LuntBuild is a tool that supports the practice of (automated) Continuous Integration (CI). In this entry, I discuss the basic setup and configuration of the tool.

Luntbuild has been available for a couple of years. It has built-in support for the Ant, Maven and command-line build tools. It is open source and freely available for download. Currently, Luntbuild supports eight popular version control tools such as CVS, Subversion, ClearCase and Perforce.

It is fairly simple to install and administer the tool via a web-based user interface. In fact, all of the configuration and administration is performed using this web-based application.

Luntbuild uses a tabbed interface. To configure, you step through the tabs to setup users, projects, schedules, builds, and VCS (Version Control System) adaptors.

Luntbuild supports Ant, Maven, Maven2, command-line and Rake build tools.

Step One: Download, Installation, and Configuration

1. Download the zip file
2. Extract the zip
3. Install the software

There are three ways to install the Luntbuild web application:

1. GUI, manually, and building from the source code.
2. Manually
3. Building from source code

For me, the simplest was using the GUI installer. To use, download the installer from here. From the directory you downloaded the installer, run the command:

java -jar luntbuild-xxx-installer.jar

A wizard installer application will step you through the installation.

Installation and Configuration

1. Leave the fields in the Configure the database and Configure LDAP authorization screens blank for now (unless you need to use either one, of course)
2. Make sure your application server (e.g. Tomcat) is started.
3. Use the default username/password established by Luntbuild

Once you’ve logged in successfully, you will see a page similar to this:

Step Two: Adding a User
In order to setup projects, schedule and builds, you need to create a user. Select the user tab:

Enter the username, full name, password and other fields as necessary. Select the Can Create Project checkbox. Optionally, you may select other feedback mechanisms such as instant messenger or a blog.

Step Three: Adding a Project
Once you’ve added a user, select the Project tab. You will seen a page like the figure below.

Enter the project name, description, which users will have which roles (admin, builder, viewer) on the project, and
notification methods selected for the project.

Step Four: VCS Adaptors
In setting up the project, you need to tell Luntbuild which version control system (VCS) you will be using. In the example below,
I chose Subversion. When you select a VCS from the drop down, different fields will display dynamically based on the particular
VCS options. Because, I chose Subversion, it require a Repository URL based. Furthermore, I may optionally add subdirectories for the
trunk, tags and branches.

There are eight VCS adaptors for Luntbuild. In creating a VCS adaptor,
you will need to add a module within the VCS.

Step Five: Establishing a Builder
There are five different builders that Luntbuild supports. They are Ant, Maven, Maven2, commandbuilder, and Rake.

Enter the required fields. Be sure, to enter the Ant batch/shell file. It defaults to a directory that is probably
not on your machine. The last field on this page is the Build success condition. This is how Luntbuild knows whether a build
was successful. I chose logContainsLine(”BUILD SUCCESSFUL”) for this field.

Step Six: Scheduling a Project to build

Monitoring Builds
After logging in, you see the main page for Luntbuild. You may use this page to monitor your build status.

You can choose the Refresh On option so that the information is always up to date.

This was just an intro to setting up Luntbuild. For more information on installing, configuring, and
administering Luntbuild, see the Quick Start
provided on its website.