= Frequently Asked Questions =

Here you can find answers to frequently asked questions about Bitten.

[[PageOutline(2-3, Overview, inline)]]

== General ==

=== What is Bitten? ===

Bitten is a [http://trac.edgewall.org/ Trac] extension for continuous integration. It uses a distributed build model, where one or more "slaves" run the actual tests, and a "master" gathers the results and displays them nicely on a web page.  See the [wiki:WhitePaper white paper] for the original motivation behind the project.

[[Image(http://www.edgewall.org/gfx/opensource-75x65.png, width=75, height=65, align=right)]]
=== What license governs the use of Bitten? ===
 
Bitten is released under the [wiki:License revised BSD license], which is a liberal open source license that has been [http://opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php approved] by the [http://opensource.org/ Open Source Initiative (OSI)].

=== Can I see an example? ===

You can see Bitten live in action at the [http://bitten.edgewall.org/build/trunk Bitten build page].

=== How is Bitten used in other organizations? ===

An detailed overview of using bitten for the Boost project, an open-source c++ library, can be seen at [https://www.boostpro.com/trac/projects/boost/]

=== I want it.  How do I get it? ===

To install the bitten slave only see [wiki:EasyDownloadAndInstall Bitten Slave Download and Install].

To install the bitten master (on your Trac server) see here: [http://bitten.edgewall.org/wiki/Documentation/install.html].  

Also see [http://bitten.edgewall.org/wiki/Documentation/install.html Bitten Installation].  

== Bitten Recipe ==

=== What is the bitten recipe file? ===

The bitten recipe file is the XML script that Bitten uses to download, compile, run, and test your code.  This code building process can be automated into bitten XML recipe. The XML recipe will need to be interpreted by bitten-slave command. It is similar in concept to ant, although it is more limited and domain-specific tool than ant.

=== What commands are available in the bitten recipe? ===

See [http://bitten.edgewall.org/wiki/Documentation/commands.html Bitten Recipe Commands.]

=== Can I see some sample bitten recipes? ===

See this sample for [wiki:BittenSampleRecipes Microsoft Visual Studio projects using MSBUILD] or this one for [wiki:BittenSampleJavaRecipe Java projects using JUnit and Ant].


=== Bitten Recipe Collection ===
Following are a few more real working recipe to demostrate the bitten recipe commands and their uses.
==== Automation of getting and untar hello-2.3.tar.gz from ftp.gnu.org ====
{{{
<!--
Tested on fedora 9
-->
<build description="Getting files"
      xmlns:sh="http://bitten.cmlenz.net/tools/sh">
 <step id="Getting hello-2.3.tar.gz from ftp.gnu.org using wget">
   <sh:exec file="/usr/bin/wget" args="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/hello/hello-2.3.tar.gz"/>
 </step>
 <step id="untar hello-2.3.tar.gz">
   <sh:exec executable="gtar" args="xzf hello-2.3.tar.gz"/>
 </step>
</build>

}}}

== Bitten Slave ==


=== How do I point the bitten slave to my build configuration? ===

If your trac installation is hosted at trac.xxx.com, and you have a project called my-project in trac, the command line would look like:

{{{
bitten-slave https://trac.xxx.com/my-project/builds -u <username> -p <password>
}}}

=== How do I schedule the bitten slave to run at a certain time of the day? ===

First use your operating system's task scheduler ([http://www.ss64.com/nt/schtasks.html schtasks] for Windows and [http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/crontab.htm cron] for unix/OSX) to run the bitten slave at the desired times.  

Then run the bitten nslave with the "--single" (-s for short) option so that each launch of the slave exits after a single build instead of continually polling for more builds.  

=== What options does the Bitten slave support? ===

See [wiki:BittenSlaveOptions Bitten Slave Options.]
 
=== How does the Bitten slave authenticate on my Trac-platform with !AccountManagerPlugin? ===

The /trac.cgi/builds-URL should be protected in the server configuration just like the /login-Location.

=== How can I quickly run the slave without a repository checkout? === 

See [wiki:BittenRunSlaveLocally Running the Bitten slave locally]

== Bitten Master ==
=== How do I create my first build un Admin -> Builds -> Configurations ? ===
{{{
You see following menu on the right hand side.

           Add Configuration:
Name:

Label:

Path:

Add



Name: 
Labele:
Path: 

and then clieck "Add"
}}}
=== My slave connects to the build master, why doesn't it start a build? ===

See [wiki:BittenBuildWontStart Build Won't Start].

=== How do I add one of those cool over-time charts to my build page? ===

The charts are added automatically if your recipe creates junit reports and/or code-coverage reports.  To see a sample recipe that will produce junit test results from Java see [wiki:BittenSampleJavaRecipe build recipes for Java projects using JUnit and Ant].  To create your own custom charts, see [wiki:AddingCharts Adding Custom Charts to Bitten.]

== Test ==
=== How to I poke bitten server ? ===
{{{
me@ubuntu:~$ bitten-slave http://ubuntu.test.net/projects/hobbit/builds
[INFO    ] No pending builds
[INFO    ] Shutting down
me@ubuntu:~$

}}}