.. index:: Properties .. _Properties: Properties ========== Build properties are a generalized way to provide configuration information to build steps; see :ref:`Build-Properties` for the conceptual overview of properties. Some build properties come from external sources and are set before the build begins; others are set during the build, and available for later steps. The sources for properties are: * :bb:cfg:`global configuration ` -- These properties apply to all builds. * :ref:`schedulers ` -- A scheduler can specify properties that become available to all builds it starts. * :ref:`changes ` -- A change can have properties attached to it, supplying extra information gathered by the change source. This is most commonly used with the :bb:cmdline:`sendchange` command. * :bb:status:`forced builds ` -- The "Force Build" form allows users to specify properties * :bb:cfg:`buildslaves ` -- A buildslave can pass properties on to the builds it performs. * :ref:`builds ` -- A build automatically sets a number of properties on itself. * :bb:cfg:`builders ` -- A builder can set properties on all the builds it runs. * :ref:`steps ` -- The steps of a build can set properties that are available to subsequent steps. In particular, source steps set a number of properties. If the same property is supplied in multiple places, the final appearance takes precedence. For example, a property set in a builder configuration will override one supplied by a scheduler. Properties are stored internally in JSON format, so they are limited to basic types of data: numbers, strings, lists, and dictionaries. .. index:: single: Properties; Common Properties .. _Common-Build-Properties: Common Build Properties ----------------------- The following build properties are set when the build is started, and are available to all steps. .. index:: single: Properties; branch ``branch`` This comes from the build's :class:`SourceStamp`, and describes which branch is being checked out. This will be ``None`` (which interpolates into ``WithProperties`` as an empty string) if the build is on the default branch, which is generally the trunk. Otherwise it will be a string like ``branches/beta1.4``. The exact syntax depends upon the VC system being used. .. index:: single: Properties; revision ``revision`` This also comes from the :class:`SourceStamp`, and is the revision of the source code tree that was requested from the VC system. When a build is requested of a specific revision (as is generally the case when the build is triggered by Changes), this will contain the revision specification. This is always a string, although the syntax depends upon the VC system in use: for SVN it is an integer, for Mercurial it is a short string, for Darcs it is a rather large string, etc. If the :guilabel:`force build` button was pressed, the revision will be ``None``, which means to use the most recent revision available. This is a `trunk build`. This will be interpolated as an empty string. .. index:: single: Properties; got_revision ``got_revision`` This is set when a :class:`Source` step checks out the source tree, and provides the revision that was actually obtained from the VC system. In general this should be the same as ``revision``, except for trunk builds, where ``got_revision`` indicates what revision was current when the checkout was performed. This can be used to rebuild the same source code later. .. note:: For some VC systems (Darcs in particular), the revision is a large string containing newlines, and is not suitable for interpolation into a filename. .. index:: single: Properties; buildername ``buildername`` This is a string that indicates which :class:`Builder` the build was a part of. The combination of buildername and buildnumber uniquely identify a build. .. index:: single: Properties; buildnumber ``buildnumber`` Each build gets a number, scoped to the :class:`Builder` (so the first build performed on any given :class:`Builder` will have a build number of 0). This integer property contains the build's number. .. index:: single: Properties; slavename ``slavename`` This is a string which identifies which buildslave the build is running on. .. index:: single: Properties; scheduler ``scheduler`` If the build was started from a scheduler, then this property will contain the name of that scheduler. .. index:: single: Properties; repository ``repository`` The repository of the sourcestamp for this build .. index:: single: Properties; project ``project`` The project of the sourcestamp for this build .. index:: single: Properties; workdir ``workdir`` The absolute path of the base working directory on the slave, of the current builder. Using Properties in Steps ------------------------- For the most part, properties are used to alter the behavior of build steps during a build. This is done by annotating the step definition in ``master.cfg`` with placeholders. When the step is executed, these placeholders will be replaced using the current values of the build properties. .. note:: Properties are defined while a build is in progress; their values are not available when the configuration file is parsed. This can sometimes confuse newcomers to Buildbot! In particular, the following is a common error:: if Property('release_train') == 'alpha': f.addStep(...) This does not work because the value of the property is not available when the ``if`` statement is executed. However, Python will not detect this as an error - you will just never see the step added to the factory. You can use build properties in most step paramaters. Please file bugs for any parameters which do not accept properties. .. index:: single: Properties; Property .. _Property: Property ++++++++ The simplest form of annotation is to wrap the property name with :class:`Property`:: from buildbot.steps.shell import ShellCommand from buildbot.process.properties import Property f.addStep(ShellCommand(command=[ 'echo', 'buildername:', Property('buildername') ]) You can specify a default value by passing a ``default`` keyword argument:: f.addStep(ShellCommand(command=[ 'echo', 'warnings:', Property('warnings', default='none') ]) The default value is used when the property doesn't exist, or when the value is something Python regards as ``False``. The ``defaultWhenFalse`` argument can be set to ``False`` to force buildbot to use the default argument only if the parameter is not set:: f.addStep(ShellCommand(command=[ 'echo', 'warnings:', Property('warnings', default='none', defaultWhenFalse=False) ]) The default value can reference other properties, e.g., :: command=Property('command', default=Property('default-command')) .. Index:: single; Properties; WithProperties .. _WithProperties: WithProperties ++++++++++++++ :class:`Property` can only be used to replace an entire argument: in the example above, it replaces an argument to ``echo``. Often, properties need to be interpolated into strings, instead. The tool for that job is :class:`WithProperties`. The simplest use of this class is with positional string interpolation. Here, ``%s`` is used as a placeholder, and property names are given as subsequent arguments:: from buildbot.steps.shell import ShellCommand from buildbot.process.properties import WithProperties f.addStep(ShellCommand( command=["tar", "czf", WithProperties("build-%s-%s.tar.gz", "branch", "revision"), "source"])) If this :class:`BuildStep` were used in a tree obtained from Git, it would create a tarball with a name like :file:`build-master-a7d3a333db708e786edb34b6af646edd8d4d3ad9.tar.gz`. .. index:: unsupported format character The more common pattern is to use python dictionary-style string interpolation by using the ``%(propname)s`` syntax. In this form, the property name goes in the parentheses, as above. A common mistake is to omit the trailing "s", leading to a rather obscure error from Python ("ValueError: unsupported format character"). :: from buildbot.steps.shell import ShellCommand from buildbot.process.properties import WithProperties f.addStep(ShellCommand(command=[ 'make', WithProperties('REVISION=%(got_revision)s'), 'dist' ]) This example will result in a ``make`` command with an argument like ``REVISION=12098``. The dictionary-style interpolation supports a number of more advanced syntaxes in the parentheses. ``propname:-replacement`` If ``propname`` exists, substitute its value; otherwise, substitute ``replacement``. ``replacement`` may be empty (``%(propname:-)s``) ``propname:~replacement`` Like ``propname:-replacement``, but only substitutes the value of property ``propname`` if it is something Python regards as ``True``. Python considers ``None``, 0, empty lists, and the empty string to be false, so such values will be replaced by ``replacement``. ``propname:+replacement`` If ``propname`` exists, substitute ``replacement``; otherwise, substitute an empty string. Although these are similar to shell substitutions, no other substitutions are currently supported, and ``replacement`` in the above cannot contain more substitutions. Note: like python, you can use either positional interpolation *or* dictionary-style interpolation, not both. Thus you cannot use a string like ``WithProperties("foo-%(revision)s-%s", "branch")``.