This link has been bookmarked by 357 people . It was first bookmarked on 02 Mar 2006, by someone privately.
-
22 Feb 17
-
Integration is reduced risk.
-
Introduce some automated testing into your build. Try to identify the major areas where things go wrong and get automated tests to expose those failures.
-
to that magic ten minute number is much better
-
-
17 Jan 17
-
sightings
-
stacked full with cubes
-
-
04 Jul 16
-
31 Dec 15
-
29 Dec 15
-
05 Oct 15
-
A common mistake is not to include everything in the automated build. The build should include getting the database schema out of the repository and firing it up in the execution environment. I'll elaborate my earlier rule of thumb: anyone should be able to bring in a virgin machine, check the sources out of the repository, issue a single command, and have a running system on their machine.
-
The one prerequisite for a developer committing to the mainline is that they can correctly build their code. This, of course, includes passing the build tests. As with any commit cycle the developer first updates their working copy to match the mainline, resolves any conflicts with the mainline, then builds on their local machine. If the build passes, then they are free to commit to the mainline.
-
As a result you want to set up your test environment to be as exact a mimic of your production environment as possible. Use the same database software, with the same versions, use the same version of operating system. Put all the appropriate libraries that are in the production environment into the test environment, even if the system doesn't actually use them. Use the same IP addresses and ports, run it on the same hardware.
-
-
26 Jul 15
-
21 Jul 15
-
13 May 15
-
A simple example of this is a two stage deployment pipeline. The first stage would do the compilation and run tests that are more localized unit tests with the database completely stubbed out. Such tests can run very fast, keeping within the ten minute guideline. However any bugs that involve larger scale interactions, particularly those involving the real database, won't be found. The second stage build runs a different suite of tests that do hit the real database and involve more end-to-end behavior. This suite might take a couple of hours to run.
-
In this scenario people use the first stage as the commit build and use this as their main CI cycle. The second-stage build runs when it can, picking up the executable from the latest good commit build for further testing. If this secondary build fails, then this may not have the same 'stop everything' quality, but the team does aim to fix such bugs as rapidly as possible, while keeping the commit build running. As in this example, later builds are often pure tests since these days it's usually tests that cause the slowness.
-
If the secondary build detects a bug, that's a sign that the commit build could do with another test. As much as possible you want to ensure that any later-stage failure leads to new tests in the commit build that would have caught the bug, so the bug stays fixed in the commit build. This way the commit tests are strengthened whenever something gets past them. There are cases where there's no way to build a fast-running test that exposes the bug, so you may decide to only test for that condition in the secondary build. Most of time, fortunately, you can add suitable tests to the commit build.
-
-
11 May 15
-
22 Feb 15
-
it's fresh in your memory
-
The current state of the system is usually referred to as the 'mainline'
-
Often the fastest way to fix the build is to revert the latest commit from the mainline
-
breakage
-
Bugs in work in progress get in your way
-
Bugs in deployed software make users angry with you
-
-
05 Jun 14
-
09 May 14
Ricky KurniawanContinuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build (including test) to detect integration errors as quickly as possible. Many teams find that this approach leads to significantly reduced integration problems and allows a team to develop cohesive software more rapidly. This article is a quick overview of Continuous Integration summarizing the technique and its current usage.
-
25 Apr 14
-
07 Jan 14
-
15 Nov 13
-
17 Oct 13
-
Continuous Integration is a software development practice
-
where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day.
-
-
06 Oct 13
-
10 Sep 13
-
17 Jul 13
-
11 Mar 13
-
22 Feb 13
-
11 Feb 13
-
18 Nov 12
-
12 Sep 12
-
01 Sep 12
-
27 Aug 12
-
25 Aug 12
-
13 Aug 12
-
21 May 12
-
Continuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build (including test) to detect integration errors as quickly as possible.
-
From this I learned a common story of software projects: integration is a long and unpredictable process.
-
The term 'Continuous Integration' originated with the Extreme Programming development process, as one of its original twelve practices.
