3.2.18. Metrics

New in buildbot 0.8.4 is support for tracking various performance metrics inside the buildbot master process. Currently these are logged periodically according to the log_interval configuration setting of the metrics configuration.

The metrics subsystem is implemented in buildbot.process.metrics. It makes use of twisted’s logging system to pass metrics data from all over buildbot’s code to a central MetricsLogObserver object, which is available at BuildMaster.metrics or via Status.getMetrics().

3.2.18.1. Metric Events

MetricEvent objects represent individual items to monitor. There are three sub-classes implemented:

MetricCountEvent

Records incremental increase or decrease of some value, or an absolute measure of some value.

from buildbot.process.metrics import MetricCountEvent

# We got a new widget!
MetricCountEvent.log('num_widgets', 1)

# We have exactly 10 widgets
MetricCountEvent.log('num_widgets', 10, absolute=True)

MetricTimeEvent

Measures how long things take. By default the average of the last 10 times will be reported.

from buildbot.process.metrics import MetricTimeEvent

# function took 0.001s
MetricTimeEvent.log('time_function', 0.001)

MetricAlarmEvent

Indicates the health of various metrics.

from buildbot.process.metrics import MetricAlarmEvent, ALARM_OK

# num_workers looks ok
MetricAlarmEvent.log('num_workers', level=ALARM_OK)

3.2.18.2. Metric Handlers

MetricsHandler objects are responsible for collecting MetricEvents of a specific type and keeping track of their values for future reporting. There are MetricsHandler classes corresponding to each of the MetricEvent types.

3.2.18.3. Metric Watchers

Watcher objects can be added to MetricsHandlers to be called when metric events of a certain type are received. Watchers are generally used to record alarm events in response to count or time events.

3.2.18.4. Metric Helpers

countMethod(name)

A function decorator that counts how many times the function is called.

from buildbot.process.metrics import countMethod

@countMethod('foo_called')
def foo():
    return "foo!"

Timer(name)

Timer objects can be used to make timing events easier. When Timer.stop() is called, a MetricTimeEvent is logged with the elapsed time since timer.start() was called.

from buildbot.process.metrics import Timer

def foo():
    t = Timer('time_foo')
    t.start()
    try:
        for i in range(1000):
            calc(i)
        return "foo!"
    finally:
        t.stop()

Timer objects also provide a pair of decorators, startTimer/stopTimer to decorate other functions.

from buildbot.process.metrics import Timer

t = Timer('time_thing')

@t.startTimer
def foo():
    return "foo!"

@t.stopTimer
def bar():
    return "bar!"

foo()
bar()

timeMethod(name)

A function decorator that measures how long a function takes to execute. Note that many functions in buildbot return deferreds, so may return before all the work they set up has completed. Using an explicit Timer is better in this case.

from buildbot.process.metrics import timeMethod

@timeMethod('time_foo')
def foo():
    for i in range(1000):
        calc(i)
    return "foo!"