[Chicago] CIT, but not BuildBot

[jason gessner]

jason (or anyone), can you talk about using CC for non-java  
projects?  I have some jobs kicking off with it and a coworker just  
set up some more recently, but aside from checking things out when  
changes happen and kicking off the tests, it doesn't seem to play too  
well from a reporting side with non-java stuff.

Has anyone had a really great experience using cc for any of the  
reporting stuff with non-java projects?

I am still searching google for good examples, but am not finding  
much...

-jason

On Oct 3, 2006, at 5:15 PM, Jason R Huggins wrote:

> On Oct 3, 2006, at 10:12 AM, Chris McAvoy wrote:
>>> Anyone run across any "lightweight" continuous integration testing
>>> thingees other than BuildBot?  BB seems pretty hefty to set up.  If
>>> there's a lighter thing out there, I'd really prefer to not have to
>>> set up a whole BB juggernaut.
>
> On Oct 3, 2006, Brian Ray replied:
>> I have used and like CruiseControl <http://
>> cruisecontrol.sourceforge.net/>. Just because its JAVA'esk it can
>> still do most things I want from ant scripts. Also, others have done
>> some crazy stuff. I think Jason Huggins showed this as part of his
>> selenium talk at Google last month. Although, I am unsure how it
>> tangled in.
>
> /disclaimer/ -> I work for ThoughtWorks, creator/sponsor of  
> CruiseControl
> (and Selenium and Buildix). Opinions expressed here are mine, not my
> employer's. :-)
>
> For my Selenium demo, I used Buildix (a Knoppix based Linux running  
> Trac,
> Subversion, and CruiseControl) running as a virtual machine.  
> Running CC
> under Buildix under virtualization made the installation learning  
> curve
> significantly less than starting from scratch... Cruise's Java-ness  
> was
> mostly hidden from me when I only had to deal with it as a Linux VM.
> However, there was no escaping the XML configuration. Luckily, Buildix
> came with a default config and helpful setup scripts and some docs  
> to make
> this easier. It's still not "1-click install" easy, but it's not toooo
> bad, if you're no stranger to a Linux shell.
>
> I wouldn't call CruiseControl lightweight, though. The XML push-ups  
> you
> have to do to configure your build and output reports will make  
> your brain
> cells and fingers very sore. (But once you get it setup and running,
> though, it ain't so bad. You'll probably spend 1-3 days getting  
> everything
> setup correctly). Cruise's API for any crazy buildish wish you  
> might have
> is very complete (including remotely triggering Lava Lamps to turn  
> on via
> X10 devices), but all that power comes with the cost of having to deal
> with yucky XML Ant files. I wish I had the time to slap some Jython in
> there and replace all that XML config with simple Python scripts...
> Speaking of which...
>
> For a "lightweight" build tool, there's nothing simpler than using  
> Windows
> Task Scheduler (or cron on *nix) plus a Python script full of  
> functions
> that do stuff in order. I then schedule the Python script to run  
> either
> once an hour or hooked into Subversion as a post-commit hook. For
> collaborating with others, I email the build results to a project  
> build
> mailing list and/or update an RSS feed on the webserver. If your  
> team is
> small (or just you)... this is probably simple enough...
>
> If your project team is 4 or more people (meaning your intra-team
> communication needs might be higher), you'll probably benefit from
> something medium-to-heavyweight like CruiseControl. One of Cruise's  
> nice
> subtle features is that it's smart enough to wait for a "quiet" period
> (user-configurable in XML, of course) before running a build... On  
> active
> projects, that's a neat feature... If you went the cron/Python route,
> you'd need to code in those smarts yourself, or cheat by running on  
> a set
> schedule (hourly, daily, 30-minute-ly) to triggering multiple  
> concurrent
> builds.
>
> So, if you're team is small... (Task Scheduler or Cron) + Python +
> email/RSS notification might be good enough for your needs.
> If your team is medium size, then the time spent configuring Cruise is
> probably worth it. I would love it if more Pythonistas checked out  
> Cruise,
> though. Then my dream of swapping out XML/Ant with plain old Jython  
> might
> just come true someday. :-)
>
> If you're really passionate about this subject, I'd suggest you  
> pick up
> (or download) a copy of Pragmatic Automation [1] by the  
> PragProggies. In
> the book, they recommend the same approach (cron/script for the
> simple/stupid stuff, CruiseControl for the medium/non-stupid  
> stuff). The
> book goes into detail on how to install and setup Cruise from scratch.
> However, it was written before Buildix came along, so some steps are
> thankfully obsolete and now easier.
>
> [1]: http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/sk/auto/
>
> I haven't used BuildBot in anger yet... But man, it's status page of
> builds is fugly. Darn computers, I think I'll just quit and go into
> farming.
>
> -Jason "I hope this came off as educated opinion and not astro- 
> turfing"
> Huggins :-)
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