Jeffrey Thalhammer
S o f t w a r e S y s t e m s
jeff@imaginative-software.com

Continuous Integration
of Perl Code
San Francisco Perlmongers
June 23, 2009

What is Continuous
Integration?
Code
Integrate Commit

During The
“Integration” Phase...
• Compile & link code
• Manage resources
• Run tests
• Create deliverable
Continuous integration means
doing these automatically

How it Works
• CI server watches your repository (remote
or local).
• When changes appear in the repository, do
stuff like...
• Check out the code.
• Run some commands.
• Report on the results.

Just a glorified union of
cron and make

But Without The Suck

Choices, Choices
• CruiseControl: ThoughWorks; Java; Free
• Buildbot: From Mozilla; Python; Free
• Hudson: Open source; Java
• TeamCity: From JetBrains; Java; Commercial

Basic Features
• Interface to an SCM system
• Facility to run commands
• Facility to publish artifacts
• Reporting and statistics
• Notifications and monitoring

Advanced Features
• Report test results and track trends
• Manage component dependencies
• Manage version numbers and tags
• Integrate with bug-tracking systems
• Delegate tasks and responsibilities
• Distributed integration services
• Fine-grained access controls
• Shiny web interface for configuration

But No Native Support
For Perl
• They don’t understand Module::Build or
ExtUtils::MakeMaker
• No support for TAP

Bridging The Gap
• Ant script that wraps Module::Build actions
• Custom TAP formatter

See It work
• Demonstrate projects & builds
• Show failed build
• Show overview, changes, log.
• Show tests (failed, ignored), searching
• Show failed-in/fixed-in build.
• Show responsibility

See It work
• Show build overview, change log, statistics
• Show artifacts (coverage, nytprof)
• Show timed & dependent builds
• Show administration

Lessons Learned
• CI is not your mommy
• You must manage your CI configuration
• Perl is getting left out in the cold

Jeffrey Thalhammer
S o f t w a r e S y s t e m s
jeff@imaginative-software.com