Builds can now emit metrics that Hydra will store in its database and
render as time series via flot charts. Typical applications are to
keep track of performance indicators, coverage percentages, artifact
sizes, and so on.
For example, a coverage build can emit the coverage percentage as
follows:
echo "lineCoverage $pct %" > $out/nix-support/hydra-metrics
Graphs of all metrics for a job can be seen at
http://.../job/<project>/<jobset>/<job>#tabs-charts
Specific metrics are also visible at
http://.../job/<project>/<jobset>/<job>/metric/<metric>
The latter URL also allows getting the data in JSON format (e.g. via
"curl -H 'Accept: application/json'").
This prevents a race where multiple threads see that machine X is
missing path P, and start sending it concurrently. Nix handles this
correctly, but it's still wasteful (especially for the case where P ==
GHC).
A more refined scheme would be to have per machine, per path locks.
Eelco Dolstra