[Nmh-workers] The Annual Buildbot Plea

[Lyndon Nerenberg]

I noticed this afternoon that the NMH Buildbot master had been down again for a 
few weeks.  All is well now, but it reminds me it's time for the annual plea 
for nmh buildbot clients.

The nmh buildbot cluster is a collection of diverse systems that build and test 
the nmh source code after each checkin.  This helps ensure the portability of 
the code across a wide range of POSIX-compliant systems.

Running an nmh buildbot client requires few resources, but there are security 
implications.  They are best run on dedicated VMs (or hardware) with restricted 
access to private resources.

To run a buildbot client, you need a full POSIX compiler toolchain, along with 
the associated C headers and libraries for your operating system.  We do 
require one or two things beyond the stock POSIX toolset, mostly bison as an 
alternative to yacc.  Optional libraries (icu, openssl) help test portability, 
but are not required.

What's most important is achieving the widest coverage of operating systems - 
and distributions/releases - we can.  This means the various BSDs and Solaris, 
not to mention the endless Linux variants.

If you would like to offer a build machine, please get in touch; I'm happy to 
help you get things set up.  And if you're a UNIX/Linux distributor shipping 
nmh with your distribution, consider adding a VM or two to the pool so we can 
proactively support your OS.

--lyndon