QUERY: Automated CVS-VC6 building

[And Wan]

This is a big question that covers both building & source-control of
programs.

I use Perforce (they don't have forums) as my CVS source-control. Does
anyone have any good ideas on how to write a batch-process to:

1. Sync to a specific changelist (collection of versions) in Perforce
2. Use MS VC6 to batch build (consists of multiple projs of dlls/exes) and
might need rebuild/relink due to dependencies.
3. Once 100% built (rebuild doesn't do any further linking) then copy files
to folder with same name as the changelist #.
4. Repeat from step 1 onto the next changelist.

The end result is a list of folders with ready-made builds from all
changelists.

[Ulrich Eckhardt]

And Wan wrote:
> 1. Sync to a specific changelist (collection of versions) in Perforce

Any VCS worth its money has a commandline client, put the according commands
into a batch file.

> 2. Use MS VC6 to batch build (consists of multiple projs of dlls/exes) and
> might need rebuild/relink due to dependencies.

You can actually invoke the IDE from a batch file in order to build a
project or workspace, like

msdev.exe foo.dsp /make Debug

> 3. Once 100% built (rebuild doesn't do any further linking) then copy
> files to folder with same name as the changelist #.

Use 'cp'.

> 4. Repeat from step 1 onto the next changelist.

Requires some more batch-file writing. Note that if you don't like/want
batchfiles, you can also use any other programming language, but using
batch files is just as convenient as using shell scripts on POSIX
platforms, because the interpreter is already there.

Uli

--
C++ FAQ: http://parashift.com/c++-faq-lite

Sator Laser GmbH
Geschäftsführer: Thorsten Föcking, Amtsgericht Hamburg HR B62 932

[Tamas Demjen]

And Wan wrote:

> 1. Sync to a specific changelist (collection of versions) in Perforce
> 2. Use MS VC6 to batch build (consists of multiple projs of dlls/exes)
> and might need rebuild/relink due to dependencies.
> 3. Once 100% built (rebuild doesn't do any further linking) then copy
> files to folder with same name as the changelist #.
> 4. Repeat from step 1 onto the next changelist.

FinalBuilder is another way of doing it, if you don't want to rely on
the command line and batch files:
http://www.finalbuilder.com/Products/FinalBuilder/ScreenShots/tabid/62/Default.aspx

FB has Perforce and VC6 actions built in. All you have to do is drag and
drop the various actions needed to build, test and release your product.
It is fully scriptable, which is a lot more powerful than what you can
do in a batch file. You can even put a breakpoint and debug your build
process.

This convenience will cost you a little money, but it may be well worth
it if your build process is fairly complicated.

Tom

[Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]]

I'll second the recommendation of FinalBuilder - I use it for all of my
product builds. You can do it all with batch files, Perl, Python, etc (been
there, done that), but using FB is far more pleasant. The pre-built support
for dozens (if not 100s) of tools and Windows features is well worth the
price.

-cd

[Mateusz Loskot]

And Wan wrote:
> This is a big question that covers both building & source-control of
> programs.

Yeah, big questions should go to zillions of groups.

> I use Perforce (they don't have forums) as my CVS source-control.

Unrelated to C++ language, so why posting it to
microsoft.public.vc.language?

> Does anyone have any good ideas on how to write a batch-process to:

I use buildbot setup, see http://buildbot.net/

Best regards,
--
Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net
Charter Member of OSGeo, http://osgeo.org