Improve CI output visibility and remove buffering

- Add flush=True to all colored_print calls for immediate output
- Add PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 to all deployment and performance test jobs
- Replace simple sleep with countdown progress indicator
- Show 'Retrying in X seconds...' with real-time countdown
- Clear progress line after countdown completes
- Better visibility of what the script is doing during long waits

.gitlab-ci.yml

@@ -161,6 +161,7 @@ performance_tests_dev:
   when: on_success  # Run automatically after successful deployment verification
   variables:
     DEV_URL: "https://dev.libravatar.org"
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED: 1
   before_script:
     - apk add --no-cache curl
     - pip install requests Pillow prettytable pyLibravatar dnspython py3dns
@@ -185,6 +186,7 @@ performance_tests_prod:
   when: on_success  # Run automatically after successful deployment verification
   variables:
     PROD_URL: "https://libravatar.org"
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED: 1
   before_script:
     - apk add --no-cache curl
     - pip install requests Pillow prettytable pyLibravatar dnspython py3dns
@@ -209,6 +211,7 @@ performance_tests_prod_manual:
   when: manual  # Manual trigger for on-demand performance testing
   variables:
     PROD_URL: "https://libravatar.org"
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED: 1
   before_script:
     - apk add --no-cache curl
     - pip install requests Pillow prettytable pyLibravatar dnspython py3dns
@@ -231,6 +234,7 @@ verify_dev_deployment:
     DEV_URL: "https://dev.libravatar.org"
     MAX_RETRIES: 30
     RETRY_DELAY: 60
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED: 1
   before_script:
     - apk add --no-cache curl git
     - pip install Pillow
@@ -249,6 +253,7 @@ verify_prod_deployment:
     PROD_URL: "https://libravatar.org"
     MAX_RETRIES: 10
     RETRY_DELAY: 30
+    PYTHONUNBUFFERED: 1
   before_script:
     - apk add --no-cache curl git
     - pip install Pillow

scripts/check_deployment.py

@@ -54,8 +54,8 @@ class Colors:
 
 
 def colored_print(message: str, color: str = Colors.NC) -> None:
-    """Print a colored message."""
+    """Print a colored message with immediate flush."""
-    print(f"{color}{message}{Colors.NC}")
+    print(f"{color}{message}{Colors.NC}", flush=True)
 
 
 def get_current_commit_hash() -> Optional[str]:
@@ -485,7 +485,11 @@ def test_deployment(
             colored_print(
                 f"Waiting {retry_delay} seconds before next attempt...", Colors.BLUE
             )
-            time.sleep(retry_delay)
+            # Show progress during wait
+            for remaining in range(retry_delay, 0, -1):
+                print(f"\r⏳ Retrying in {remaining:2d} seconds...", end="", flush=True)
+                time.sleep(1)
+            print("\r" + " " * 30 + "\r", end="", flush=True)  # Clear the line
 
     colored_print(
         f"❌ FAILED: {name} deployment verification timed out after {max_retries} attempts",