various pipeline improvements #2654

Job	Run time
build	11m 22s
test_when_cache_present (0, 11, 648)	8m 50s
test_when_cache_missing	0s
test_when_cache_present (1, 11, 648)	8m 53s
test_when_cache_present (2, 11, 648)	8m 57s
test_when_cache_present (3, 11, 648)	8m 52s
test_when_cache_present (4, 11, 648)	8m 26s
test_when_cache_present (5, 11, 648)	8m 55s
test_when_cache_present (6, 11, 648)	8m 55s
test_when_cache_present (7, 11, 648)	8m 50s
save_test_times_when_cache_missing	0s
test_when_cache_present (8, 11, 648)	8m 43s
test_when_cache_present (9, 11, 648)	8m 48s
test_when_cache_present (10, 11, 648)	8m 49s
test_when_cache_present (11, 11, 648)	8m 53s
save_test_times_when_cache_present	0s
	1h 57m 13s

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