Automatic Build System

Every night an automatic build system runs to compile and test the software in the VRL group. This page is for documenting that process. Unless you are working on the build process itself, you probably don't need to know or care about these details. However, they need to be recorded somewhere, and this is as good a place as any.

The cron Job

The machine called franklin has a cron job running that every day at 1am (see /etc/cron.d/regression_test), runs a perl script created by t-staff. The script (/tstaff/bin/regtest) executes (as root) whatever it finds in /systest/bin.

Most days, what it finds in that directory is a bunch of scripts tstaff uses to manage the process and a couple of scripts called vrl_fast and vrl_slow that actually do the work.

• vrl_fast executes the script /research/graphics/tools/gfxtools-startup.sh, and then executes $G/common/build/valid/test.platform.py.
• vrl_slow does the same thing, but executes test.platform.py with the option -config $G/common/build/site/test.platform_slow.cfg.

Any scripts found in the /systest/bin directory that end in .weekly will only be run on Sundays.

The Test Script (test.platform.py)

Editing the Test Script

The actual copy of the test script that runs is the one in /research/graphics/common/build/valid. Please don't edit this directly. Instead, edit the version that is in your sandbox and use CVS to check it in. Note that the first thing test.platform.py does is check stuff out from CVS. If you edit this script, expect your changes to take effect the night after whatever runs tonight.