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Subject: DO NOT REPLY [Bug 40544]  New:  - An idea for possible grid use with
 Ant
Message-ID: <bug-40544-472@http.issues.apache.org/bugzilla/>
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:38:44 +0000 (GMT)

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http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=40544

           Summary: An idea for possible grid use with Ant
           Product: Ant
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: other
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: Core
        AssignedTo: dev@ant.apache.org
        ReportedBy: davidcorley@gmail.com


Hey all,

I've been doing a lot of testing with Findbugs recently, and though it's a
fantastic tool, it's extremely resource intensive, and can take some time on
large codebases.
Yesterday I spotted a video on Google video of a presentation given by Steve
Loughran and Julio Guijarro about using a grid to test deployment with a tool
they're developing within HP called Smartfrog.
The thought occurred to me that perhaps it would be possible to implement some
kind of a grid framework in Ant.
I'll use the PMD (http://pmd.sourceforge.net) static analysis tool as an example.

PMD accepts a nested fileset to specify the location of the source to be checked.
The fileset is of the typical <fileset dir="xxx" includes="xxx" exludes"xxx"/> form.
Lets say we then create a new type <gridset> that is the same in all manners as
fileset (same attributes and elements), with the exception of how ant handles it.

Now lets say we build a new ant task <grid> that contains the attribute
"config", the value for which is an xml file.
The xml file would contain locations and configuration information for grid
element locations�possibly including network location,connection method,
location of access/authorisation information for the resource, etc.

The <grid> element would be implemented in much the same way the <parallel> task
is currently implemented in Ant.
So let say we want to Run both PMD and Findbugs on a grid, we might have:

<grid config="grid.xml"/>
	<gridset dir="xx" includes"ddd" exlcudes="ggg"/>
	<pmd>
		<fileset id="gridset"/>
	</pmd>
</grid>

The basic idea being that Ant would split the resources being tested between the
grid resources, and (assuming PMD is on each grid machine), split the testing
burden between the machines.
Part of the grid task would be to ensure that the resources specified in the
supplied xml are available before testing begins. My initial thought was around
the idea of having Ant parse through gridset objects and split them into smaller
fileset objects for distribution to grid resources.

Of course the above is a grossly over-simplified explanation of the idea. I've
at no point mentioned the problems of how ant gets execution access on the
remote machines, not to mention the fact that each of the remote machines must
have the same setup as the originating machine. There's also (though not in
PMD's case) the issue of Findbugs requiring access to all of the classes being
tested, (including those on other machines).

So why don't I just get coding instead of posting this?
Well for one, I'm a newbie to Java, and sometimes my ideas are well ahead of my
capabilities. I just though perhaps some of you may have either tried and failed
with this before, or better still, think the above could form the base for a
workable solution to grid use of Ant.

Anyway, any feedback is appreciated.

/Dave

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