Meta-data for single development test environment

1. A system having a processor for generating meta-data for a product comprising:

an artifact repository that stores first artifacts for building the product, wherein the product comprises a virtual machine operable on a cloud appliance, the artifact repository storing first meta-data for one or more of the first artifacts; and

a build manager that builds second artifacts for the product from source code and one or more of the first artifacts based on information in a project script, the build manager adapted to combine the first meta-data for each of the one or more of the first artifacts used to build the second artifact to form second meta-data for each of the second artifacts, the second meta-data formed by combining source code meta-data for the source code used to build the second artifact with the first meta-data descriptive of the first artifacts used to build the second artifact.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first meta-data comprises license information, and the second meta-data is formed by the build manager concatenating the license information from each first artifact specified in the project script, and deleting duplicate license information from the second meta-data.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the build manager is adapted to calculate a license fee for the product based on the second meta-data.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first meta-data comprises resource information, and the second meta-data is formed by the build manager selecting a largest value for the resource information from among the first artifacts specified in the project meta-data.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first meta-data comprises artifact-specific information, and the second meta-data is formed by the build manager combining values for the artifact-specific information from each of first artifacts specified in the project meta-data and performing operations on the artifact-specific information from each of the first artifacts.

6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the performed operations comprise excluding duplicate information from the first meta-data.

7. A method for generating meta-data for a product comprising:

an artifact repository storing first artifacts for building the product and first meta-data for one or more of the stored first artifacts, wherein the product comprises a virtual machine operable on a cloud appliance;

a build manager building second artifacts for the product from source code and one or more of the first artifacts based on information in a project meta-data; and

the build manager combining the first meta-data for each of the one more of the first artifacts used to build the second artifact and source code meta-data for source code to form second meta-data for each of the second artifacts.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the first meta-data comprises license information, and the build manager forming the second meta-data by concatenating the license information from each first artifact specified in the project script, and deleting duplicate license information from the second meta-data.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the build manager is adapted to calculate a license fee for the product based on the second meta-data.

10. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the first meta-data comprises artifact-specific information, the build manager forming the second meta-data by performing operations, on the artifact-specific information from the first artifacts specified in the project meta-data.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the performing operations include at least one of selecting a maximum value selecting a minimum value, adding averaging, or concatenating the artifact-specific information from among the first artifacts specified in the project meta-data.

12. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the first meta-data comprises documentation information, and the build manager forming the second meta-data by concatenating the documentation information from each first artifact specified in the project script, and deleting duplicate documentation information from the second meta-data.

13. A machine-readable tangible and non-transitory medium with information recorded thereon, wherein the information, when read by a machine, causes the machine to perform the following steps:

storing, by an artifact repository, first artifacts for building a product and storing, by the artifact repository, first meta-data for one or more of the stored first artifacts, wherein the product comprises a virtual machine operable on a cloud appliance;

building, by a build manager, second artifacts for the product from source code and one or more of the first artifacts based on information in project meta-data;

combining, by the build manager, the first meta-data for each of the one or more of the first artifacts used to build the second artifact and source code meta-data for the source code to form second meta-data for each of the second artifacts.

14. The machine-readable medium according to claim 13 , wherein the first meta-data comprises license information, and the build manager forming the second meta-data by concatenating the license information from each first artifact specified in the project script, and deleting duplicate license information from the second meta-data.

15. The machine-readable medium according to claim 14 , wherein the build manager is adapted to calculate a license fee for the product based on the second meta-data.

16. The machine-readable medium according to claim 13 , wherein the first meta-data comprises resource information, the build manager forming the second meta-data by selecting a largest value for the resource information from among the first artifacts specified in the project script.

17. The machine-readable medium according to claim 13 , wherein the first meta-data comprises resource information, and the build manager forming the second meta-data by adding values for the resource information from each of first artifacts specified in the project script.