= 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/]

=== Comparison of Bitten with other Continuous Integration Systems ===

please see [http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/CC/CI+Feature+Matrix CI Comparison]

== Installation ==

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

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

For more information see also: [http://bitten.edgewall.org/wiki/Documentation/install.html Bitten Installation].  

== Bitten Recipe ==

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

The bitten recipe file is a XML file that executed by bitten-slave 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].  See also this recipe to [wiki:RecipeFtpDownload download and untar a file from an ftp server].


== 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]

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

}}}


== Bitten Master ==
=== How do I create my first build on  Admin -> Builds -> Configurations ? ===

 * Assume you have path of /srv/svn as Subversion repository head.
  {{{
[root@ibm ~]# svn ls file:///srv/svn/projects
branches/
trunk/
[root@ibm ~]# 
}}}


 * From following screenshot
   ** Name: "4.3"
   ** Label: "trunk"
   ** Path: "project/trunk"
   ** and then click,Add Configuration:
  
 [[Image(bitten-server-config.jpg)]]




 * Following screenshot shows a very simple build XML recipe, it only echo a helloworld string.

[[Image(bitten-server-recipe.jpg)]]

 * bitten-build-status
[[Image(bitten-build-status.jpg)]]

=== 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.]