This page provides a glossary of terminology used in documentation
about Test-AutoBuild.
- angel
- Guardian process responsible for starting and stopping
the builder and monitoring and recovering from fatal crashes.
- archive
- Persistent storage for the results of a build cycle, enabling
module rebuilds to be skipped, if the source has not changed since
the previous build cycle.
- artifact
- File(s) generated during the build of a module, of interest
to developers, but not typically distributed to end users, such
as test suite results, source code analysis reports.
- build counter
- Tag applied to a single build cycle, which can be used to
trace from generated packages back to the module's source checked
out from source repository.
- build cycle
- Iteration of the automated build process, from source
checkout, through build, test and install, to sending of alerts,
package upload and status page generation.
- build home
- Root of a directory containing all the state for running
a single intance of the builder.
- build mutex
- Lock file or similar mutual exclusion mechanism to prevent
to builder instances from running concurrently within the same
build home.
- build root
- Directory into which modules are exported from source
repositories for performing a build. Typically located as
a directory underneath the build home.
- builder
- Instance of the Test-AutoBuild software running the stages
comprising a build cycle
- group
- Arbitrarily defined set of modules used for enhancing presentation
of build cycle status pages, and structuring of package download sites.
- install root
- Virtual root directory into which a module's build process
will install generated applications and libraries, allowing
later modules to depend on earlier generated files. Typically
located as a directory underneath the build home.
- module
- A self contained piece of code, typically a software program
or library, to be built.
- monitor
- Mechanism for watching progress of the builder through the
stages comprising a build cycle, perhaps via a FIFO pipe, or
signals through a messaging bus.
- package
- Archive of application programs or libraries, generated
by the build of a module, to be distributed to end users.
- package root
- Directory into which generated packages are created
by the module's build process. Typically located as
a directory underneath the build home.
- package type
- Specification for the format of the packaging archive
files, typically operating system dependant such as RPM,
Debian PKG, or simply ZIP files.
- publisher
- Method of copying artifacts to a [web] site for incorporation
in the build cycle status pages, including simple file copy, XSL
transformation, or text to HTML conversion.
- repository
- Location containing pristine source code for modules to
be built, typically accessed and managed with version control
software.
- runtime
- Object providing access to the set of modules, repositories,
publishers, monitors, package types configured on a build cycle.
- stage
- Action or task to be run during a build cycle. Many
stages are chained together to form the build engine
- variables
- Hash of [key, value] pairs used to pass data between stages, typically
for substitution into templates used for HTML status pages and email alerts