-
Although Continuous Integration is a practice that requires no particular tooling to deploy, we've found that it is useful to use a Continuous Integration server.
-
Continuous Integration assumes a high degree of tests which are automated into the software
-
Only if it all builds and tests without errors is the overall build considered to be good.
-
build a working copy that is properly synchronized with the mainline
-
I can then finally commit my changes into the mainline, which then updates the repository.
However my commit doesn't finish my work. At this point we build again, but this time on an integration machine based on the mainline code. Only when this build succeeds can we say that my changes are done.
-
In a Continuous Integration environment you should never have a failed integration build stay failed for long. A good team should have many correct builds a day. Bad builds do occur from time to time, but should be quickly fixed.
-
The only tool I've consistently heard people say is worth paying for is Perforce.
-
Although many teams use repositories a common mistake I see is that they don't put everything in the repository. If people use one they'll put code in there, but everything you need to do a build should be in there including: test scripts, properties files, database schema, install scripts, and third party libraries.
-
In general you should store in source control everything you need to build anything, but nothing that you actually build.
-
Make sure you can build and launch your system using these scripts using a single command.
-
A common mistake is not to include everything in the automated build. The build should include getting the database schema out of the repository and firing it up in the execution environment.
-
It's okay for IDE users set up their own project files and use them for individual development. However it's essential to have a master build that is usable on a server and runnable from other scripts.
-
A good way to catch bugs more quickly and efficiently is to include automated tests in the build process.
-
The tests need to be able to be kicked off from a simple command and to be self-checking. The result of running the test suite should indicate if any tests failed. For a build to be self-testing the failure of a test should cause the build to fail.
-
Integration is primarily about communication. Integration allows developers to tell other developers about the changes they have made. Frequent communication allows people to know quickly as changes develop.
-
As with any commit cycle the developer first updates their working copy to match the mainline, resolves any conflicts with the mainline, then builds on their local machine. If the build passes, then they are free to commit to the mainline.
-
The key to fixing problems quickly is finding them quickly.
-
Frequent commits encourage developers to break down their work into small chunks of a few hours each. This helps track progress and provides a sense of progress.
-
environmental differences between developers' machines
-
As a result you should ensure that regular builds happen on an integration machine and only if this integration build succeeds should the commit be considered to be done.
-
A corollary of this is that you shouldn't go home until the mainline build has passed with any commits you've added late in the day.
-
A continuous integration server acts as a monitor to the repository. Every time a commit against the repository finishes the server automatically checks out the sources onto the integration machine, initiates a build, and notifies the committer of the result of the build. The committer isn't done until she gets the notification - usually an email.
-
Many organizations do regular builds on a timed schedule, such as every night. This is not the same thing as a continuous build and isn't enough for continuous integration.
-
A key part of doing a continuous build is that if the mainline build fails, it needs to be fixed right away. The whole point of working with CI is that you're always developing on a known stable base.
-
The whole point of Continuous Integration is to provide rapid feedback. Nothing sucks the blood of a CI activity more than a build that takes a long time.
-
the XP guideline of a ten minute build
-
the usual bottleneck is testing - particularly tests that involve external services such as a database
-
The idea behind a staged build (also known as build pipeline or deployment pipeline) is that there are in fact multiple builds done in sequence.
-
The commit to the mainline triggers the first build - what I call the commit build. The commit build is the build that's needed when someone commits to the mainline. The commit build is the one that has to be done quickly, as a result it will take a number of shortcuts that will reduce the ability to detect bugs. The trick is to balance the needs of bug finding and speed so that a good commit build is stable enough for other people to work on.
-
Once the commit build is good then other people can work on the code with confidence. However there are further, slower, tests that you can start to do. Additional machines can run further testing routines on the build that take longer to do.
-
Jez Humble and Dave Farley extended these ideas into the topic of Continuous Delivery, with more details on the concept of staged builds - which they call deployment pipelines. Their book, Continuous Delivery, rightly won the Jolt excellence award in 2011.
