Hey everyone.
I'd like to update you on where we are with BUILD-INFO support.
Over the past few days I've been testing how our existing, mock/test BUILD-INFO.txt are handled by the current build and delivery system. The outcome of this tests show that it has a number of shortcomings that make it impractical to really deploy the new binary overlays there. Builds protected by OpenID cannot be integrated at all and all other builds would need to use the word 'blob' in the Jenkins configuration name for anything else to work.
To address this, the current PHP-based codebase was rewritten as a Django application. We are currently waiting for two RT tickets to allow that application to land on a new staging server. As this is still 'far away' according to IS we need to come up with a new plan that would allow us to make progress and untangle us from a slow and frustrating RT-bound development cycle.
I've discussed this with Asac just now and we came up with the following plan:
1) I will locally deploy the new Django codebase and feed it with some of the data from the snapshot server. This will allow me to verify how the codebase reacts to various BUILD-INFO.txt without really building anything or waiting for RT to land a file in certain spot. This will allow us to ensure that all the BUILD-INFO.txt overlays I've created work as intended.
2) I will manually patch and request uploads of three vendor tarballs: one for origen and two for snowball. We currently have two snowball overlays that have been patched but due to bugs detected later in testing they need to be updated again.
3) We will wait for the RT tickets 504 and 518 to land. This will allow us to have the new Django codebase on a staging server. Then, in coordination with Linaro Infrastructure and Canonical IS we'll do the switch. This part is the most risky step in my opinion. The switch involves two objects: our server software and tip configurations of all existing builds.
The risky step is to prevent any old builds from bein downloaded without relying on the old PHP rules to serve EULAs. I will be working with gesha to ensure we have planned this step well.
To allow us to track 1-3 we need to make some changes to our existing blueprints. Currently we have three blueprints that cover BUILD-INFO work:
* https://blueprints.launchpad.net/linaro-android/+spec/include-build-info-txt
This blueprint is already marked as implemented although Asac has raised concerns as to this being inappropriate as it clearly contradicts the acceptance criteria. Still I would like to keep it closed and just focus on the remaining two:
* https://blueprints.launchpad.net/linaro-android/+spec/deploy-build-info-txt
This blueprint currently captures testing in existing environment, generating real overlay tarballs and updating the configuration for tip builds. I'd like to extend it to cover testing in the new django codebase and anything that comes out of that.
* https://blueprints.launchpad.net/linaro-license-protection/+spec/django-rewr...
This blueprint covers the new django rewrite and the deployment. It also has some aspects of BUILD-INFO such as job migration. Since there is overlap here I'd like to remove it from one of the blueprints so that there is exactly one person that is responsible for doing it and there is no confusion.
One of the thing that is still problematic is the unfinished aspect of the rewritten code. According to this blueprint the final specification of BUILD-INFO is not yet finished. I'd like to avoid the situation where code bugs or bugs coupled with specification changes render existing vendor tarballs broken.
I think we need to have a very clear idea on how to implement this to avoid any transition risks and know how to track progress. I'd like to propose the following actions to happen:
[pfefferz or asac]
* ack a change to include-build-info-txt Headline and Acceptance fields so that it can stay implemented
* ack the production transition plan created by gesha
* provide parts of snapshots.linaro.org files to zyga to recreate some of the builds for testing
[zyga]
* deploy the django rewrite locally, syncing with gesha if needed
* test (on django codebase), fix if needed and upload snowball and origen tarballs to snapshots.linaro.org
[gesha]
* describe how to transition from old PHP to Django server and how the new staging instance is used in that transition. The critical part here is to understand what happens to files published without BUILD-INFO or writ damaged/wrong BUILD-INFO.
* get IS to assist with the transition, ensure that we can revert to the old system if something goes wrong
Once we all agree on the following plan I'd like to document it in our blueprints.
Thanks. ZK