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in 99 words

Build, test, and deploy your entire product at any time with the push of a button.

Your build should be comprehensive but not complex. Make it compile source code, run tests, configure registry settings, initialize database schemas, set up web servers, launch processes, build installers, and deploy. Your IDE won't do all this, so learn to use a dedicated build tool. Make sure your build works when disconnected from the network, too.

Builds should be fast. If not, look at your tests. End-to-end integration tests are the typical culprit. Replace them with faster, more maintainable unit tests.

Commentary

Living in the Punch Card Era

Section Outline

• Ten-Minute Build
• Automate Your Build
• How to Automate
• When to Automate
• Automating Legacy Projects
• Ten Minutes or Less
• Questions
  • Who's responsible for maintaining the build script?
  • We have a configuration management (CM) department that's responsible for maintaining our builds. We aren't allowed to modify the script ourselves. What do we do?
  • How do we find time to improve our build?
  • Should we really keep all of our tools and libraries in version control?
  • Does the build have to be under 10 minutes? We're at 11.
  • We use an IDE with an integrated build system. How can we automate our build process?
  • We have different target and development environments. How do we make this build work?
  • How can we build our entire product when we rely on third-party software and hardware?
  • How often should we build from scratch?
• Results
• Contraindications
• Alternatives

Full Text

This section will go online later this year. In the meantime, why not buy the book?

• Next: Continuous Integration
• Previous: Version Control
• Up: Chapter 7: Releasing