[Buildbot-devel] Multi-buildsteps and output environments

[Dan Kegel]

On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 1:51 PM, Ludovic Chabant <ludovic at chabant.com> wrote:
> * Multi-buildsteps: say you can build your code in various configurations
> (Debug, Release, Final) and you have a Force scheduler form on the WebStatus
> that lets you pick those configurations (using a ChoiceStringParameter with
> "multiple" set to "True"). How can it "loop" over the selected
> configurations and run as many builders as requested?

Do you also do non-forced builds of those configurations?
If so, then you probably have one builder per configuration,
and the user can just check the checkboxes for each builder
rather than using a pulldown.

> * Output environments: we have a batch script that sets up various
> environment variables based on other things. How can I run this as a
> ShellCommand step and capture the resulting environment so I can pass it to
> the next steps? The only thing for which I require this so far is really
> running some VisualStudio steps, so I guess I could work around that by NOT
> using those steps and instead invoking "devenv" through a ShellCommand and a
> wrapper script, or somehow make a sub-class of the VisualStudio step that
> accepts running a "setup" script... but it would make things simpler if I
> could just use our existing script in a simpler way.

IMHO you want to use as little of buildbot's magic as possible.  Ideally,
it should just fire off "standard" builds without knowing anything at all
about the project.  The less Buildbot knows about the projects, the happier
you'll be.  This is not because Buildbot is hard to configure (though
it kinda is),
but because it's better to use exactly the same logic for automated
and manual builds.
- Dan