Build:TryServer

Try Server

The try server is an easy way to test a patch on all 3 platforms without committing to a repository. You need an LDAP and CVS account to access it.

Here's how to use it:

1. Upload your patch through the web interface here (use your LDAP username and password)
2. Watch for your results on Tinderbox. Depending on whether you submitted a patch or a set of HG repositories you will be looking for "Try server ..." or "Try server ... hg ...".
3. Retrieve your completed builds from here. Look for the directory with your name, identifier, and time of submission in it's name. It will have all of your builds in it.

Alternatively, for patches to mozilla-central, you can push to try:

hg push -f ssh://hg.mozilla.org/try/

• If you're using Mercurial queues, this push command pushes any patches that are currently applied, and the Try server will build the result. (This is an awesome feature, not a bug!)
• You don’t need to clone or pull from the try repo, and you probably don’t want to. You’d get every half-baked changeset anybody ever tested.

See Jorendorff's blog for more details.

What Gets Tried

The Try server currently reports on the following trees:

• hg: The Mozilla-Central Mercurial Repository.

• CVS: The Mozilla 1.9 (Firefox 3.0) CVS Repository. This is used for security releases; active development takes place in Mercurial.

Tinderbox column	source	platform	details
Linux talos try trunk	either	Linux	Runs Talos tests on successful builds from either Linux builder.
Try server linux builder	CVS	Linux	Build only.
Try server linux hg builder	hg	Linux	Build only.
Try server mac builder	CVS	Macintosh	Build only.
Try server mac hg builder	hg	Macintosh	Build only.
Try server win32 builder	CVS	Windows	Build only.
Try server win32 hg builder	hg	Windows	Build only.
WINNT 5.1 talos try trunk	either	Windows	Runs Talos tests on successful builds from either Windows builder.

Notes on creating patches

• If your patch does not apply cleanly, the build fails.
• Make sure you do a 'cvs update' before 'cvs diff' to ensure your patch will apply cleanly.
• For CVS patches,
  • The patch directory is mozilla/. so make sure to create your patches from inside this directory only or else they won't apply.
• For Mercurial patches,
  • Any patches created with 'hg diff' or 'hg qdiff' *must* be submitted with a patch level of 1!
• The files mozilla/configure and mozilla/nsprpub/configure are deleted (to be regenerated) before your patch is applied. Do not try to patch these files or the patch will fail to apply (patch configure.in instead).
• Only Firefox patches can be tested at this time.

Other Notes

• Patches and finished builds will be deleted after 30 days.
• If you have any problems please send mail to build@mozilla.org
• Your patch may not be tested right away.
• For the moment, the test is whether current trunk+patch (or HG repos) compiles on all three platforms. It's hoped to add the other tinderbox tests later.
• The default mozconfigs used for tryserver builds are available in MXR: http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/tools/buildbot-configs/tryserver/
• Uploading an alternate mozconfig appends to the default mozconfigs.
• To pull with a specific timestamp, upload a mozconfig file and set MOZ_CO_DATE.
• Windows builds have symbols uploaded to http://build.mozilla.org/tryserver-symbols. Windbg and the Visual Studio debugger may use them to help debug crashing try server builds. Instructions for setting this up can be found here: http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Using_the_Mozilla_symbol_server. Make sure you use the aforementioned URL instead of http://symbols.mozilla.org/firefox.

• Suggestions for the future can be made here

To be Documented

• What is a "Patch Level"
• What is a "Custom Identifier String" and for what purpose is it used?