[Python-Dev] buildbots

[Grig Gheorghiu]

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 5:39 AM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
>
>
> - are more buildbots needed and if so, which kinds of platforms/architectures?

I can't really answer that question for the python code buildbot farm,
but for the Pybots community project, the platforms we currently have
are in a table on this page:

http://pybots.org/

If you are able to offer something that's not on the list, that'd be
good. But any help at all is appreciated.

I believe Windows has traditionally been under-represented in all
buildbot farms, and it's likely to stay that way...

> - for which software? Python itself? third-party apps and libraries?

For Pybots, we're testing third-party apps and libraries against
changes made to Python core. If you're interested in a 3rd party
project, and you're willing to stay on top of that project's buildbot
status, and notify both the project leaders and the Python core devs
whenever you notice an ugly breakage -- then you're exactly the kind
of guy we need on the Pybots project :-)


> - how resource-consuming is it? CPU? memory? disk space? can it run along other
> services fine or does it need the whole machine for itself?

In my experience, buildbot runs fine on newer hardware. It does
consume CPU, so if you have a slow machine, it might start impacting
your other processes.


> - how time-consuming is it (in terms of human work)? I may spend a bit of time
> at the start to set it up but I'd like it to it run quite flawlessly afterward.
> I'm really not a sysadmin at heart...

The initial learning curve can be a bit steep, but I'm here to help.
Once you add your buildslave to the buildbot farm, things should run
fairly smoothly. You will get notified via email / RSS about
breakages, and then you'll have to invest the time to see what kind of
breakage it is, and to notify the interested parties.

>
> I suppose other interested people could ask themselves the same questions...
>
> Just my 2 cents.
>
> Antoine.

Thanks for the questions, they really help IMO. I also hope the answers helped.

Grig