.. -*- mode: rst; encoding: utf-8 -*-

=============
Configuration
=============

While the `Recipe`_ contains the instructions for how to build,
configurations are used to determine what gets built and any runtime
parameters used when building.

.. _recipe: recipe.html

.. contents:: Contents
   :depth: 2
.. sectnum::

Target platforms
================

A target platform is something like 'NetBSD x86' or 'Win32 Java 1.4'.

Technically, a target platform is a named set of rules against which the
properties of build slaves are matched. Each rule is a regular expression
matching a particular slave property, such as the operating system
or the processor. When a slave connects to the build master, it sends a
registration message that includes information about the slave.

A build configuration must have at least one target platform assigned to
it before it becomes fully active. 

Slave Properties
================

By default, the following properties are included:

:`family`:    The basic type of operating system, typically “posix” for
              Unix-like systems and “nt” for Win32 systems.
:`os`:        The name of the operating system (for example “Darwin”,
              “Linux” or “Windows”).
:`version`:   The operating system version.
:`machine`:   The hardware platform (for example “i686” or “Power Macintosh”).
:`processor`: The processor architecture (for example “athlon” or “powerpc”).
:`name`:      The name of the slave.
:`ipnr`:      The IP address of the slave.

Note that not all of these properties may be available for all platforms,
depending on OS and Python version.

Examples
--------

To set up a target platform, create rules that are checked against the
properties of the slave. For example, a target platform that matches slave
running Linux on x86 would look like this:

+------------+------------------------------------+
+ Property   | Expression                         |
+============+====================================+
| `os`       | `^Linux`                           |
+------------+------------------------------------+
| `machine`  | `^[xi]\d?86$`                      |
+------------+------------------------------------+

A target platform that matches any slaves running on Windows might look
like this:

+------------+------------------------------------+
+ Property   | Expression                         |
+============+====================================+
| `family`   | `^nt$`                             |
+------------+------------------------------------+

The build master will request a build from at most one slave for every
target platform. So, for example, if there are three slaves connected that
are matching 'NetBSD x86', only one of them will perform the build of a
specific revision. Slaves that match a particular target platform are
treated as if they were completely interchangable.

If a slave connects that doesn't match any of the configured target platforms,
the build master will reject its registration.

Slave Configuration
===================

When a build slave registers with a build master, it sends information about
the machine the slave is running on, and what software it has available.
While some of this information can be automatically discovered by the slave,
other information may need to be configured explicitly. Also, a slave instance
may want to override some of the automatically computed attributes,
for example to enable cross-compilation.

There are three categories of information that can be configured for a slave:

:`os`:       Properties of the operating system
:`machine`:  Properties of the underlying hardware
:`packages`: Various pieces of software, like a language runtime or a library

Configuration File Format
-------------------------

For simple manual editing, the slave configuration file will be based on
the ``'INI'`` file format known from Windows, which is also frequently used by
Python applications.

The file is included at runtime using a slave command-line option::

  bitten-slave -f config.ini

A configuration file is partitioned into named sections. There are two
predefined sections named ``[machine]`` and ``[os]``. If you supply them in
your configuration file they should include the following sections.

.. code-block:: ini

  [os]
  name = Darwin
  version = 8.1.0
  family = posix
  
  [machine]
  name = levi
  processor = Power Macintosh

There may be any number of additional sections, where each section corresponds
to a software package. For example:

.. code-block:: ini

  [dbxml]
  version = 2.1.8
  
  [python]
  version = 2.3.5
  path = /usr/bin/python2.3

*Note:* Options called ``name`` is not allowed in custom sections (will
be skipped).

The build slave sends this package information as part of the build initiation,
which when using verbose logging (``bitten-slave -v``) will display a debug
message 'Sending slave configuration:' followed by:

.. code-block:: xml

  <slave name="host.domain">
    <platform processor="Power Macintosh">levi</platform>
    <os version="8.1.0" family="posix">Darwin</os>
    <package name="dbxml" version="2.1.8" />
    <package name="python" version="2.3.5" path="/usr/bin/python23" />
  </slave>

The name of the slave can only be set as command-line option::

  bitten-slave --name=myhost

Commands using Properties
-------------------------

A number of commands_ support runtime settings using a slave configuration
file. The example of ``python.path`` above is one such example, where all
Python commands will use the specified executable for running commands.

The documentation for commands_ should include information about all
runtime settings.

.. _commands: commands.html

Properties in Build Configurations
----------------------------------

Defined properties can be used in a build configuration to match slaves
against target platforms. For example, the following rule would match any slave
providing 'Berkeley DB XML' version 2.x::

  dbxml.version ~= /^2\.\d\.\d.*/

The properties are accessible in dotted notation, where the part before the dot
is the package name, and the part after the dot is the name of the property.  

Property Interpolation in Build Recipes
---------------------------------------

Property values can be interpolated into build recipes_ as well, so individual
slaves can parameterize how their build is perfomed. For example, given the
following build recipe excerpt:

.. code-block:: xml

  <svn:checkout url="http://svn.example.org/repos/myproject/"
    path="${repository.branch}" revision="${revision}"/>

.. _recipes: recipes.html

Slaves may control which part of the repository is checked out and tested
with a configuration file excerpt like this one:

.. code-block:: ini

  [repository]
  branch = /branches/0.3-testing

Default slave properties are also available for use in recipes:

.. code-block:: xml

  <sh:exec executable="echo"
    args="Slave: ${family} ${os} ${version} ${machine} ${processor}"/>

Additionally, environment variables are also interpolated, supporting
the common notations of ``$VAR`` and ``${VAR}``.

.. code-block:: xml

  <sh:exec executable="${PROGRAMFILES}/SomeDir/MyProg.exe" />


Authentication
==============

Authentication information can also be included in slave configuration file:

.. code-block:: ini

  [authentication]
  username = myusername
  password = mypassword

The authentication information will be removed as soon as it is read
by the slave, and will not be passed to the master as active configuration.