Mercurial build on push

Question

I'd like for a build to be done (on the server) each time a push is made to our central Mercurial repository. Builds are usually kicked off on our build server by running a Visual Build file either manually or via a scheduled task.

What are the ways of achieving this?

Simple, low impact solutions are preferred.

Answer 1

As Pablo suggested, you can do this with a hook, but you'll need an incoming hook on the server side. This hook runs "after a changeset has been pulled, pushed, or unbundled into the local repository" (hgrc manpage).

Edit the .hg/hgrc file of the repository located on the server and define your build hook as follows:

[hooks]
incoming = /path/to/executable-build-script

Of course, the build script called here just needs to be a trigger for whatever build process you actually use.

Note that an incoming hook runs for every single changeset in a push. If you don't want this, use a changegroup hook -- it runs only once for each push, no matter how many changesets it carries.

Answer 2

Another way, in addition to the hooks that Pablo mentions, is to set up a continuous integration server, like TeamCity. Then you could ask TeamCity to monitor your repository, pull new changesets and start the visual build script for you.