Hi

We have a crossplatform (sparc-solaris, ix86-win32) pure C Project in
an Automake/Autoproj Environment with CVS. We now would like to add
some automation of the build process and let the project build over
night automatically. For the solaris part, we already have this
functionality via a self-made perl-script which basically just logs in
into a solaris machine (rsh), checks out the desired project (cvs
checkout <proj> ), configures it (export ARCH=sun-sparc-solaris8-ws6;
configure) and builds everything (make world), writing any errors and
warning to a log file.
Now it would be nice to incorporate the windows build also in the
nightly build cycles. I'm no windows programmer, so I have no idea
about the capabilities of windows concerning automated builds.
Has anyone here any experience with automated build in windows in
general and automated crossplatform builds in special and can give me
some hints?

Perhaps you can just answer this questions:

1. What is the status of CVS with Windows? (We do de checkout and
prebuild of the windows build also on solaris)

2. Is it a good idea to go with the Windows shell/commandline, i.e.
with telnet, to control/execute the automated build?

3. Is NMAKE usable for this purpose? What are ways in general to
automate builds in a windows environment?

4. Is it possible to build also the windows binaries on solaris
(cross-compiling)?

5. I also thought about using Cygwin? Would that improve the
situation?

I appreciate any hint, thanks!
Matthias Wille

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Matthias Wille wrote:
quote:

>
> Now it would be nice to incorporate the windows build also in the
> nightly build cycles. I'm no windows programmer, so I have no idea
> about the capabilities of windows concerning automated builds.


If you're coming from the windows world, you are in for a whole
bunch of pain. I have two small projects that I maintain that
target unix and win32. Keeping the win32 end working chews up
a disproportionate amount of my time. I have not even tried to
automate it.
quote:

> Has anyone here any experience with automated build in windows in
> general and automated crossplatform builds in special and can give me
> some hints?
>
> Perhaps you can just answer this questions:
>
> 1. What is the status of CVS with Windows? (We do de checkout and
> prebuild of the windows build also on solaris)


CVS definitely does work on windows. I'm not sure of the command
line, but a GUI version (WinCVS) does exist. My solution if
to use the unix tools to do a CVS checkout onto a Samb share and
let windows use that.
quote:

> 2. Is it a good idea to go with the Windows shell/commandline, i.e.
> with telnet, to control/execute the automated build?


It might be possible but it will require a lot of work.
quote:

> 3. Is NMAKE usable for this purpose? What are ways in general to
> automate builds in a windows environment?


Nmake is a very poor make but does generally get the job done.
I maintain a win32 makefile by hand. I would love to
autogenerate it from the Makefile.am but it is a non-trivial
exericise to write code to do that.
quote:

> 4. Is it possible to build also the windows binaries on solaris
> (cross-compiling)?


Theoreticaly yes.
quote:

> 5. I also thought about using Cygwin? Would that improve the
> situation?


Try using Mingw instead. Using cygwin requires linking to a DLL
to provide a unix emulation layer while Mingw is the GCC
compiler and tools ported to win32.
quote:

> I appreciate any hint, thanks!


Good luck, you'll need it. I'd be interested in what you come
up with.

Erik
--
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Erik de Castro Lopo  nospam@mega-nerd.com (Yes it's valid)
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
"We reject kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in rough
consensus and running code."  -- Dave Clark (IETF 1992)

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In article <3FDF5DED.BA4C1F1D@mega-nerd.com>, Erik de Castro Lopo wrote:
quote:

> Matthias Wille wrote: 
>
> ... 
>
> Try using Mingw instead. Using cygwin requires linking to a DLL
> to provide a unix emulation layer while Mingw is the GCC
> compiler and tools ported to win32.


Even if you don't use cygwin for compiling, it can be very useful for
UNIX geeks for scripting, since it includes bash and most of the standard
UNIX tools.  I've found that it adds a lot to development productivity
on otherwise painful-to-use (for me) Windows machines.

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