Clobbering the Tree

This page is only applicable to Firefox builds

Occasionally a build directory on a machine needs to be "clobbered". This means that the entire directory hierarchy, including the checked-out source and object directory, are deleted.

To clobber a build directory on a particular machine, or all the machines doing builds of a particular type (build, or unittest for example), or all the machines on a particular branch, you can visit https://secure.pub.build.mozilla.org/clobberer/ or, easier to remember, http://clobberer.pub.build.mozilla.org. You need a valid LDAP account to access this page.

If you check a box next to one of the slaves on a particular branch / builder, then the next time that slave runs a build on that branch, it will first delete the entire build directory, and then do a fresh checkout, and continue on with the rest of the build.

Selecting a builder-level checkbox merely selects all the slaves for that builder, and similarly, selecting the branch-level checkbox selects all the slaves for all the builders in that branch.

In addition, if a slave has not been clobbered in a configurable time period, it will clobber on the next run.

Slaves are added to the database as they report in to ask for their clobber data, so it could take a little while for new slaves to appear all their branch / builder combinations.

(See Build:ClobberingATinderbox for clobbering in CVS-based trees.)