Simplify Your Pipeline with Archive Artifacts in Jenkins Scripted Pipeline
Jenkins is a popular automation server that provides a flexible and extensible way to define complex build and deployment workflows. A critical step in any CI/CD pipeline is generating and archiving artifacts, which can include binaries, libraries, configuration files, and other artifacts necessary for deploying the application. In this article, we will focus on one specific feature of Jenkins — the Archive Artifacts function — and how it can help simplify your pipeline.
What is Archive Artifacts?
The Archive Artifacts function is a built-in feature in Jenkins that allows you to archive artifacts produced during a build process. Archiving artifacts can be used for a variety of purposes, such as:
- Storing the artifacts for future reference
- Distributing the artifacts to other teams or stakeholders
- Deploying the artifacts to different environments
By archiving artifacts in Jenkins, you can speed up your development cycle, reduce errors, and ensure consistency in your deployments.
How to Use Archive Artifacts
Using Archive Artifacts in Jenkins is straightforward. Here are the steps you need to follow:
Step 1: Configure the Jenkins Job
First, you need to configure your Jenkins job to generate artifacts. This can be done using various build tools such as Maven, Gradle, or Ant. Here’s an example using Maven:
This stage will run the mvn clean install command, which will compile the code, run tests, and package the application into a JAR file.
Step 2: Archive Artifacts
Once the build is complete, you can archive the artifacts using the archiveArtifacts function:
This stage will archive all JAR files in the target directory and create a fingerprint for each artifact. The fingerprint is used to track the artifacts throughout the CI/CD pipeline.
Step 3: Access the Artifacts
After archiving the artifacts, you can access them by navigating to the job’s build history page and clicking on the Artifacts link. This will display a list of all the artifacts generated by the job, and you can download them from there.
Conclusion
Using the Archive Artifacts function in Jenkins can help simplify your CI/CD pipeline and make it more efficient. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can generate and archive artifacts with ease, making it easier to distribute and deploy your application. With the ability to automate these processes, you can speed up your development cycle, reduce errors, and ensure consistency in your deployments.
Originally published at http://github.com.