-
secondary builds are often pure tests since these days it's usually tests that cause the slowness
-
As much as possible you want to ensure that any secondary build failure leads to new tests in the commit build that would have caught the bug, so the bug stays fixed in the commit build.
-
The builds after the commit build can also be done in parallel, so if you have two hours of secondary tests you can improve responsiveness by having two machines that run half the tests each. By using parallel secondary builds like this you can introduce all sorts of further automated testing, including performance testing, into the regular build process.
-
you want to set up your test environment to be as exact a mimic of your production environment as possible
-
understand the risks you are accepting for every difference between test and production
-
growing interest in using virtualization
-
We've found that it's very hard to specify what you want in advance and be correct; people find it much easier to see something that's not quite right and say how it needs to be changed. Agile development processes explicitly expect and take advantage of this part of human behavior.
-
To help make this work, anyone involved with a software project should be able to get the latest executable and be able to run it: for demonstrations, exploratory testing, or just to see what changed this week.
-
well known place where people can find the latest executable
-
Continuous Integration is all about communication, so you want to ensure that everyone can easily see the state of the system and the changes that have been made to it.
-
One of the most important things to communicate is the state of the mainline build.
-
build sensors
-
build token to put on the desk of whoever's currently doing the build
-
make a simple noise on good builds, like ringing a bell
-
indication not just of who is building, but what changes they made
-
get a good sense of recent activity
-
Another advantage of using a web site is that those that are not co-located can get a sense of the project's status.
-
multiple environments
-
Since you are moving executables between these environments multiple times a day, you'll want to do this automatically. So it's important to have scripts that will allow you to deploy the application into any environment easily.
-
If you deploy into production one extra automated capability you should consider is automated rollback.
-
Being able to automatically revert also reduces a lot of the tension of deployment, encouraging people to deploy more frequently and thus get new features out to users quickly.
-
rolling deployments
-
trial build to a subset of users
-
reduced risk
-
Continuous Integrations doesn't get rid of bugs, but it does make them dramatically easier to find and remove.
-
removes one of the biggest barriers to frequent deployment
-
become more collaborative in the development cycle
-
One of the first steps is to get the build automated. Get everything you need into source control get it so that you can build the whole system with a single command.
-
Introduce some automated testing into your build.
-
Try to speed up the commit build.
-
Keep an eye on build times and take action as soon as you start going slower than the ten minute rule.
-
-
12 Apr 12
viniciusjlContinuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build
martin_fowler testing continuous_integration integration article software agile programming development
-
15 Mar 12
-
14 Feb 12
-
07 Feb 12
-
29 Dec 11
-
Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build (including test) to detect integration errors as quickly as possible. Many teams find that this approach leads to significantly reduced integration problems and allows a team to develop cohesive software more rapidly. This article is a quick overview of Continuous Integration summarizing the technique and its current usage.
-
-
10 Dec 11
-
02 Nov 11
-
31 Oct 11
-
28 Jul 11
Matthew Israelsohn" Continuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build (including test) to detect integration errors as quickly as possible. Many teams find that this approach leads to significantly reduced integration problems and allows a team to develop cohesive software more rapidly. This article is a quick overview of Continuous Integration summarizing the technique and its current usage. "
-
14 Jun 11
-
01 May 11
-
26 Apr 11
-
15 Apr 11
-
13 Apr 11
-
07 Apr 11
-
29 Mar 11
-
17 Mar 11
-
02 Mar 11
-
25 Feb 11
-
18 Feb 11
-
26 Jan 11
-
13 Jan 11
-
06 Dec 10
-
10 Nov 10
-
18 Oct 10
-
26 Sep 10
-
13 Sep 10
-
23 Aug 10
-
28 Jul 10
-
04 Jul 10
-
01 Jul 10
-
18 Jun 10
-
24 May 10
-
I commonly find two reactions: "it can't work (here)" and "doing it won't make much difference"
-
it's much easier than it sounds, and that it makes a huge difference to development.
-
by checking out a working copy from the mainline.
