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<h3 class="section">2.5 Creating a buildmaster</h3>
<p>As you learned earlier (see <a href="System-Architecture.html#System-Architecture">System Architecture</a>), the buildmaster
runs on a central host (usually one that is publically visible, so
everybody can check on the status of the project), and controls all
aspects of the buildbot system.
<p>You will probably wish to create a separate user account for the buildmaster,
perhaps named <code>buildmaster</code>. Do not run the buildmaster as root!
<p>You also need to choose a directory for the buildmaster, called the
<code>basedir</code>. This directory will be owned by the buildmaster. It will
contain configuration, the adtabase, and status information - including
logfiles. On a large buildmaster this directory will see a lot of activity, so
it should be on a disk with adequate space and speed.
<p>Once you've picked a basedir, use the <samp><span class="command">buildbot
create-master</span></samp> command to create the directory and populate it with
startup files:
<pre class="example"> buildbot create-master -r <var>basedir</var>
</pre>
<p>You will need to create a configuration file (see <a href="Configuration.html#Configuration">Configuration</a>)
before starting the buildmaster. Most of the rest of this manual is
dedicated to explaining how to do this. A sample configuration file is
placed in the working directory, named <samp><span class="file">master.cfg.sample</span></samp>, which
can be copied to <samp><span class="file">master.cfg</span></samp> and edited to suit your purposes.
<p>(Internal details: This command creates a file named
<samp><span class="file">buildbot.tac</span></samp> that contains all the state necessary to create
the buildmaster. Twisted has a tool called <code>twistd</code> which can use
this .tac file to create and launch a buildmaster instance. twistd
takes care of logging and daemonization (running the program in the
background). <samp><span class="file">/usr/bin/buildbot</span></samp> is a front end which runs twistd
for you.)
<p>In addition to <samp><span class="file">buildbot.tac</span></samp>, a small <samp><span class="file">Makefile.sample</span></samp> is
installed. This can be used as the basis for customized daemon startup,
See <a href="Launching-the-daemons.html#Launching-the-daemons">Launching the daemons</a>.
<h3 class="heading">Using MySQL</h3>
<p>If you want to use MySQL as the database backend for your Buildbot, add the
<code>--db</code> option to the <code>create-master</code> invocation to specify the
connection string for the MySQL database (see <a href="Database-Specification.html#Database-Specification">Database Specification</a>), and
make sure that the same URL appears in the <code>C['db_url']</code> parameter in your
configuration file.
<h3 class="heading">Buildmaster Options</h3>
<p>This section lists options to the <samp><span class="command">create-master</span></samp> command.
You can also type <samp><span class="command">buildslave create-slave --help</span></samp> for an up-to-the-moment summary.
<dl>
<dt><code>--force</code><dd>With this option, <samp><span class="command">create-master</span></samp> will re-use an existing master
directory.
<br><dt><code>--no-logrotate</code><dd>This disables internal buildslave log management mechanism. With this option
buildslave does not override the default logfile name and its behaviour giving
a possibility to control those with command-line options of twistd daemon.
<br><dt><code>--relocatable</code><dd>This creates a "relocatable" buildbot.tac, which uses relative paths instead
of absolute paths, so that the buildmaster directory can be moved about.
<br><dt><code>--config</code><dd>The name of the configuration file to use. This configuration file need not
reside in the buildmaster directory.
<br><dt><code>--log-size</code><dd>This is the size in bytes when to rotate the Twisted log files. The default is
10MiB.
<br><dt><code>--log-count</code><dd>This is the number of log rotations to keep around. You can either
specify a number or <code>None</code> to keep all <samp><span class="file">twistd.log</span></samp> files
around. The default is 10.
<br><dt><code>--db</code><dd>The database that the Buildmaster should use. Note that the same value must be
added to the configuration file.
</dl>
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