Hi Milo,

This looks nice. I have a few comments to be addressed.

 review needs-fixing

> === modified file 'lava_dispatcher/actions/lava_test_shell.py'
> --- lava_dispatcher/actions/lava_test_shell.py	2013-07-17 09:16:46 +0000
> +++ lava_dispatcher/actions/lava_test_shell.py	2013-07-22 13:39:27 +0000
> @@ -107,13 +107,16 @@
>  
>  from datetime import datetime
>  from glob import glob
> +import base64
>  import logging
>  import os
>  import pexpect
>  import pkg_resources
>  import shutil
>  import stat
> +import StringIO
>  import subprocess
> +import tarfile
>  import tempfile
>  import time
>  from uuid import uuid4
> @@ -187,6 +190,37 @@
>          logging.error('Unable to get test definition from bzr\n' + str(e))
>  
>  
> +def _get_testdef_tar_repo(testdef_repo, tmpdir):
> +    """Extracts the provided encoded tar archive into tmpdir."""
> +    tardir = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'tartestrepo')
> +    temp_tar = os.path.join(tmpdir, "tar-repo.tar")
> +
> +    try:
> +        if not os.path.isdir(tardir):
> +            logging.info("Creating directory to extract the tar archive into.")
> +            os.makedirs(tardir)
> +
> +        encoded_in = StringIO.StringIO(testdef_repo)
> +        decoded_out = StringIO.StringIO()
> +        base64.decode(encoded_in, decoded_out)
> +
> +        # The following two operations can also be done in memory
> +        # using cStringIO.
> +        # At the moment the tar file sent is not big, but that can change.
> +        with open(temp_tar, "w") as write_tar:
> +            write_tar.write(decoded_out.getvalue())
> +
> +        with tarfile.open(temp_tar) as tar:
> +            tar.extractall(path=tardir)
> +    except Exception as ex:

can we capture a more specific type of exception here? otherwise we may be
masking random exceptions that might happen above.

> +        logging.error("Error extracting the tar archive.\n" + str(ex))
> +    finally:
> +        # Remove the temporary created tar file after it has been extracted.
> +        if os.path.isfile(temp_tar):
> +            os.unlink(temp_tar)
> +    return tardir
> +
> +
>  def _get_testdef_info(testdef):
>      metadata = {'os': '', 'devices': '', 'environment': ''}
>      metadata['description'] = testdef['metadata'].get('description')
> @@ -255,8 +289,20 @@
>              name = testdef_repo['bzr-repo'].replace('lp:', '').split('/')[-1]
>              info = _bzr_info(testdef_repo['bzr-repo'], repo, name)
>  
> +        if 'tar-repo' in testdef_repo:
> +            repo = _get_testdef_tar_repo(testdef_repo['tar-repo'], tmpdir)
> +            # Default info structure, since we need something, but we have
> +            # a tar file in this case.
> +            info = {
> +                "project_name": "Tar archived repository",
> +                "branch_vcs": "tar",
> +                "branch_revision": "0",
> +                "branch_url": repo
> +            }
> +
>          if not repo or not info:
>              logging.debug("Unable to identify specified repository. %s" % testdef_repo)
> +
>          test = testdef_repo.get('testdef', 'lavatest.yaml')
>          with open(os.path.join(repo, test), 'r') as f:
>              logging.info('loading test definition ...')
> @@ -462,13 +508,15 @@
>                                'items': {'type': 'object',
>                                          'properties':
>                                          {'git-repo': {'type': 'string',
> -                                                'optional': True},
> -                                        'bzr-repo': {'type': 'string',
> -                                                'optional': True},
> -                                        'revision': {'type': 'string',
> -                                                'optional': True},
> -                                        'testdef': {'type': 'string',
> -                                                'optional': True}
> +                                                      'optional': True},
> +                                         'bzr-repo': {'type': 'string',
> +                                                      'optional': True},
> +                                         'tar-repo': {'type': 'string',
> +                                                      'optional': True},
> +                                         'revision': {'type': 'string',
> +                                                      'optional': True},
> +                                         'testdef': {'type': 'string',
> +                                                     'optional': True}

I think this indentation here got changed with a recent PEP8-related merge so
that this will not merge cleanly, please check.