Hi all, I'm at the end of my stint as the build engineer, so it makes sense to send an email talking about what I have and haven't done.
I've mostly focused on the EC2-using infrastructure: ec2test and buildbot. Here's some highlights: * I wrote https://dev.launchpad.net/Trunk/Glue describing how our 4 trunks and buildbot set up is put together. * I added a 'force build' feature to buildbot. * I set up a buildbot builder running make jscheck daily. * I, or mostly Tom really, set up a staging buildbot that we can use to test config changes and system upgrades. * I built a buildbot package that's based on a release of buildbot, which seems to be running OK on staging (too scared to try it on production in week 4). * I drastically refactored ec2test into a much more organized 'ec2' command with various subcommands. * This ec2 tool has a command to update the ec2 AMI we use in one step (ec2 update-image). * I rejigged things to make ec2test --headless go headless much faster. * I extended ec2 to be able to start with a blank AMI such as those provided by Eric Hammond at http://alestic.com/ and then either bundle it or run tests on it. * We should be able to use this to start running the tests on lucid as soon as AMIs become available PPA's start supporting it -- a nice, mostly unintentional, side effect. * I extended and used ec2 update-image to make an AMI that can be made publically available next week. * I haven't made it publically available yet, because while the image works with the trunk ec2, it is rather slow to start up. * Away from the EC2 specific stuff, I triaged and commented on lots of build-infrastructure bugs. * In particular, https://dev.launchpad.net/FasterTests now has links to and from various specific bug reports. General comments about the Build Engineer role: * I think the rotating build engineer role is a good idea. * The amount of work to be done in the area is quite daunting, and many of the problems are hard in frustrating niggly ways. * It's hard to get things done on the infrastructure in week 4! * In addition, not being able to land branches in week 4 is a pain, even more than normal. As the build engineer's work is sort of sideways to the main thrust of launchpad development, I've acquired a stack of interdependent branches that I can't land until Monday :/ * A cycle is probably about the right length of time. * My main 'dashboard' has been the list of bugs tagged with 'build-infrastructure': https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/launchpad-project/+bugs?field.tag=build-infrastructure I think this is a good way to work and I'd recommend it to those who follow me. So in summary, I think I've had a reasonably productive cycle, and best of luck to Gavin in his stint as Build Engineer! Cheers, mwh _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~launchpad-dev Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~launchpad-dev More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
