BuildBot Configuration

This document attempts to discuss configuration details of the BuildBot system for OSGeo projects.

About BuildBot

The BuildBot is a system to automate the build and test cycle during a software development process.

BuildBot homepage: http://buildbot.sourceforge.net/

Thanks to Howard Butler's installation of BuildBot, we've been able to test it with some of Open Source GIS projects for a few months.

After these tests, we've found that:

• BuildBot works very well
• BuildBot has a very positive effect on the development of the projects
• BuildBot an important communication channel about compilation and testing issues
• BuildBot helps developers and users to observe a cycle of development in details
• BuildBot decreases time needed to compile and test changes in a multiplatform environment

The main objective of this initiative is to install and configure BuildBot instances for the OSGeo projects.

Hobu's BuildBot instances

• MapServer - http://mapserver.builds.hobu.net/
• GDAL - http://gdal.builds.hobu.net/
• GEOS - http://geos.builds.hobu.net/

OSGeo BuildBot Configuration

Following section describes details of BuildBot infrastructure configuration hosted on one of the OSGeo servers.

Server

The OSGeo BuildBot is hosted on one of the Telascience Blades:

• Hostname: xblade14-2
• IP: 198.202.74.219

(add / link to details about installed development software and versions)

Basic concepts

The BuildBot system architecture is based on two base concepts:

• buildmaster - the brain, controls single instance of BuildBot
• buildslave - the worker, performs all builds tasks

Selected server hosts all instances of the OSGeo BuildBot infrastructure.

A single instance of BuildBot, running on the OSGeo server, consists of single buildmaster and single buildslave.

Development team of particular project is able to connect more buildslaves running on separate machines, remotely. Buildslaves are connected to the buildmaster in a star topology. They connect to the buildmaster over a TCP connection to a publically-visible port (See Buildmaster ports section).

Every project gets its own instance of the OSGeo BuildBot and can connect various external buildslaves.

(add picture showing visualizing the structure of the OSGeo BuildBot infrastructure

BuildBot user

• BuildBot runs as user

buildbot

• Home directory for buildbot user points to:

/home/buildbot

• Environment variables used by buildbot to run the BuildBot scripts:

BUILDBOTHOME=/home/buildbot

PYTHONPATH=$BUILDBOTHOME/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages

See BuildBot directories section for details about BUILDBOTHOME environment variable.

BuildBot directories

Following subsection explains directories layout used by the OSGeo BuildBot infrastructure.

• BuildBot infrastructure base directory (later referenced as BUILDBOTHOME):

/osgeo/buildbot

• BuildBot software (Python 2.4 packages) installation prefix:

/osgeo/buildbot/usr

BuildBot web page

The main URL of the OSGeo BuildBot is

http://buildbot.osgeo.org

It's dedicated to:

• list existing BuildBot instances used by OSGeo projects
• list URLs to BuildBot status pages

NOTE: The BuildBot web page is not yet accessible. Subdomain has not been set up yet, etc.

BuildBot instance per project

• Base directory for BuildBot instance for one project:

$BUILDBOTHOME/<projectname>

where <projectname> is a placeholder for lower-case name of a project.

This path represents directory for single instance of the OSGeo BuildBot used by particular project.

Next, inside a project BuildBot instance directory, we have:

• buildmaster

$BUILDBOTHOME/<projectname>/master

• buildslave

$BUILDBOTHOME/<projectname>/slave

• The BuildBot status page for particular project can be accessed through:

http://buildbot.osgeo.org/<projectname>/

NOTE: See note about inaccessibility of the BuildBot web page.

GDAL BuildBot example

The OSGeo BuildBot instance for GDAL project (let's call it GDAL BuildBot) is hosted inside the:

$BUILDBOTHOME/gdal

what expands to following path:

/osgeo/buildbot/gdal

The GDAL BuildBot uses single instance the buildmaster:

$BUILDBOTHOME/gdal/master

and single instance of the buildslave, local one:

$BUILDBOTHOME/gdal/slave

Next, GDAL developers can connect remote buildslaves hosted on various platforms, for exmaple on Mac OS. All buildslaves (one local and N number of remote slaves) are controlled by the GDAL BuildBot buildmaster.

The GDAL BuildBot status page URL is:

http://buildbot.osgeo.org/gdal/

Buildmaster ports

This section explains details of TCP connection ports configuration for buildmaster instances.

Buildmaster of every OSGeo BuildBot instance is configured using two TCP ports:

• one, to listen on for connections from buildslaves - SLAVEPORT
• second, used by internal web server to listen on for connection from Web clients requesting for the BUildBot status web page - HTTPPORT

The OSGeo BuildBot infrastructure uses following scheme to assign BuildBot instances with TCP ports:

• Port number XXYY, where
  • XX identifies port category: SLAVEPORT uses 15 (15YY) and HTTPPORT uses 85 (85YY)
  • YY identifies particular instance of the OSGeo BuildBot, a project

• SLAVEPORT ports start from 1500 and HTTPPORT ports start from 8500

• Both ports, SLAVEPORT and HTTPPORT, incement simultaneously, for example:

project A uses 1501 and 8501, where 01 is the instance (project) identifier

project B uses 1527 and 8527, where 27 is the instance (project) identifier

• According to this scheme, there is a room for 100 instances of the OSGeo BuildBot (shortly, 100 OSGeo projects).

References

List of articles related to / depending on the OSGeo BuildBot installation and configuration project:

• System Administration Committee
• SAC TODO List
• SAC Service Status
• Automated Build/Smoke Test System in the Project Infrastructure Migration