[py-dev] xdist sending info between master and slave - support for client code

[holger krekel]

Hi meme (correct addressing? :) 

thanks for the mail.  For my understanding, can you mention a bit more context? 

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 19:09 +1000, meme dough wrote:
[...]
> Is it possible to modify xdist so that client code on master can send info
> to the slave.  Will need access to rsync roots before it goes ahead and
> installs the slave though.

I think we could add a hook called at the master-side which could return/update
an extra dictionary to be transfered to the client (in theory even a
pickled-object but i'd like to avoid guaranteeing pickleability for the core
test distribution mechanism).  A slave-side hook (sessionstart?) would
get this information. 

> Is it possible to modify xdist so that client code on the slave can send
> info back to the master.  This looks like must modify xdist somehow since it
> doesn't seem to send any report back at finish.

We can add a hook or re-use an existing one for allowing a client to send
back (e.g. report) data but the question is: which hook sees this information 
on the master side? 

Maybe sessionfinish?  So the slave's sessionfinish hook could add whatever
extra information and the final sessionfinish sees it.  

Maybe it's better to design and call specific xdist-prefied hooks and not re-use
existing ones?  As you have hacked on this topic and for your purposes
already - what do you think? 

> Now that I wrote all that, what is the obvious answer that I didn't see?
> 
> :)

I don't have an obvious answer but then again after a long holiday i still
need to dive back a bit more; maybe i find some then :) 

cheers,
holger