What is the point of daily builds?

Question

Project management

What should they be used for?
1. WordPress theme?
2. Plugin for jquery?
3. Console module for nodejs
4. Extensive and multifunctional web application on the php + js stack
Do I understand correctly that this procedure is needed to track changes that break the product?
That is, I made a commit-> the nightly build broke-> corrected it the next day?
And if I write changes, I didn’t have time to finish the functionality, but the day is over - do I need to throw it into git, knowing for sure that this will break the product? (and here the second question immediately, do you need to test the assembly daily only the master branches? Or all the branches with features, developments, etc.?)

Answer 1

Options can be as follows:
a) For each commit, the product is immediately assembled and integration tests are run.
The advantages are - at the workplace you only need GIT and IDE, all compilers, the environment for running the application - on the buildserver nodes. As a result, you can code from anywhere, and immediately check the integrity of the assembly with each commit.
b) assembly can be overnight. For example, because the build takes 5 hours on a thick server, and on a working machine it will take 10-15 hours, or even not at all. Then, of course, it is desirable not to break the build with unfinished commits. But git allows you to commit without pushes, or use branches, and configure the build not just to commit, but to merge into a developer or master branch.
c) There can be many, different builds, builds do not necessarily mean compilation, but for example, running source codes through a code analyzer thread, with a report, tests for individual components can be run.
Well, besides, the developers have their own work, the testers have their own. It is useful to test features as they appear, rather than waiting a week and then sitting in the soap.

Answer 2

well, I don’t use it, most likely it is necessary for cms developers or large (note Large) projects, but for a small project this is not necessary

Answer 3

Ломать билд крайне нежелательно, особенно в master-ветке!
Ночные сборки нужны не только для непосредственно разрабатываемого продукта, но и для отслеживания интеграции со всякими внешними зависимостями (через Maven, NuGet, npm...у кого там что подтягивается).
Встречал, что юнит-тесты прогоняются при каждом коммине (даже фичебранчи, т.е. их ломать тоже не желательно), но полноценные ночные сборки, тесты Selenium работают лишь с develop.

Answer 4

Ну у нас например, тесты прогоняются ПРИ КАЖДОМ КОММИТЕ, а не раз в сутки.
Раз в сутки - это уже устаревшее.
Это с тех времен, когда софт писался на медленно компилируемых вещах.