Travis.org provides open-source projects with a free CI facility.
This repository plays around with Travis and Github, to automatically test the contained python code.
Goals:
- Automatically build and test all commits
- Prevent commits to master that have not passed the tests.
Goal 1 is pretty easy to meet. Travis is easier to setup, so that whenever any commit is made on Github, it builds the commit. Travis only supports Linux (I found the OSX build option to cause failures for no-reason. Multiple operating system builds is beta-feature in Travis). Using tox, we can build the code and run the tests in many versions of python.
Goal 2 is a little more difficult. The natural way to prevent commits to master or to the server is to use Git's server side hooks. Server side hooks run in response to events, like a pull or a commit. Hook's allow the execution of arbitrary code to run the event occurs.
However, hosted solutions, like Github and Bitbucket do not provide a way to upload server-side hooks for obvious reasons. Instead, Github replicates a stripped down version of server-side hooks through an API and branch protection.
Branch protection provides a way to enable certain checks or requirements to be met before a commit can be merged onto the protected branch. This repository has enabled branch protection for master. The branch is protected by a requirement that a commit can only be merged after Travis has built it and the tests have passed.
How does it work?
- When push to a protected branch, github puts the commit into a new patch branch, setting up a pull-request into the protected branch.
- Github makes a POST request to travis to say a new commit is ready to build.
- Travis builds the commit. Github monitors the status of this build.
- Depending on the result of the built, the pull-request is declined or a merge becomes permissable.
Contact (email gmail.com) mee.donal if you are interested in what this does.