A daily build or nightly build is the practice of each day doing a software build of the latest version of a program. This is so it can first be compiled to ensure that all required dependencies are present, and possibly tested to show no bugs have been introduced. The daily build is also often publicly available allowing access to the latest features for feedback. In this context a build is the result of compiling and linking all the files that make up a program. The use of such disciplined procedures as daily builds is particularly necessary in large organizations where many programmers are working on a single piece of software. Performing daily builds helps ensure that developers can work knowing with reasonable certainty that any new bugs that show up are a result of their own work done within the last day. Daily builds typically include a set of tests, sometimes called a smoke test (a term origintating in plumbing, where once repairs are complete, pipes are pressurized with smoke to see if any immediately visible leaks are present). These tests are included to assist in determining what may have been broken by the changes included in the latest build. The critical piece of this process is to include new and revised tests as the project progresses.
Read more about Daily Build: Continuous Integration Builds
Famous quotes containing the words daily and/or build:
“We are now a nation of people in daily contact with strangers. Thanks to mass transportation, school administrators and teachers often live many miles from the neighborhood schoolhouse. They are no longer in daily informal contact with parents, ministers, and other institution leaders . . . [and are] no longer a natural extension of parental authority.”
—James P. Comer (20th century)
“The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)