Below are the options available for version 0.6 of the Bitten slave, as reported by the slave itself.

prompt> bitten-slave --version
bitten-slave-script.py 0.6dev-r547


prompt> bitten-slave -help
Usage: bitten-slave-script.py [options] url

Options:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --name=NAME           name of this slave (defaults to host name)
  -f FILE, --config=FILE
                        path to configuration file
  -u USERNAME, --user=USERNAME
                        the username to use for authentication
  -p PASSWORD, --password=PASSWORD
                        the password to use when authenticating

  building:
    -d DIR, --work-dir=DIR
                        working directory for builds
    --build-dir=BUILD_DIR
                        name pattern for the build dir to use inside the
                        working dir ["build_${config}_${build}"]
    -k, --keep-files    don't delete files after builds
    -s, --single        exit after completing a single build
    -n, --dry-run       don't report results back to master
    -i SECONDS, --interval=SECONDS
                        time to wait between requesting builds

  logging:
    -l FILENAME, --log=FILENAME
                        write log messages to FILENAME
    -v, --verbose       print as much as possible
    -q, --quiet         print as little as possible
    --dump-reports      whether report data should be printed

Local Builds

The parameter url represents the location of the bitten recipe. If it is a local file, the slave will run the build locally, without any need for a bitten master. This can be useful for trying out bitten-slave quickly. So calling bitten-slave recipe.xml with the following trivial recipe.xml

<build description="Building System"
      xmlns:sh="http://bitten.cmlenz.net/tools/sh">
 <step id="The first step">
   <sh:exec file="echo" args="Minimal example"/>
 </step>
</build>

will produce this output:

[INFO    ] Executing build step 'The first step'
[INFO    ] Minimal example
[INFO    ] Build step The first step completed successfully
[INFO    ] Build completed

Bitten recipes generally specify a list of steps that are required to succeed for a build to be valid. They will often include a list of tests to be ran on the code. Running all the steps can be useful as a pre-commit validation of changes on a development machine, in which case it is important not to delete the files of the working copy, and to build in a specific directory. The command becomes bitten-slave -k -d PATH --build-dir PATH recipe.xml.