Installations and Build Environments

[Brent Atkinson <ba...@usm.maine.edu>]

Hi,
 
I've been trying to figure out exactly what the intent of Installations and 
Build Environments are. I have searched the web, looked through the docs 
on the continuum site and finally resorted to the source code.
 
It appears that Build Environments are a container for zero or more 
Installations. Installations appear to be an abstraction for environment 
variables with certain environment variables reserved for 'Tools' 
(eg. Maven2 [$M2_HOME], Java [$JAVA_HOME])). 
 
Build Definitions allow you to set which Build Environment they use. Is the intent
that you should use these to have multiple simultaneous Java, Maven and Ant
installations and setting the Build Environment for the Build Definition sets the 
corresponding environment variables when the shell commands are run?
 
I am trying to get a sense of what these are.
 
Brent
batkinson@usm.maine.edu

Re: Installations and Build Environments

[Brent Atkinson <ba...@usm.maine.edu>]

I created an issue in JIRA under Continuum-Documentation. I wasn't sure what
to do about the binary files so I attached the svn diff and a zip of the changed 
(and added) images: http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/CONTINUUM-2025.
 
How should one normally handle binary files in a patch?
 
Thanks,
 
Brent

>>> "Wendy Smoak" <ws...@gmail.com> 12/18/2008 5:48 PM >>>
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 3:19 PM, Brent Atkinson <ba...@usm.maine.edu> wrote:

> Build Definitions allow you to set which Build Environment they use. Is the intent
> that you should use these to have multiple simultaneous Java, Maven and Ant
> installations and setting the Build Environment for the Build Definition sets the
> corresponding environment variables when the shell commands are run?

Yes.  For example, you may have one project that has to build with
Maven 2.0.5 and JDK 1.4, while another needs Maven 2.0.9 and JDK 1.6.
The default will be the environment for the user Continuum is running
as, which may not be correct for all projects.

Patches or suggestions for the docs are welcome if you'd like to help
improve them after you work with these features for a bit.

-- 
Wendy

Re: Installations and Build Environments

[Brent Atkinson <ba...@usm.maine.edu>]

Thank you,
 
I would love to help improve them. I think continuum and archiva are
great products and from hearing some complaints there appear to be a
few areas that would greatly improve user experience. It also might 
cut down on dumb questions (like mine).
 
1.) Descriptions on the web pages that briefly describe what they are for.
2.) Help links or captions for UI components describing what they are and
how they affect the corresponding entity.
3.) (Your suggestion) Improving the site docs to better describe the system.
 
IMHO if 1 and 2 are done, 3 is nice, but may not be entirely necessary. In
any case, I would certainly love to contribute what I can to these great tools.
 
Thank you for the help,
 
Brent

>>> "Wendy Smoak" <ws...@gmail.com> 12/18/2008 5:48 PM >>>
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 3:19 PM, Brent Atkinson <ba...@usm.maine.edu> wrote:

> Build Definitions allow you to set which Build Environment they use. Is the intent
> that you should use these to have multiple simultaneous Java, Maven and Ant
> installations and setting the Build Environment for the Build Definition sets the
> corresponding environment variables when the shell commands are run?

Yes.  For example, you may have one project that has to build with
Maven 2.0.5 and JDK 1.4, while another needs Maven 2.0.9 and JDK 1.6.
The default will be the environment for the user Continuum is running
as, which may not be correct for all projects.

Patches or suggestions for the docs are welcome if you'd like to help
improve them after you work with these features for a bit.

-- 
Wendy

Re: Installations and Build Environments

[Wendy Smoak <ws...@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 3:19 PM, Brent Atkinson <ba...@usm.maine.edu> wrote:

> Build Definitions allow you to set which Build Environment they use. Is the intent
> that you should use these to have multiple simultaneous Java, Maven and Ant
> installations and setting the Build Environment for the Build Definition sets the
> corresponding environment variables when the shell commands are run?

Yes.  For example, you may have one project that has to build with
Maven 2.0.5 and JDK 1.4, while another needs Maven 2.0.9 and JDK 1.6.
The default will be the environment for the user Continuum is running
as, which may not be correct for all projects.

Patches or suggestions for the docs are welcome if you'd like to help
improve them after you work with these features for a bit.

-- 
Wendy