[Buildbot] #581: Automatic builder creation for new branches

[Buildbot trac]

#581: Automatic builder creation for new branches
------------------------+---------------------
Reporter:  mhoermann    |       Owner:  warner
    Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  closed
Priority:  major        |   Milestone:  0.8.9
 Version:  0.7.10       |  Resolution:  fixed
Keywords:               |
------------------------+---------------------
Changes (by dustin):

 * status:  new => closed
 * resolution:   => fixed
 * milestone:  0.9.+ => 0.8.9


Old description:

> In Git (and other DVCS) branches are very easy to create and are used a
> lot more than in the ancient VCS like CVS, SVN,... where it was a huge
> administrative overhead to create one.
>
> In buildbot however you have no way to properly work with these branches
> without constantly changing the config file, creating exactly that
> administrative overhead again.
>
> It would be great if buildbot had some kind of builder templates that
> would create one builder per branch as soon as that branch is encountered
> the first time and remove it again once that branch hasn't been updated
> for a configurable time.
>
> This would allow users to see in the waterfall which branches build and
> if several people commit on several of those branches quickbuilders
> wouldn't be as slow as full builders (like they are now since they delete
> the build dir when they are used on another branch).
>
> Right now this severely limits the usefulness of buildbot on a modern
> DVCS unless everyone creating branches is familiar with buildbot config
> files and willing to edit them each time they make a new branch.

New description:

 In Git (and other DVCS) branches are very easy to create and are used a
 lot more than in the ancient VCS like CVS, SVN,... where it was a huge
 administrative overhead to create one.

 In buildbot however you have no way to properly work with these branches
 without constantly changing the config file, creating exactly that
 administrative overhead again.

 It would be great if buildbot had some kind of builder templates that
 would create one builder per branch as soon as that branch is encountered
 the first time and remove it again once that branch hasn't been updated
 for a configurable time.

 This would allow users to see in the waterfall which branches build and if
 several people commit on several of those branches quickbuilders wouldn't
 be as slow as full builders (like they are now since they delete the build
 dir when they are used on another branch).

 Right now this severely limits the usefulness of buildbot on a modern DVCS
 unless everyone creating branches is familiar with buildbot config files
 and willing to edit them each time they make a new branch.

--

Comment:

 So, there are two parts here.

 One is that it's been difficult to get !GitPoller to poll arbitrary
 branches.

 The other is that building multiple branches with the same builder, while
 functional, tends to produce confusing visual results since builds for all
 branches are jumbled together in waterfall, grid, and console.

 The first is fixed in [3c5eeef5bc769fda503b28ffce8858eb046e21a7], which is
 in 0.8.9.

 The second can be worked around by using `?branch=` to limit the display
 to a single branch.  Nine will have better filtering abilities, and will
 try to de-emphasize builders as units of display.

--
Ticket URL: <http://trac.buildbot.net/ticket/581#comment:12>
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