Question

Caution

Buildbot no longer supports Python 2.7 on the Buildbot master.

2.2.3. Installing the code

2.2.3.1. The Buildbot Packages

Buildbot comes in several parts: buildbot (the buildmaster), buildbot-worker (the worker), buildbot-www, and several web plugins such as buildbot-waterfall-view.

The worker and buildmaster can be installed individually or together. The base web (buildbot.www) and web plugins are required to run a master with a web interface (the common configuration).

2.2.3.2. Installation From PyPI

The preferred way to install Buildbot is using pip. For the master:

pip install buildbot

and for the worker:

pip install buildbot-worker

When using pip to install, instead of distribution specific package managers, e.g. via apt or ports, it is simpler to choose exactly which version one wants to use. It may however be easier to install via distribution specific package managers, but note that they may provide an earlier version than what is available via pip.

If you plan to use TLS or SSL in master configuration (e.g. to fetch resources over HTTPS using twisted.web.client), you need to install Buildbot with tls extras:

pip install buildbot[tls]

2.2.3.3. Installation From Tarballs

Buildbot master and buildbot-worker are installed using the standard Python distutils process. For either component, after unpacking the tarball, the process is:

python setup.py build
python setup.py install

where the install step may need to be done as root. This will put the bulk of the code in somewhere like /usr/lib/pythonx.y/site-packages/buildbot. It will also install the buildbot command-line tool in /usr/bin/buildbot.

If the environment variable $NO_INSTALL_REQS is set to 1, then setup.py will not try to install Buildbot’s requirements. This is usually only useful when building a Buildbot package.

To test this, shift to a different directory (like /tmp), and run:

buildbot --version
# or
buildbot-worker --version

If it shows you the versions of Buildbot and Twisted, the install went ok. If it says “no such command” or gets an ImportError when it tries to load the libraries, then something went wrong. pydoc buildbot is another useful diagnostic tool.

Windows users will find these files in other places. You will need to make sure that Python can find the libraries, and will probably find it convenient to have buildbot in your PATH.

2.2.3.4. Installation in a Virtualenv

If you cannot or do not wish to install buildbot into a site-wide location like /usr or /usr/local, you can also install it into the account’s home directory or any other location using a tool like virtualenv.

2.2.3.5. Running Buildbot’s Tests (optional)

If you wish, you can run the buildbot unit test suite. First, ensure that you have the mock Python module installed from PyPI. You must not be using a Python wheels packaged version of Buildbot or have specified the bdist_wheel command when building. The test suite is not included with the PyPi packaged version. This module is not required for ordinary Buildbot operation - only to run the tests. Note that this is not the same as the Fedora mock package!

You can check if you have mock with:

python -mmock

Then, run the tests:

PYTHONPATH=. trial buildbot.test
# or
PYTHONPATH=. trial buildbot_worker.test

Nothing should fail, although a few might be skipped.

If any of the tests fail for reasons other than a missing mock, you should stop and investigate the cause before continuing the installation process, as it will probably be easier to track down the bug early. In most cases, the problem is incorrectly installed Python modules or a badly configured PYTHONPATH. This may be a good time to contact the Buildbot developers for help.