16 KiB
stage | group | info | comments | description | type |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Verify | Pipeline Execution | To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments | false | Learn how to use GitLab CI/CD, the GitLab built-in Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment, and Continuous Delivery toolset to build, test, and deploy your application. | index |
GitLab CI/CD (FREE)
GitLab CI/CD is a tool for software development using the continuous methodologies:
NOTE: Out-of-the-box management systems can decrease hours spent on maintaining toolchains by 10% or more. Watch our "Mastering continuous software development" webcast to learn about continuous methods and how GitLab CI/CD can help you simplify and scale software development.
Use GitLab CI/CD to catch bugs and errors early in the development cycle. Ensure that all the code deployed to production complies with the code standards you established for your app.
GitLab CI/CD can automatically build, test, deploy, and monitor your applications by using Auto DevOps.
For a complete overview of these methodologies and GitLab CI/CD, read the Introduction to CI/CD with GitLab.
GitLab CI/CD concepts
GitLab CI/CD uses a number of concepts to describe and run your build and deploy.
Concept | Description |
---|---|
Pipelines | Structure your CI/CD process through pipelines. |
CI/CD variables | Reuse values based on a variable/value key pair. |
Environments | Deploy your application to different environments (for example, staging, production). |
Job artifacts | Output, use, and reuse job artifacts. |
Cache dependencies | Cache your dependencies for a faster execution. |
GitLab Runner | Configure your own runners to execute your scripts. |
Pipeline efficiency | Configure your pipelines to run quickly and efficiently. |
Test cases | Create testing scenarios. |
GitLab CI/CD configuration
GitLab CI/CD supports numerous configuration options:
Configuration | Description |
---|---|
Schedule pipelines | Schedule pipelines to run as often as you need. |
Custom path for .gitlab-ci.yml |
Define a custom path for the CI/CD configuration file. |
Git submodules for CI/CD | Configure jobs for using Git submodules. |
SSH keys for CI/CD | Using SSH keys in your CI pipelines. |
Pipeline triggers | Trigger pipelines through the API. |
Pipelines for Merge Requests | Design a pipeline structure for running a pipeline in merge requests. |
Integrate with Kubernetes clusters | Connect your project to Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) or an existing Kubernetes cluster. |
Optimize GitLab and GitLab Runner for large repositories | Recommended strategies for handling large repositories. |
.gitlab-ci.yml full reference |
All the attributes you can use with GitLab CI/CD. |
Certain operations can only be performed according to the user and job permissions.
GitLab CI/CD features
GitLab CI/CD features, grouped by DevOps stage, include:
Feature | Description |
---|---|
Configure | |
Auto DevOps | Set up your app's entire lifecycle. |
ChatOps | Trigger CI jobs from chat, with results sent back to the channel. |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
Verify | |
Browser Performance Testing | Quickly determine the browser performance impact of pending code changes. |
Load Performance Testing | Quickly determine the server performance impact of pending code changes. |
CI services | Link Docker containers with your base image. |
Code Quality | Analyze your source code quality. |
GitLab CI/CD for external repositories (PREMIUM) | Get the benefits of GitLab CI/CD combined with repositories in GitHub and Bitbucket Cloud. |
Interactive Web Terminals (FREE SELF) | Open an interactive web terminal to debug the running jobs. |
Unit test reports | Identify script failures directly on merge requests. |
Using Docker images | Use GitLab and GitLab Runner with Docker to build and test applications. |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
Release | |
Auto Deploy | Deploy your application to a production environment in a Kubernetes cluster. |
Building Docker images | Maintain Docker-based projects using GitLab CI/CD. |
Canary Deployments | Ship features to only a portion of your pods and let a percentage of your user base to visit the temporarily deployed feature. |
Deploy boards | Check the current health and status of each CI/CD environment running on Kubernetes. |
Feature Flags | Deploy your features behind Feature Flags. |
GitLab Pages | Deploy static websites. |
GitLab Releases | Add release notes to Git tags. |
Review Apps | Configure GitLab CI/CD to preview code changes. |
Cloud deployment | Deploy your application to a main cloud provider. |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
Secure | |
Container Scanning (ULTIMATE) | Check your Docker containers for known vulnerabilities. |
Dependency Scanning (ULTIMATE) | Analyze your dependencies for known vulnerabilities. |
License Compliance (ULTIMATE) | Search your project dependencies for their licenses. |
Security Test reports (ULTIMATE) | Check for app vulnerabilities. |
GitLab CI/CD examples
See the CI/CD examples page for example project code and tutorials for using GitLab CI/CD with various:
- App frameworks
- Languages
- Platforms
GitLab CI/CD Administration
You can change the default behavior of GitLab CI/CD for:
- An entire GitLab instance in the CI/CD administration settings.
- Specific projects in the pipelines settings.
See also:
Related topics
Learn more about GitLab CI/CD:
- Why you might choose GitLab CI/CD.
- Reasons you might migrate from another platform.
- 5 Teams that made the switch to GitLab CI/CD
- If you use VS Code to edit your GitLab CI/CD configuration, the GitLab Workflow VS Code extension helps you validate your configuration and view your pipeline status.
See also the Why CI/CD? presentation.
Major version changes (breaking)
As GitLab CI/CD has evolved, certain breaking changes have been necessary.
13.0
- Remove Backported
os.Expand
. - Remove Fedora 29 package support.
- Remove macOS 32-bit support.
- Removed
debug/jobs/list?v=1
endpoint. - Remove support for array of strings when defining services for Docker executor.
- Remove
--docker-services
flag on register command. - Remove legacy build directory caching.
- Remove
FF_USE_LEGACY_VOLUMES_MOUNTING_ORDER
feature flag. - Remove support for Windows Server 1803.
12.0
- Use
refspec
to clone/fetch Git repository. - Old cache configuration.
- Old metrics server configuration.
- Remove
FF_K8S_USE_ENTRYPOINT_OVER_COMMAND
. - Remove Linux distributions that reach EOL.
- Update command line API for helper images.
- Remove old
git clean
flow.
11.0
- No breaking changes.
10.0
- No breaking changes.