Building Software at Every Change - Continuous Integration - page 101

Although many build management systems can run builds for more
than one development line, a “CI integration build” runs against the
mainline.

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Summary

This chapter identified some of the practices for building software. The
build consists of the activities that create working software: compila-
tion of source code, database integration, testing, inspection, deploy-
ment, and feedback. This list isn't exhaustive; consider other activities
that can be made a part of the Integrate button.
Table 4-3 summarizes the practices covered in this chapter.

TABLE 4-3 CI Practices Discussed in This Chapter

Practice Description

Automate builds Create build scripts that are decoupled from IDEs.

Later, these build scripts will be executed by a CI
system so that software is built at every repository
change.

Perform single com-
mand builds

Assuming certain tools have been downloaded,
you should be able to type one command to exe-
cute a build from your build script to get the latest
code and run an entire build.

Separate build scripts
from your IDE

You should be able to run your automated build
without needing an IDE.

Centralize software
assets

To decrease the number of broken dependencies,
centralize all software assets. This lessens the
chance of broken builds when moving to a different
machine.

Create a consistent
directory structure

Create a consistent, logical directory structure,
which makes it easy to build the software.

Fail builds fast The faster the feedback occurs, the faster the

problem can be fixed. Execute build activities in
the order of what is most likely to fail first.

(Continued)