Buildbot Setup for macOS

Specific instructions and requirements for configuring a Buildbot worker on macOS systems.

Setting up a Buildbot Slave on macOS

Install buildbot-slave using macports or buildbot from fink (if you use old version of buildbot/buildbot-slave, you should use the buildbot command instead of buildslave-2.6 in the following instructions).

Add user buildbot. Make sure that you do not have a buildbot user and group on your system:

# Check for group with id 101
id -g -nr 101

# Check for user with id 101
id -u -nr 101

If you do not have the group and user buildbot, then create the group and the user buildbot:

# Create group buildbot with group id 101
GROUP="buildbot"
dscl . create /groups/$GROUP
dscl . create /groups/$GROUP name $GROUP
dscl . create /groups/$GROUP passwd "*"
dscl . create /groups/$GROUP gid 101

# Create user buildbot with id 101
BUILDSLAVE_HOME=/var/lib/buildslave
USER=buildbot
mkdir -p $BUILDSLAVE_HOME
dscl . -create /Users/$USER
dscl . -create /Users/$USER RealName "Buildbot slave"
dscl . -create /Users/$USER NFSHomeDirectory $BUILDSLAVE_HOME
dscl . -create /Users/$USER UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . -create /Users/$USER UniqueID 101
dscl . -create /Users/$USER PrimaryGroupID 101
chown 101:101 $BUILDSLAVE_HOME

To hide the user use:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add buildbot

Prepare the environment:

sudo -i -u buildbot
buildslave-2.6 create-slave --usepty=0 maria-slave hasky.askmonty.org:9989 <slavename> <passwd>
bzr init-repo maria-slave/<slavedirectory>
$EDITOR maria-slave/info/admin
$EDITOR maria-slave/info/host
logout

Buildbot can be started/stopped manually with these commands (it's a good idea to start and stop it to see if it is set up correctly). If you installed buildbot from fink, please make sure that the buildbot user is using the environment settings. Your .profile should contain following line:

sudo - buildbot
more .profile
test -r /sw/bin/init.sh && . /sw/bin/init.sh

sudo -i -u buildbot
buildslave-2.6 start maria-slave
buildslave-2.6 stop maria-slave
logout

In order to make buildbot start on system boot, you'll need to create a /Library/LaunchDaemons/net.sourceforge.buildbot.plist file with the following contents (modified example from buildbot wiki):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
 	<key>StandardOutPath</key>
 	<string>twistd.log</string>
 	<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
 	<string>twistd-err.log</string>
 	<key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
 	<dict>
 		<key>PATH</key>
 		<string>/opt/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin</string>
 		<key>PYTHONPATH</key>
 		<string>/opt/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages</string>
 	</dict>
 	<key>GroupName</key>
 	<string>daemon</string>
 	<key>KeepAlive</key>
 	<dict>
 		<key>SuccessfulExit</key>
 		<false/>
 	</dict>
 	<key>Label</key>
 	<string>net.sourceforge.buildbot.slave.test</string>
 	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
 	<array>
 		<string>/opt/local/bin/buildslave-2.6</string>
 		<string>start</string>
 		<string>--nodaemon</string>
 		<string>maria-slave</string>
 	</array>
 	<key>RunAtLoad</key>
 	<true/>
 	<key>UserName</key>
 	<string>buildbot</string>
 	<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
 	<string>/var/lib/buildslave/</string>
    </dict>
</plist>

If you installed buildbot from fink, you can edit and copy the plist file:

$EDITOR /sw/share/doc/buildbot-py26/contrib/os-x/net.sourceforge.buildbot.slave.plist

Your plist file should similar to this one after editing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd 
">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
         <key>Label</key>
         <string>net.sourceforge.buildbot.slave</string>

         <!-- Change this to the user you want to run buildbot as -->
         <key>UserName</key>
         <string>buildbot</string>

         <!-- Change this to your buildbot working directory -->
         <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
         <string>/Volumes/MiniHD2/ServiceData/buildslave/maria-slave</string>
        
         <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
         <dict>
                 <key>PATH</key>
                 <string>/sw/bin:/sw/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin</string>
         </dict>

         <key>ProgramArguments</key>
         <array>
                 <string>/sw/bin/twistd</string>
                 <string>--nodaemon</string>
                 <string>--python=buildbot.tac</string>
                 <string>--logfile=buildbot.log</string>
                 <string>--prefix=slave</string>
         </array>

         <key>KeepAlive</key>
         <dict>
                 <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
                 <false/>
         </dict>

         <key>RunAtLoad</key>
         <true/>

</dict>
</plist>

sudo cp /sw/share/doc/buildbot-py26/contrib/os-x/net.sourceforge.buildbot.slave.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/

You have to start your build slave via launchd, otherwise you will run into several problems. For further details, please refer to Using Launchd.

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