Overview

This documentation provides a detailed step-by-step guide on how CI/CD automation is set up within the GitLab project. It covers the existing scripts that support CI/CD processes, illustrating their functionality with code examples.

CI/CD Setup

The GitLab project utilizes a structured approach to CI/CD automation. The CI/CD configuration files are located within the .gitlab/ci/ directory. Each file in this directory serves a specific purpose in the CI/CD lifecycle, from building, testing, and deploying the application to collecting artifacts.

Directory Structure

• .gitlab/ci/: Main directory containing CI/CD configuration files.
• .gitlab/ci/templates/: Contains reusable CI/CD templates.
• .gitlab/ci/includes/: Holds shared CI/CD configurations included in other pipelines.

Example of CI/CD Pipeline Configuration

Here is an example of a CI/CD configuration file, specifically illustrating how to set up jobs and stages.

Basic Structure of a .gitlab-ci.yml

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - echo "Building the application..."
    - make build

test:
  stage: test
  script:
    - echo "Running tests..."
    - make test

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - echo "Deploying application..."
    - make deploy
  only:
    - master

Detailed Job Configurations

Each job defined in the configuration can include specific commands, dependencies, and execution conditions.

Example build-images.gitlab-ci.yml

A specific job script that builds Docker images is as follows:

build-images:
  stage: build
  image: docker:latest
  services:
    - docker:dind
  script:
    - docker build -t my-app:latest .
    - docker push my-app:latest

This job specifies the Docker-in-Docker service to execute the build process.

Utilizing Templates

To maintain clean and succinct configuration, GitLab supports the use of templates. A sample usage of template inclusion is:

include:
  - project: 'gitlab-org/gitlab'
    file: '.gitlab/ci/templates/ci_template.yml'

my-job:
  script:
    - echo "This job uses a template"

Scripts Supporting CI/CD

The following scripts are pivotal in supporting the CI/CD process:

• artifact-collector/: Collects build artifacts for later use in deployment.
• release-environments/: Scripts associated with managing release environments.
• qa/: Files related to quality assurance processes that integrate testing within CI/CD.

Example of Artifact Collection

An example job that utilizes artifact collection can be seen below:

test:
  stage: test
  script:
    - echo "Running tests and collecting artifacts..."
    - pytest --junitxml=results.xml
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - results.xml

In this snippet, the test results are stored as artifacts that can be accessed in subsequent stages.

Conclusion

The GitLab project has a well-defined CI/CD automation setup that is supported by comprehensive and versatile scripts. The examples provided illustrate the fundamental components required to successfully implement CI/CD practices, enabling robust software development and deployment processes.

For further exploration of available scripts and configurations, refer to the source documentation: gitlab-org/gitlab.