[Buildbot-devel] Not-quite-automated builds - human interaction

[Gregory Manning]

Hello,

We now have a buildbot server happily running all our svn commits, and now I'm trying to think how best to make use of buildbot in our formal release process.

Unfortunately, this involves some not (yet) automated tasks (create upgrade notes document, do a sanity check of the release before its copied directly up to public ftp servers, burning to disc, ...).

Our current in house system has a "Pause for QA" step, wherein the appropriate human creates the upgrade notes document and sticks it in someplace on the network, or whatever, then clicks the 'carry on' button.

Also, each release gets uploaded to a different set of directories, depending on whether it's a general release or a restricted release for one or more customer.

So, I think I want
1) Pausing for humans. I think I could write a step for this, but it's unclear how to resume (some button/web page? Poke on some port? Wait for the existance of some file?)
2) Inputted options (for output directories). Maybe I could encode something in the 'reason' field, but that sounds hacky. Alternatively, maybe I should just create a file in the svn branch containing the appropriate directories...

Has anyone done something like this before? Or have suggestions on the 'correct' way to achieve this sort of thing?

Thanks,
Greg Manning
Development Analyst

Mitrefinch Ltd.
Mitrefinch House,
Green Lane, Clifton,
York, YO30 5YY
www.mitrefinch.co.uk
Tel +44 (0)1904 693115
Fax +44 (0)1904 693792