Hudson (software)

Hudson (software)
Name	Hudson
Developer	Oracle Corporation, Kohsuke Kawaguchi, community
Released	2005
Programming language	Java (programming language)
Operating system	Cross-platform
Platform	Java Platform, Standard Edition
Genre	Continuous integration
License	Eclipse Public License

Hudson (software) Hudson is a continuous integration server originally developed by Kohsuke Kawaguchi at Sun Microsystems and later associated with Oracle Corporation; it automates build, test, and deployment workflows for software development projects. It integrates with version control systems such as Git (software), Apache Subversion, and CVS, and supports build tools like Apache Maven, Ant (software), and Gradle (software). Hudson influenced later projects and forks in the open-source software ecosystem and has been used by teams managing projects hosted on GitHub, Apache Software Foundation repositories, and enterprise software engineering environments.

Lead

Hudson functions as a server application running on the Java Platform, Standard Edition and offers a web-based dashboard for job configuration, build history, and test results. It provides plugin hooks to integrate with JUnit, TestNG, Docker (software), Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services, and notification systems such as Email, IRC, and Slack. The project shaped practices adopted by continuous integration adopters across FinTech, Telecommunications, Eclipse Foundation-aligned projects, and corporate development shops.

History and Forks

Hudson was created by Kohsuke Kawaguchi while employed at Sun Microsystems to address automation needs in projects that used Maven and Ant (software). Following Oracle's acquisition of Sun, governance disputes emerged between contributors, Oracle Corporation, and community members, leading to a prominent fork. The community-active maintainers and contributors proposed moving development to the Eclipse Foundation, while Oracle continued to manage Hudson-related artifacts. The fork resulted in the creation of Jenkins (software) by the majority of contributors, which attracted volunteers from Google, Amazon (company), Red Hat, IBM, and other organizations. The split influenced conversations at Open Source Initiative forums and was discussed at conferences such as JavaOne and FOSDEM.

Features and Architecture

Hudson's architecture centers on an extensible plugin model implemented in Java (programming language) and leverages the Servlet API for its web interface. Core features include job scheduling, distributed builds using agents, build pipelines, artifact archiving, and integration with JUnit and TestNG reporting. The master-agent model allows scaling across nodes provisioned via SSH, Windows Server, Docker (software), or cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. Security realms and access control can be configured to use LDAP directories, Active Directory, or local user databases; authentication plugins support OAuth providers such as GitHub (company) and Google (company).

Installation and Configuration

Hudson can be installed as a standalone WAR file deployed to servlet containers like Apache Tomcat, Jetty, or run with an embedded servlet runner on Linux, Microsoft Windows, or macOS. Packages and installers were historically provided for distributions maintained by Debian and Red Hat Enterprise Linux ecosystems. Configuration is persisted in XML files on the server filesystem and can be managed via the web UI, configuration-as-code approaches, or automated using systems like Ansible, Puppet (software), and Chef (software). Backup strategies often involve exporting job definitions and artifact archives to network-attached storage or object storage such as Amazon S3.

Usage and Integration

Teams use Hudson to implement automated build pipelines triggered by commits to repositories hosted on GitHub (company), GitLab, Bitbucket, and Apache Subversion servers. Hudson integrates with issue trackers and project management tools including JIRA (software), Bugzilla, and Trac (software), enabling build-based issue updates and release workflows. Continuous delivery patterns are realized by chaining Jenkins-style pipelines (inspired by Hudson) with deployment tools like Ansible, Kubernetes, and Docker Swarm to publish artifacts to artifact repositories such as Nexus Repository and Artifactory. Monitoring and metrics collection are often combined with Prometheus, Grafana, and enterprise logging stacks like ELK (stack).

Development and Community

Development was driven initially by Kawaguchi and contributors from Sun Microsystems and later from companies including Oracle Corporation, CloudBees, Google, Red Hat, and independent maintainers. Community governance debates over trademark, repository control, and contribution policies culminated in the majority of contributors moving to the Jenkins project under an independent governance model. Despite the fork, Hudson maintained a smaller set of contributors and users, and its plugin ecosystem overlapped substantially with that of Jenkins. Discussions and proposals were frequently presented at conferences such as JavaOne, Devoxx, and FOSDEM and coordinated via mailing lists and issue trackers hosted by organizations like Eclipse Foundation and GitHub (company).

Security and Licensing

Hudson is implemented in Java (programming language) and the project historically adopted licensing compatible with open-source foundations; different distributions and forks shifted between licenses such as the Eclipse Public License and other compatible terms. Security considerations include securing the web UI, agent-to-master communication, plugin sandboxing, and credential management; incidents and advisories were reported and addressed by maintainers and vendors such as Oracle Corporation and CloudBees. Administrators are advised to follow best practices used by CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, rotate secrets with vault products like HashiCorp Vault, and apply timely updates to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Category:Continuous integration