please expose builder queue state through the api

[Marien Zwart]

I think it would be useful if I could get some information about the (ppa) build queue through launchpadlib. There are two different things I'd like to be able to do from the commandline:

- The expected delay before builds start if I were to upload now (like https://launchpad.net/builders displays)

- The expected delay before an already queued build will start (as displayed on the "build" page in the web interface).

I'm completely new to launchpadlib, but I was hoping for that second value to be available as an attribute on the "Build" object in https://edge.launchpad.net/+apidoc/ .

[Julian Edwards (julian-edwards)]

The first one is not really possible to do, as your upload has to be inspected before it gets scored in the build system.

The second, however, is pretty easy and can be done as you expect. I can mentor you if you fancy making the patch yourself?

[Marien Zwart (marienz)]

I know I can't get the build score (and therefore can't predict where in the queue I'll end up) but I thought it might still be nice to get the total queue length (the same information displayed on the right hand side of https://launchpad.net/builders ): that at least gives a pretty reliable worst-case delay before uploading.

I was going to look into getting launchpad and writing a patch tomorrow. Expect me to ask a few stupid questions on #launchpad-dev :)

[Julian Edwards (julian-edwards)]

Knowing the queue length won't really tell you much unfortunately. Imagine
you had a queue with three builds in it, you might think that would mean
you're up to get your build done pretty soon, but if those three are kernel
builds, mozilla builds or chromium builds then you're going to be waiting
considerably longer.

We can probably put the current start-to-build lag for PPAs and for distro
builds on the Distribution API object though.

I look forward to helping you make a patch!