Automatic Build Programs - Part 1

Because EDK2 is opensource, people around the world are constantly updating its code. Managing EDK2's thousands of revisions can be difficult. This article discusses the program AutoBuild.bat, which helps to simplify the revision management process for EDK2.

AutoBuild.bat has three major steps. First, the program downloads the latest version of EDK2 from Subversion. After that, AutoBuild.bat builds the EDK2 environment. The third function is to email an error message if the EDK2 environment could not build. The email will also attach enough information for the receiver to begin fixing the bug.

This article assumes that the folder c:\sourcecode exists.

Blat

AutoBuild.bat emails an message to a specific address after EDK2 has been parsed. To send this email, AutoBuild.bat uses the program Blat. Blat must be download from blat.net before AutoBuild.bat can be run. 

After Blat  has been downloaded, open the folder containing Blat's contents and select the folder "blat311". 

Within the "blat311" folder, open the folder "full." Select blat.exe and copy it by pressing Ctrl+C. 

Go to the folder c:\sourcecode and paste blat.exe by pressing Ctrl+V. This will allow AutoBuild.bat to use Blat while running. This article discusses the configuration of blat later on.

AutoBuild.bat

To get AutoBuild.bat, download SysLib using Subversion from the following link:  https://svn.code.sf.net/p/syslibforuefi/code/trunk

After SysLib is downloaded, you can find AutoBuild.bat inside the folder "Tools" within SysLib. In order to run, AutoBuild.bat must be moved out of this folder into c:\sourcecode because all contents of c:\sourcecode\edk2 are deleted when AutoBuild.bat is run, and if it is not moved, AutoBuild.bat will delete itself from c:\sourcecode\edk2 as well.

If you decide that you want to change the directory for EDK2 to be download to, open AutoBuild.bat, and replace every instance of c:\sourcecode\edk2 with the desired directory.

If you downloaded Blat to a folder other than c:\sourcecode, open AutoBuild.bat, and replace every instance of c:\sourcecode with the desired directory. Remember to copy blat.exe and AutoBuild.bat into the new directory.

NOTE: If you want to change both the EDK2 download directory and the Blat directory, change the EDK2 download directory first.

Using AutoBuild.bat

AutoBuild.bat is called from the Command Prompt using the following structure:

AutoBuild SenderEmail SenderPassword RecieverEmail SMTPServer

In the above line, SenderEmail is the email address that the error message will be sent from. SenderPassword is the password for the sending email address. RecieverEmail is the email that will receive the error message. SMTPServer is the SMTP server address for the sending email address.

If the SMTP Server Address does not use the standard port number, open AutoBuild.bat. Near the bottom of the file, on the line starting with "blat",  the word -port is written followed by a number. This number is the port number that Blat uses to connect to the email server so it can send an email. Replace the written port number with the port number for the SMTP server that will be sending the email, then save AutoBuild.bat. 

The AutoBuild Process

AutoBuild.bat begins by deleting the folder c:\sourcecode\edk2, and all its contents, if it exists. AutoBuild then recreates c:\sourcecode\edk2. The program calls svn checkout, which repopulates c:\sourcecode\edk2 with the latest revision of EDK2 found at  https://svn.code.sf.net/p/edk2/code/trunk/edk2. 

Before building, AutoBuild.bat sets the work space and build environment for EDK2. The program sets the work space to c:\sourcecode\edk2, and initializes the build environment by calling edksetup.bat. 

After setting up the build environment, AutoBuild begins to build EDK2. All build information is sent to the file BuildLog.txt. 

While building, the build process sets the variable %ERRORLEVEL%. If %ERRORLEVEL% equals zero, no errors occurred during the build, otherwise, there was an error during the build process. AutoBuild uses the %ERRORLEVEL% to determine whether a build was successful or not.

If the build was successful, AutoBuild uses svn info to retrieve the information on the revision that was just built and save it in the text file BuildInfo.txt. AutoBuild.bat searches through BuildInfo.txt until it finds revision number. The information on that revision is then appended to BuildLog.txt. The revision number is then saved into the file GoodRevision.txt.

If the build produces an error, AutoBuild uses svn info to get the information on the revision. The program saves the revision number into OtherInfo.txt. AutoBuild then tests to see if the file GoodRevision.txt exists. If GoodRevision.txt does exist, the program uses svn log to get the information on each revision since the last successful build. The program appends the information to BuildLog.txt. If GoodRevision.txt doesn't exist, the current revision is set as GoodRevision.txt. The revision's information is still appended to build log, but the statement "No previous successfully build revision could be found." is also appended to BuildLog.txt. 

After the information has all been appended to BuildLog.txt, Blat is called to send an email to the specified email address. BuildLog.txt is attached to this email as well. 

This post sets up the basic ideas and principles behind an automatic build program. A later post will discuss how to create a schedule for AutoBuild.bat.