[CIG-CS] updating CIG buildbots to use Git

[Matthew Knepley]

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 5:29 PM, Eric Heien <emheien at ucdavis.edu> wrote:

> Hi Brad,
>
> The current CIG buildbot version is 0.7.5 dating from Dec. 2006 whereas
> the current official buildbot version is 0.8.7.  The CIG system also uses
> Python 2.4 and other outdated libraries.  From what I read on various
> forums, the compatibility between 0.7.x slaves and a 0.8.x master is
> questionable.  If we upgrade I'd like to completely wipe the old buildbot
> structure and use a completely updated version.
>
> None of the other CIG codes are currently using the buildbot
> infrastructure so whether we can do this depends on PyLith and how much
> work it takes to customize buildbot.  Do you know how much customization
> was involved in setting up the PyLith buildbots?  Do you remember what
> needed to be customized?  I've been playing with the BaTLab system where
> compiling external libraries is very simple, so I would imagine buildbot
> should have similar ease of use and the customization was involved
> elsewhere.
>
> I'd be willing to work with you, Charles and Matt over the next month to
> get this working on an updated buildbot system since we'll need it anyway
> as we move other codes to Git.  Let me know what you think,
>

Sure. I would think this would be easy since 'hg pull -u' and 'git checkout
<branch>; git pull' will do the same things for a buildbot.

   Matt


> -Eric
>
> On Apr 18, 2013, at 1:55 PM, Brad Aagaard wrote:
>
> > QUESTION #1: Should CIG update to the latest buildbot release and
> > recustomize it or try to update the current customized buildbot so that
> > it has a more complete implementation for Git?
> >
> > QUESTION #2: Does CIG have the expertise and resources to complete this
> > task in 4-6 weeks?
> >
> > Background
> >
> > I have messed with the buildbot configuration and source code to see if
> > it is easy to update to support Git. It is difficult to tell how many
> > obstacles are lurking under the hood.
> >
> > When the CIG buildbots migrated to UCDavis, we limited them to PyLith
> > builds (although I think Walter used them to build Gale binaries at
> > release time). They build the three main PyLith software components that
> > change on a frequent basis- PyLith, petsc-dev, and spatialdata. We now
> > need to update the buildbots to use Git for PETSc rather than mercurial.
> > Additionally, we use the knepley/pylith branch of PETSc, so we need
> > relatively up-to-date support for Git.
> >
> > The CIG buildbots run a customized version of buildbot that has not been
> > kept in sync with buildbot releases. As a result, it appears to provide
> > very limited support for Git repositories. This leads to the question of
> > how to proceed with updating the buildbots to use Git.  Most of the
> > customization was done when CIG started, so I am not sure what was done.
> > I have done some customization, primarily to allow us to package a
> > PyLith windows binary.
> >
> > I took over the buildbots to get them up and running when CIG moved to
> > UCDavis, primarily because CIG had very limited staff and I know all the
> > interdependencies for PyLith. However, I really don't have time to
> > update buildbot. I would like CIG to do this but we can't wait 2 months
> > for this to be done. We need to get a PyLith bugfix release out in 3-4
> > weeks and a major new feature done by mid-June.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Brad
> > _______________________________________________
> > CIG-CS mailing list
> > CIG-CS at geodynamics.org
> > http://geodynamics.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cig-cs
>
>


-- 
What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their
experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their
experiments lead.
-- Norbert Wiener
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