[tde-users] Migration of services - 11. build service

Hi all, the eleventh service on the migration list is the build service. -- Migration status -- The previous build service used its own instance of Ubuntu Launchpad - you know it as QuickBuild. This is operated on the previous primary site, so it was necessary to deal with the change. In parallel, a second set of builders is used to build packages for PSB and PTB repositories. These builders are designed from the beginning to be completely independent of QuickBuild. This makes it easier to add new versions of distributions, other architectures and, above all, allows these builders to run sustainably. After changing the primary archive, official packages are no longer published from QuickBuild, but from PSB. This is starting with TDE R14.0.7. Therefore, QuickBuild is no longer used to build official packages and there is no need to deal with its migration. From a technical point of view: The reprepro tool is now used to manage all APT repositories. Sbuild (with schroot) is used to build binary packages. The inoticoming tool is used to automate the import of packages (both source and binary) into reprepro. -- What needs to be done -- QuickBuild provided build tasks management and a web interface for finding packages, monitoring build status, and viewing build logs. Such a web interface is not available for the currently used reprepro + sbuild. Because Launchpad is too extensive - it provides many services that we don't need and don't want to use, there is no intention to set up a new Launchpad instance as a replacement for QuickBuild. Originally I was hoping that mini-buildd could be a good replacement because it also uses reprepro + sbuild. But after an initial thorough research and testing, I found that the mini-buildd is designed with many limitations that make it unsuitable for us. It is not possible to remove these limitations, as this would require a fundamental change in the concept of mini-buildd operation. That's why I stopped further research of mini-buildd. Since I have not found any other usable existing solution, it seems that we will need to design and create our own solution here. Although it is not a high priority now, it is an important step, because the current build service is completely dependent on me. I already have some ideas, but so far there was not enough time for me to start making the first components. -- More ideas and suggestions? Because the current state of the build service has been working well for a long time - many years for PSB and PTB, starting with R14.0.7 also for official packages, I suggest to focus efforts on other migration tasks first. And leave the build service improvements for later. Do you have any other ideas and suggestions? Cheers -- Slávek