Jenkins (software)

Jenkins (software)
Name	Jenkins
Developer	Kohsuke Kawaguchi / Jenkins project
Released	2011 (fork)
Programming language	Java (programming language)
Operating system	Cross-platform
License	MIT License / Eclipse Public License

Jenkins (software) is an open-source automation server widely used for continuous integration and continuous delivery. Originating as a fork of an earlier Hudson project, it provides extensible build, test, and deployment pipelines for software projects across diverse platforms and organizations. Jenkins integrates with tools and services from major vendors and communities, enabling automation in enterprise, startup, and academic environments.

Overview

Jenkins is an automation server written in Java (programming language) that supports orchestration of build, test, and deployment workflows for software delivered via platforms such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Subversion. It exposes a web-based interface and a REST API used by teams at companies like Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to implement continuous integration patterns pioneered by practitioners around Extreme Programming and Continuous Delivery authors such as Jez Humble and Dave Farley. The project is governed by contributors from enterprises, independent developers, and organizations including the Continuous Delivery Foundation and various open-source foundations.

History

Jenkins emerged in 2011 as a community-driven successor to Hudson after disputes involving contributors and maintainers in the wake of governance and trademark discussions tied to organizations like Oracle Corporation. The original author, Kohsuke Kawaguchi, led early development after his tenure at Sun Microsystems and later CloudBees. The project rapidly attracted committers from companies such as Red Hat, Google, Netflix, and GitHub, expanding its ecosystem during the rise of DevOps movements and conferences like KubeCon and DevOpsDays.

Architecture and Components

Jenkins uses a master-agent architecture where the central controller coordinates jobs executed on distributed agents hosted on Linux, Microsoft Windows, macOS, or container platforms such as Docker (software) and orchestration systems like Kubernetes. Core components include the controller (formerly "master"), build executors, a web UI built on Stapler (Java web framework), and persistent storage for build artifacts and configuration. Pipelines are defined via a domain-specific language implemented in Groovy (programming language), while credentials and secrets are managed through pluggable stores that integrate with external systems such as HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, and Azure Key Vault.

Features and Functionality

Jenkins provides job scheduling, distributed builds, pipeline-as-code through the Jenkins Pipeline DSL, and support for test reporting formats like JUnit and TestNG. Built-in features include user authentication against LDAP, Active Directory, and single sign-on via OAuth 2.0 providers like Okta and Auth0. Artifact archiving and deployment integrate with repositories such as Artifactory, Nexus Repository, and cloud storage offerings from Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. Additional capabilities cover build throttling, matrix builds, parameterized jobs, and integration with issue trackers like JIRA (software), Redmine, and GitHub Issues.

Plugins and Ecosystem

The extensible plugin architecture fosters a large ecosystem with plugins maintained by corporations and independent developers. Popular plugins connect Jenkins to Git (software), Maven (software), Gradle, Ansible, and container tooling including Docker Compose. Marketplace-style distribution and governance encourage contributions from vendors such as CloudBees, Sonatype, and HashiCorp as well as community projects hosted on GitHub. Plugin categories cover source control, build tools, notifications (for Slack, Microsoft Teams, and SMTP), code quality integrations like SonarQube, and infrastructure integrations for Terraform and cloud providers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

Security and Administration

Security practices for Jenkins involve role-based access control via plugins from vendors or the community, credential management using integrations with HashiCorp Vault and cloud identity providers, and containerization strategies to isolate build agents using Docker (software) and Kubernetes. Administrators apply security advisories from the Jenkins project, apply plugin and core updates, and harden instances against threats documented by organizations such as CNCF and OWASP. Backup and recovery strategies integrate with enterprise storage solutions from NetApp and Dell EMC, while compliance reporting can leverage audit plugins and logging integrations with systems like ELK Stack and Splunk.

Adoption and Use Cases

Jenkins is used across industries for continuous integration pipelines, continuous delivery workflows, release automation, and infrastructure provisioning in contexts that include large-scale monolithic applications and microservices architectures deployed to Kubernetes, OpenShift, and cloud platforms. Notable adopters span technology firms, financial institutions, research laboratories at universities such as MIT and Stanford University, and government labs involved with organizations like NASA and European Space Agency. Use cases cover automated testing with frameworks like Selenium (software), static analysis integrated with Coverity and FindBugs, and deployment orchestration for Terraform-managed infrastructure and Helm charts.

Category:Continuous integration Category:Free software programmed in Java