We tried to build every day when we started with Java three years ago, but the lack of tools and experience made that impossible. Now with Ant and a proper IDE (Eclipse), we can build 4 times a day and developers are told not to commit code that doesn't build (which they don't - as long as they use the IDE features). Also, the daily build script parses any compiler/validation errors and send a mail to each developer committing code with errors. We do system test builds every third week or so after "all" committed code has passed the intermediate testing levels on the daily build server. The test process is setup by the project manager, I'm the build manager and also responsible for the lower-level test environments.
Sten -----Original Message----- From: Unchis, Debra [mailto:DUnchis@;coral-energy.com] Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 7:55 PM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: Looking for a Build Philosophy Here's a change of pace question for the group... I am the Build Manager for my group. By "Build Manager" I mean I wrote the build.xml for our code, I don't have a full fledged background in what I'm calling "build philosophy". So I'm no expert here, I'm just trying to get an idea on how other organizations do it. Not the technical on internal aspects of the build (not the targets and tasks) but the PROCESS, the philosophy behind a build. I know there is no right or wrong, but I don't have any examples to follow so that's what I'm looking to this large pool of fellow builders for: What I'd like to know is how often does your organization build? What events lead up to your builds? How involved are the individual developers? How do you progress from a unit test build to a system test build? I mean I'm sure this can be simplified to build when it's necessary or when changes are made, but I find on my project that we are building every night and I'm finding that I spend half of my day tracking down errors and rebuilding. I kind of think that's a waste, but I don't have any facts or examples to back me up. Management says "build", so I build, but there has to be a better SYSTEM out there. Can you all help me out with some real life experiences and advice? Thanks so much. Debbie
