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STP/Build Component

Revision as of 06:06, 5 December 2008 by (Talk | contribs)

The Build repository is a separate codebase which includes all of the bits and pieces that we use to run our builds, make update sites, and all that good stuff. The build materials are managed collectively by the committers to the various components of STP - we're not lucky enough to have a dedicated build team.

If Buckminster build systems are something you like, and you think our build could be improved then we really welcome any patches or ideas you may have. Take a look at the open Build bugs for inspiration!

Logo project.gif

Where's the Source?

STP uses SVN, and is a multi-repository project, with one repository for each sub-project or component. Individual components can be built (in most cases) independently, but sometimes cross-dependencies exist, and of course a full roll-up build implies access to all the relevant repositories.

SVN repositories can be access through the HTTP protocol, for anonymous read-only checkouts, and the SVN+SSH protocol, for committer checkouts. Here are the repository locations.

How Do I Build?

Once you've checked out the relevant project(s) from SVN in the IDE, the IDE will build it for you, saving all that tedious mucking about with the command line. But if you would like to be able to build it headless then there are a couple of options. If you have shell access to the build infrastructure you can build it there with a minimum of hassle. Note that shell access is only given to committer that have specific responsibilities for builds. If you want to build it on your local machine, you will need to first construct what we call the platform, which is an Eclipse installation with all of the dependencies in place, installed as features and plugins. The dependencies will change version from milestone to milestone as we head for a roll-up build in the mid-year big-bang release.

What about some Useful Links?

If you are hacking the build, you need to know some things about Buckminster, which is our shield against the slings and arrows of the raw PDE build with its strange Ant script behaviour. Buckminster is relatively new, having started up in 2006, but has built a lot of solidity and experience with Eclipse and other projects outside the Eclipse community. Plenty of information is available from the linked wiki page, and I would recommend articles like How to Build an Update Site to get you going. The guys on the Buckminster newsgroup and the Buckminster-Dev newsgroup are usually very responsive too.

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