Distributed bulk building for slow machines

[John Klos <john%ziaspace.com@localhost>]

Hi, all,

I'm interested in setting up a simple shared bulk build system for slower 
architectures which allows for developers' systems anywhere on the 
Internet to participate.

My basic setup would be:

1) A binary package tree on the main master server for any given 
architecture which starts empty and which is rsynced over ssh in both 
directions (either via cron or after the creation of a new package)

2) A list of priority packages which is made before a bulk (old fashioned 
or pbulk) build is started

3) A method to use a fast machine to create a dependency tree which is 
used after the priority package list is finished

Essentially, a sandbox would be created on worker machines where sshd is 
run inside of the sandbox with ssh keys which give the master the ability 
to send commands and rsync files. The master would iterate through the 
package list and remotely run a "make package" for each, noting any 
failures, then possibly sync files afterwards.

It is expected that there are so many packages which are dependencies of 
others that unless we had an incredibly large number of volunteer machines 
we'd never have two machines trying to build the same package at the same 
time. Therefore, I'm not too worried about the package selection logic 
because we can just use the results of a dependency tree from the old bulk 
build scrips.

This setup seems simple and straightforward, but if anyone has suggestions 
or would like to help, I'm completely open. But please don't suggest 
tremendously greater complexity unless you're prepared to help ;)

Also, if any developers have fast VAXen (relatively speaking, obviously), 
m68k machines, sh3 (sh4; either endianness), StrongARM, or big endian 
MIPS which you'd like to volunteer, please let me know.

Thanks!
John Klos