Caution

This page documents the latest, unreleased version of Buildbot. For documentation for released versions, see https://docs.buildbot.net/current/.

2.6.12. A Somewhat Whimsical Example (or “It’s now customized, how do I deploy it?”)

Let’s say that we’ve got some snazzy new unit-test framework called Framboozle. It’s the hottest thing since sliced bread. It slices, it dices, it runs unit tests like there’s no tomorrow. Plus if your unit tests fail, you can use its name for a Web 2.1 startup company, make millions of dollars, and hire engineers to fix the bugs for you, while you spend your afternoons lazily hang-gliding along a scenic pacific beach, blissfully unconcerned about the state of your tests. [1]

To run a Framboozle-enabled test suite, you just run the ‘framboozler’ command from the top of your source code tree. The ‘framboozler’ command emits a bunch of stuff to stdout, but the most interesting bit is that it emits the line “FNURRRGH!” every time it finishes running a test case You’d like to have a test-case counting LogObserver that watches for these lines and counts them, because counting them will help the buildbot more accurately calculate how long the build will take, and this will let you know exactly how long you can sneak out of the office for your hang-gliding lessons without anyone noticing that you’re gone.

This will involve writing a new BuildStep (probably named “Framboozle”) which inherits from ShellCommand. The BuildStep class definition itself will look something like this:

from buildbot.plugins import steps, util

class FNURRRGHCounter(util.LogLineObserver):
    numTests = 0
    def outLineReceived(self, line):
        if "FNURRRGH!" in line:
            self.numTests += 1
            self.step.setProgress('tests', self.numTests)

class Framboozle(steps.ShellCommand):
    command = ["framboozler"]

    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(**kwargs)   # always upcall!
        counter = FNURRRGHCounter()
        self.addLogObserver('stdio', counter)
        self.progressMetrics += ('tests',)

So that’s the code that we want to wind up using. How do we actually deploy it?

You have a number of different options:

2.6.12.1. Inclusion in the master.cfg file

The simplest technique is to simply put the step class definitions in your master.cfg file, somewhere before the BuildFactory definition where you actually use it in a clause like:

f = BuildFactory()
f.addStep(SVN(repourl="stuff"))
f.addStep(Framboozle())

Remember that master.cfg is secretly just a Python program with one job: populating the BuildmasterConfig dictionary. And Python programs are allowed to define as many classes as they like. So you can define classes and use them in the same file, just as long as the class is defined before some other code tries to use it.

This is easy, and it keeps the point of definition very close to the point of use, and whoever replaces you after that unfortunate hang-gliding accident will appreciate being able to easily figure out what the heck this stupid “Framboozle” step is doing anyways. The downside is that every time you reload the config file, the Framboozle class will get redefined, which means that the buildmaster will think that you’ve reconfigured all the Builders that use it, even though nothing changed. Bleh.

2.6.12.2. Python file somewhere on the system

Instead, we can put this code in a separate file, and import it into the master.cfg file just like we would the normal buildsteps like ShellCommand and SVN.

Create a directory named ~/lib/python, put the step class definitions in ~/lib/python/framboozle.py, and run your buildmaster using:

PYTHONPATH=~/lib/python buildbot start MASTERDIR

or use the Makefile.buildbot to control the way buildbot start works. Or add something like this to something like your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile or ~/.cshrc:

export PYTHONPATH=~/lib/python

Once we’ve done this, our master.cfg can look like:

from framboozle import Framboozle
f = BuildFactory()
f.addStep(SVN(repourl="stuff"))
f.addStep(Framboozle())

or:

import framboozle
f = BuildFactory()
f.addStep(SVN(repourl="stuff"))
f.addStep(framboozle.Framboozle())

(check out the Python docs for details about how import and from A import B work).

What we’ve done here is to tell Python that every time it handles an “import” statement for some named module, it should look in our ~/lib/python/ for that module before it looks anywhere else. After our directories, it will try in a bunch of standard directories too (including the one where buildbot is installed). By setting the PYTHONPATH environment variable, you can add directories to the front of this search list.

