The build server is conceptually simple. It may be seen as a glorified egg timer that builds your source code at regular intervals or on different triggers.
The most common usage pattern is to have the build server listen to changes in the RCS. When a change is noticed, the build server updates its local copy of the source from the RCS. Then, it builds the source and performs optional tests to verify the quality of the changes. This process is called Continuous Integration (CI), and will be explored in more detail in Chapter 5, Building the Code.
Unlike the situation for code repositories, there hasn't yet emerged a clear winner in the build server field.
In this book, we will discuss Jenkins, which is a widely used open ...
