We're using Hudson on Windows to build a .NET solution and run the unit tests (NUnit). Hudson is thereby used to start batch files that do the actual work.
I am now trying to set up a new test that is to run on a build slave and will run very long. The test should use the binaries produced by the upstream build.
I have searched the Hudson documentation but I cannot find how to pass upstream build artifacts to downstream slaves. How do I do this?
Depending on the source control management you are using, you could cheat and use that. i am not a fan of checking in binaries, especially if they are large. But I have in the past taken generated binaries or installers generated via a CI build, automated the check in of them into a separate svn repository and had the slave machine pull from that repo when dictated by the master and perform whatever tests you are needed to execute.
Use the Copy Artifact plugin in your downstream build.
Just specify the name of the upstream job and the paths to copy into your downstream workspace.
It might be a little bit overkill for you, if you are only dependent on the binaries. But there is also the Clone Workspace SCM Plugin, which archives your whole workspace and you could check it out with the next job as if it would come from an SCM. It is pretty new.
We currently use a different setup. We have an Artifact Repository, where we push our binaries. The second job pulls the binaries from that repository. Physically it is just a standard Windows share, where we create a subfolder with thw job build number in it. If you also use the [Parameterized Trigger Plugin][2] you can pass the build number from job 1 to job 2 and run your test on the right binary. The side effect is, that you can reuse the binaries later without keeping a long history with in Hudson.
[2]: http://Parameterized Trigger Plugin