What tools do you use for Automated Builds / Automated Deployments? Why?
What tools do you recommend?
views:
952answers:
20
+6
A:
Hudson for automated builds. I chose it because it was the easiest to setup and demo. A system that's too complex and isn't slick-looking won't impress management enough to get them on-board for automated builds. Especially in a project that has a lot of inertia.
schwerwolf
2008-09-19 04:10:09
Whe are using hudson here too. It is so much good and has some plugins to analyze data that our build creates (like test reports, coverage tools and some other code analysis).
marcospereira
2008-09-19 05:35:26
+2
A:
Funnily enough I just spent two weeks overhauling (read implementing from scratch) our nightly build process. Great fun (no, really). I toyed with the idea of installing Team Foundation Server, but we use Perforce for source control and I didn't think it was worth the hassle.
Our process is now a set of Powershell scripts that run on a dedicated build/test server that do the following on a scheduled task:
Wipe out the entire source tree (check that you didn't have anything checked out first!)
Bring down the entire source tree from Perforce (from the last labelled build)
Generate a change report (by syncing to HEAD and watching what comes down)
Build the App
Index the PDB files to the Perforce sources
Store the binaries and symbols in a dedicated symbol server
Run the test projects
Build the installer
Label
Send out emails to the group with status reports on all of the above
Works well.
Wayne
2008-09-19 04:14:53
+1
A:
For automated builds, I think the best tool going right now is JetBrain's Team City. The free version has all the features you'll need for most 5-10 person teams. Set up is easy, configuring new projects is painless (relatively), and most importantly, it's reliable.
For automated migrations, nothing beats PowerShell.
Don
2008-09-19 04:17:50
+4
A:
NAnt for builds (but MSBuild, Rake, almost anything would be fine) and CruiseControl.NET for deployments. I'm currently working with the new Cruise from ThoughtWorks studios as it provides a better way to stage the various pipelines and let's me deploy any version I want to a target environment.
Bil
2008-09-19 04:18:39
+1
A:
We used to use Visual Build from Kinook software, but recently with our new application we switched to MSBuild since it had better integration with TFS and the ability to create custom tasks.
Whoiskb
2008-09-19 04:23:58
+1
A:
Instead of letting you mes with scripts or xml files, it comes with predefined graphical macro operations that allows you to create tasks easily.
Ngu Soon Hui
2008-09-19 04:27:00
We're programmers, so we are lazy enough to use the most intuitive tools to get our job done. If that means no scripts no code, so be it.
Ngu Soon Hui
2009-10-28 02:59:29
A:
Awesome. I am going to check out the ones I have never heard of.
Surprised I haven't heard Boo mentioned yet.
ferventcoder
2008-09-19 05:51:28
+2
A:
We use TeamCity, from JetBrains. They also make Resharper And IntelliJ.
We use it for building our .Net applications, and it has been quite easy to set up, connect to TFS, and run additional tools from. It is very polished, and actually kinda reminds me of this site. Found it much nicer than CruiseControl, and for our team size it is free. If you need lots of different builds, more per-user builds, and so on then it costs a bit (but still quite reasonable).
Andrew Backer
2008-09-19 06:30:00
A:
I've had success using buildbot, triggered by a post-commit script on a subversion repository. This has been used for both automated builds and automated testing.
Andrew Edgecombe
2008-11-06 22:22:28
A:
ANT for both build and deployment/installs.
Makes a great cross-platform installer.
Mads Hansen
2008-11-06 22:32:27
A:
We use Hericus Zed Builds And Bugs Management for our automated builds.
We have 4 branches of code, each with java, c++, C#, cross platform compiles and installers for 5 OS's.
Steven M. Cherry
2008-11-11 22:26:08
A:
Make for the builds. Debian packages for deployments (since our production servers runs it).
skinp
2009-01-05 03:52:01
+1
A:
UppercuT uses NAnt to build and it is the insanely easy to use Build Framework.
Automated Builds as easy as (1) solution name, (2) source control path, (3) company name for most projects!
http://code.google.com/p/uppercut/
Some good explanations here: UppercuT
ferventcoder
2009-05-16 18:20:00