buildfarm issues

Now that we've been running for a while there are a few buildfarm issues
that I need to address.

First, do we keep the right data about the members? Essentially, we
keep: <operating_system, os_version, compiler, compiler_version,
architecture>. For Linux, we genarlly ask for the
Distribution/distro-version instead of the OS/os-version. However, that
lead to interesting situations - Gentoo for example is so "flexible"
that in version 2004.03 you might easily be using kernel version 2.4.x
or 2.6.x ... in fact it's almost impossible to tell what might be
installed on a Gentoo system, or how it was compiled. So I'm really not
sure how we should treat such systems.

Second is the fact that systems change over time. People upgrade their
machines. I'm considering a facility to allow people to change the
<os-version,compiler-version> aspects of their registered personality -
these will become essentially timestamped pieces of information, so
we'll still be able to tie a set of values to a history item.

Third, what can be done to improve the usefulness of the server / web
site? I already have the following items on my list of TODOs:
. allow sorting of member list by personality feature (e.g. see all the
OS/X boxes together)
. filter dashboard page to only show certain members (this already works
but you have to construct the list manually, e.g.
http://www.pgbuildfarm.org/cgi-bin/show_status.pl?member=cat&member=dog&member=loris&member=gibbon
)
. an email alerting system for when a system changes state

Fourth, there are some significant gaps in the buildfarm coverage. I am
currently personally supplying the Windows and Cygwin members, but since
that is on my laptop which is frequently required for other work it's
not ideal, and there can be large gaps. Other gaps include HPUX, for
example. If you run a machine that should be covered and can help,
please do. After the initial setup there should be very little work
involved.

Finally, a volunteer or two to help me with both running and
administering this would be great. Knowledhge of perl and Template
Toolkit a decided advantage.

Buildfarm was created to assist the principal hackers - so any and all
(constructive) input is welcome.

cheers

andrew