Versions Compared

Old Version 28

changes.mady.by.user Dave McConnell

Saved on

compared with

New Version 29

changes.mady.by.user Dave McConnell

Saved on

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.

Repositories

A repository in Continua CI is a reference to an external Version Control System (VCS) that provides a way for Continua CI to interact with that VCS. Adding a repository and assigning it to a Configuration allows the user to make use of the VCS's content in Continua CI. Some examples of using a repository in Continua CI include:

  • Automatically trigger a build whenever a check-in occurs in a tracked VCS.
  • Referencing components of the VCS in build actions.
  • Monitor and record changes in the repository. These include changesets that triggered a build or changesets that have been added since the previous build was run.
  • Show changesets that were committed by the current user. For a user to correctly view their own changes, they will first need to configure their Repository User Mappings.
  • Link a repository to an Issue Connector. This allows you to automatically link repository check-in comments to an issue in your issue tracking system.

Triggers

A Trigger is a Continua CI feature that waits for certain events to occur, when they occur the Configuration the trigger is assigned to is executed. A trigger can be setup to execute the Configuration when a check in is made to a specified repository or at a certain period in time.

A trigger is attached to a configuration and is set to listen for certain events to occur. If a matching event occurs, the trigger executes a build on its configuration. Triggers can listen for the following events:

  • A change being made in a repository.
  • Another configuration completing its build.
  • Firing a build at a certain date or time.

Repository Caches

Unlike some other continuous integration servers like FinalBuilder Server, Continua CI manages the retrieval of your source code. When you create a repository in Continua CI, it points the Continua server to your VCS and you need to . The polling frequency of each repository can be set to specify how often the Continua server polls the VCS for changes.

Continua maintains several caches of your source code: one on the Continua server and one on each agent that has previously used that repository. When Continua detects a new commit/check-in/changeset in your repository, it updates the server cache, then each agent that has that repository cached updates its cache from the server. This means that when it's time to run a build the source is most likely already on the Agent. 

The first time that an agent uses a repository its cache needs to be created. Depending on the size of your source, this can mean that the initial stage on that agent can take significantly longer than usual. After the cache is created though, keeping it updated is usually very quick (unless you add large binaries etc).

Building the right code base

The cache isn't just a bunch of files - it is versioned. This makes it easy for us to get the right version of the source to build. For example, lets say you have a Repository Trigger with a quiet period of 1 minute, which means that the build will wait 1 minute after its triggered to see if any other changes come in. Given the following steps:

...

This also allows us to run stages on different agents. For example, your Build stage might run on Agent1 and your Installer stage on Agent2. When the Installer stage gets to Agent2, it gets the same version of the cache that was used for the Build stage. Without this versioned cache, we would need to run every stage on the same Agent to ensure that the correct source was used.

Repository Architecture

The diagram below demonstrates the architecture used by Continua CI.

...