[Python-Dev] Stable buildbots

[Paul Moore]

On 14 November 2010 02:40, David Bolen <db3l.net at gmail.com> wrote:
> There's been a bit of an uptick in the past few weeks with hung
> python_d processes (not a new issue, but it ebbs and flows), so I'm
> going to try to pull together a monitor script this weekend to start
> killing them off automatically.  Should at least get rid of some of
> the low hanging fruit that interferes with subsequent builds.

My buildslave (x86 XP-5, see
http://www.python.org/dev/buildbot/buildslaves/moore-windows) runs
buildbot as a service. I set it up that way as I assumed that would be
the most sensible approach to avoid manual intervention on reboots,
keeping a user session permanently running, etc. But it seems that
there are a few areas where things don't work quite right when run
from a service (see, for example, http://bugs.python.org/issue9931)
and I assumed that some of my hung python_d processes were related to
that.

Do you run your slave as a service? (And for that matter, what do
other Windows slave owners do?) Are there any "best practices" for
ongoing admin of a Windows buildslave that might be worth collecting
together? (I'll try to put some notes on what I've found together -
maybe a page on the Python wiki would be the best place to collect
them).

Paul.