-
both altering the production code, and also adding or changing automated tests
-
I carry out an automated build on my development machine.
-
Only if it all builds and tests without errors is the overall build considered to be good.
-
if it all builds and tests without errors is the overall build considered to be good.
-
I update my working copy with their changes and rebuild.
-
I can then finally commit my changes into the mainline, which then updates the repository.
-
build again, but this time on an integration machine based on the mainline code.
-
Only when this build succeeds can we say that my changes are done.
-
Less time is spent trying to find bugs because they show up quickly.
-
Only a minimal amount of things should be on the virgin machine - usually things that are large, complicated to install, and stable.
-
. Some people do keep the build products in source control, but I consider that to be a smell - an indication of a deeper problem, usually an inability to reliably recreate builds.
-
A common mistake is not to include everything in the automated build
-
anyone should be able to bring in a virgin machine, check the sources out of the repository, issue a single command, and have a running system on their machine.
-
a good build tool analyzes what needs to be changed as part of the process
-
it's essential to have a master build that is usable on a server and runnable from other scripts.
-
include automated tests in the build process.
-
the tests are as much about exploring the design of the system as they are about bug catching.
-
Imperfect tests, run frequently, are much better than perfect tests that are never written at all.
-
Integration allows developers to tell other developers about the changes they have made.
-
The key to fixing problems quickly is finding them quickly.
-
since not much has changed you can use diff-debugging to help you find the bug.
-
My general rule of thumb is that every developer should commit to the repository every day
-
Frequent commits encourage developers to break down their work into small chunks of a few hours each.
-
One reason is discipline
-
Another is environmental differences between developers' machines.
-
Every time a commit against the repository finishes the server automatically checks out the sources onto the integration machine, initiates a build, and notifies the committer of the result of the build.
-
The whole point of continuous integration is to find problems as soon as you can.
-
The whole point of working with CI is that you're always developing on a known stable base.
-
The whole point of Continuous Integration is to provide rapid feedback.
-
The commit build is the build that's needed when someone commits to the mainline
-
The first stage would do the compilation and run tests that are more localized unit tests with the database completely stubbed out.
-
The second stage build runs a different suite of tests that do hit the real database and involve more end-to-end behavior.
-
If the secondary build fails, then this doesn't have the same 'stop everything' quality, but the team does aim to fix such bugs as rapidly as possible, while keeping the commit build running.
-
-
17 May 10
-
03 Apr 10
-
03 Mar 10
-
08 Jan 10
-
02 Dec 09
-
25 Sep 09
-
The one prerequisite for a developer committing to the mainline is that they can correctly build their code. This, of course, includes passing the build tests.
-
-
01 Sep 09
-
21 Aug 09
-
23 Jul 09
-
08 Jul 09
-
06 Jul 09
-
30 Jun 09
-
25 Jun 09
-
23 Jun 09
-
28 May 09
-
27 May 09
-
20 May 09
Stadtluft BaselContinuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build
-
Andreas HofmannContinuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build
-
23 Apr 09
-
14 Apr 09
-
10 Mar 09
-
05 Mar 09
golimpioContinuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build
-
10 Feb 09
-
26 Dec 08
-
18 Dec 08
-
23 Nov 08
Peter Weltea quick overview of Continuous Integration summarizing the technique and its current usage.
-
Continuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build (including test) to detect integration errors as quickly as possible. Many teams find that this approach leads to significantly reduced integration problems and allows a team to develop cohesive software more rapidly.
-
-
18 Nov 08
-
14 Nov 08
-
09 Nov 08
-
Continuous Integration
-
-
08 Nov 08
-
17 Oct 08
-
07 Oct 08
Stepan PelcContinuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by an automated build
-
30 Sep 08
-
17 Sep 08
-
25 Aug 08
phoenix2lifeMartin Fowler
Continuous Integration is a software development practice where members of a team integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily - leading to multiple integrations per day. Each integration is verified by anxp Continuous Integration productivity programming testing tools
Page Comments
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.