Python knows that once it “import”s a file, it doesn’t need to re-import it again. This means that reconfiguring the buildmaster (with buildbot reconfig, for example) won’t make it think the Framboozle class has changed every time, so the Builders that use it will not be spuriously restarted. On the other hand, you either have to start your buildmaster in a slightly weird way, or you have to modify your environment to set the PYTHONPATH variable.

2.6.12.3. Install this code into a standard Python library directory

Find out what your Python’s standard include path is by asking it:

80:warner@luther% python
Python 2.4.4c0 (#2, Oct  2 2006, 00:57:46)
[GCC 4.1.2 20060928 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-15)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sys
>>> import pprint
>>> pprint.pprint(sys.path)
['',
 '/usr/lib/python24.zip',
 '/usr/lib/python2.4',
 '/usr/lib/python2.4/plat-linux2',
 '/usr/lib/python2.4/lib-tk',
 '/usr/lib/python2.4/lib-dynload',
 '/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages',
 '/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages',
 '/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/Numeric',
 '/var/lib/python-support/python2.4',
 '/usr/lib/site-python']

In this case, putting the code into /usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/framboozle.py would work just fine. We can use the same master.cfg import framboozle statement as in Option 2. By putting it in a standard include directory (instead of the decidedly non-standard ~/lib/python), we don’t even have to set PYTHONPATH to anything special. The downside is that you probably have to be root to write to one of those standard include directories.

2.6.12.4. Distribute a Buildbot Plug-In

First of all, you must prepare a Python package (if you do not know what that is, please check How to package Buildbot plugins, where you can find a couple of pointers to tutorials).

When you have a package, you will have a special file called setup.py. This file needs to be updated to include a pointer to your new step:

setup(
    ...
    entry_points = {
        ...,
        'buildbot.steps': [
            'Framboozle = framboozle:Framboozle'
        ]
    },
    ...
)

Where:

• buildbot.steps is the kind of plugin you offer (more information about possible kinds you can find in How to package Buildbot plugins)

• framboozle:Framboozle consists of two parts: framboozle is the name of the Python module where to look for Framboozle class, which implements the plugin

• Framboozle is the name of the plugin.

  This will allow users of your plugin to use it just like any other Buildbot plugins:

  from buildbot.plugins import steps
  
  ... steps.Framboozle ...
  

Now you can upload it to PyPI where other people can download it from and use in their build systems. Once again, the information about how to prepare and upload a package to PyPI can be found in tutorials listed in How to package Buildbot plugins.

2.6.12.5. Submit the code for inclusion in the Buildbot distribution

Make a fork of buildbot on http://github.com/buildbot/buildbot or post a patch in a bug at http://trac.buildbot.net/. In either case, post a note about your patch to the mailing list, so others can provide feedback and, eventually, commit it.

When it’s committed to the master, the usage is the same as in the previous approach:

from buildbot.plugins import steps, util

...
f = util.BuildFactory()
f.addStep(steps.SVN(repourl="stuff"))
f.addStep(steps.Framboozle())
...

And then you don’t even have to install framboozle.py anywhere on your system, since it will ship with Buildbot. You don’t have to be root, you don’t have to set PYTHONPATH. But you do have to make a good case for Framboozle being worth going into the main distribution, you’ll probably have to provide docs and some unit test cases, you’ll need to figure out what kind of beer the author likes (IPA’s and Stouts for Dustin), and then you’ll have to wait until the next release. But in some environments, all this is easier than getting root on your buildmaster box, so the tradeoffs may actually be worth it.

2.6.12.6. Summary

Putting the code in master.cfg (1) makes it available to that buildmaster instance. Putting it in a file in a personal library directory (2) makes it available for any buildmasters you might be running. Putting it in a file in a system-wide shared library directory (3) makes it available for any buildmasters that anyone on that system might be running. Getting it into the buildbot’s upstream repository (4) makes it available for any buildmasters that anyone in the world might be running. It’s all a matter of how widely you want to deploy that new class.

[1]

framboozle.com is still available. Remember, I get 10% :).