

This should have been a part of #915, but since it wasn't, it should be a part of whatever PR closes #360.

[karlhorky]

If this sharp edge / bug for users isn't important enough for the Cypress team to reopen #360, then by all means, it's your community - decide as you wish.

I won't be putting in extra effort to open a feature request for this, because #360 should have never been closed.

[MikeMcC399]

@karlhorky

I'm sorry that you don't like what has been done here. When I considered suggesting closure I also looked at the example in #360 using v2 of the action and the link to the repository https://github.com/bahmutov/cypress-grep-example.

I found the workflow https://github.com/bahmutov/cypress-grep-example/blob/main/.github/workflows/main.yml there and this no longer had a problem because the job had been split up, so the issue description no longer represented a reproducible example using a current version of the action. The most effective open issues are ones which are reproducible on current versions.

[github-actions]

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