Welcome to Buildbot

The BuildBot is a system to automate the compile/test cycle required by most software projects to validate code changes. By automatically rebuilding and testing the tree each time something has changed, build problems are pinpointed quickly, before other developers are inconvenienced by the failure. The guilty developer can be identified and harassed without human intervention. By running the builds on a variety of platforms, developers who do not have the facilities to test their changes everywhere before checkin will at least know shortly afterwards whether they have broken the build or not. Warning counts, lint checks, image size, compile time, and other build parameters can be tracked over time, are more visible, and are therefore easier to improve.

The overall goal is to reduce tree breakage and provide a platform to run tests or code-quality checks that are too annoying or pedantic for any human to waste their time with. Developers get immediate (and potentially public) feedback about their changes, encouraging them to be more careful about testing before checkin.

You might like to look at some ScreenShots.

Download/Install?

The current release is buildbot-0.7.5 .

• From Source: download the latest version from the SourceForge  download page, run setup.py install as per the README, and read the UserManual about configuring your new buildbot. The release is signed with  my GPG public key.
• Debian Users: install the 'buildbot'  package from the 'unstable' or 'testing' distribution.
• Ubuntu Users: install the 'buildbot'  package from the Dapper 'universe' section (version 0.7.2 in dapper, 0.7.4 in edgy). (thanks to Matthias Klose for making both of these debian versions happen!). For newer versions, look for backports or install from source.
• SUSE Users: Marcus Rueckert has made SUSE RPMs available at  http://software.opensuse.org/download/devel:/tools:/building/ . There is also  user documentation available.
• Darwin Users: run port install buildbot (thanks to Olivier Bonnet for  making this happen!)

Configuring/Using?

• The README file contains an overview.
• The User's Manual contains complete documentation.
• The API Reference may be useful when writing the configuration file: the various Steps and Schedulers are documented there.
• Recent changes for each release are summarized in the NEWS file, while the complete details are in the ChangeLog.
• The  paper delivered at  PyCon  2003, along with the  slides.

Support

• The  SourceForge Project Page contains bug trackers and archives of the mailing list.
• Please join the  buildbot-devel mailing list to be notified about new releases, discuss how to configure and use the buildbot, and to hear about new development. This is both a user and a developer mailing list.
• HelpfulPages contains a collection of articles and blog postings about Buildbot.
• placeholder page for the BuildbotFAQ is here
• placeholder page for RunningBuildbotOnWindows is here

Development

• The latest pre-release code is available from CVS for  browsing or  read-only checkout.
• There are also Arch and Darcs repositories? which track the main CVS tree and provide lower-latency access than anonymous CVS.
• You might want to look at the CVS trunk version of the user's manual to get an idea of what sorts of features are coming up in the next release.
• You can also join the  buildbot-commits mailing list to be notified about changes in CVS.
• There is a brief  roadmap listing goals for the next few releases.
• FutureIdeas has some random thoughts on things that might make the Buildbot better.
• placeholder pages for WritingBuildSteps? and WritingStatusPlugins? are here

Success Stories

Buildbots are installed in at least 100 sites all over the world. Users have submitted pointers to the SuccessStories page, so you can get a feel for how Buildbot is being used.

Install a buildbot today and add your name!

Miscellaneous

The original TracStartingPage was moved away.