Evolutionary Goo

Over the last couple of weeks I installed and began using the Hudson continuous integration server. I’ll admit that my search for a CI server was not very exhaustive nor very thorough. I checked out the web sites of the latest and greatest open source CI servers and chose Hudson based on a “gut” feeling. (Actually, Hudson made my original short list based on a tip from Alex. Thanks!) My only criteria was that it be easy to install, use and modify. It turns out that Hudson is a joy to use. Hudson can be installed as a standard Java web application and can be completely configured through its web interface. There is no need to modify configuration files. And adding plugins for additional build steps like PMD and Cobertura is a breeze. Since Hudson was so easy to use and ran flawlessly once installed and configured, I had no reason to try one of the other popular CI servers. So, I can’t say if the other ones are better than Hudson or not. However, I can say that Hudson is worth a serious look if you are thinking about installing a new CI server.