The automatic build process for the www.python.org site on dinsdale 
works like this.

== Post-commit hook ==

An SVN post-commit hook adds a "buildqueued" file 
to the `/data/website-build/build/status` directory,
containing the
revision number; that's it. A file called "pepqueued" is
added for PEP checkins,
which are in a different repository.

This directory is accessible through the web at http://www.python.org/status/.

The post-commit
hook runs `/data/repos/www/hooks/post-commit` -> `update-web-wrapper` ->
`update-web.py` as user amk.

== Automatic build ==

A cron job runs every 5 minutes
(`build/scripts/post-commit-svnup-binary`, a set-uid binary), under the
amk account. It runs `build/scripts/post-commit-svnup.py` which
checks for "buildqueued" & "pepqueued" files. If found, it rebuilds the
site, calling in turn `build/scripts/server-build.py`.
(The name post-commit-svnup-* is misleading; they're not called by
post-commit hook any more, but once were.)

The script performs the following steps:

 1. "svn up" in the `build/` directory
 2. build the new `.html` files in build/out
 3. copy the new files to `/data/ftp.python.org/pub/www.python.org`


The site-updating cron job is run
as user tparkin, and  its output is appended to
`build/status/postcommitlog.txt`.  If that log file doesn't exist, a new
one is created, but only writable by tparkin.