Continuous integration, continuous development (CI/CD) has become a critical part of shipping software. There are several popular CI/CD tools currently available - Jenkins, Buildkite, Travis CI, and CircleCI - to name just a few.
While CI/CD tools can perform some tasks excellently, they often lack the features to maintain software repositories and push updated code to machines. This is where software package managament and hosting comes in.
In this article, we take a look at how you can combine Jenkins and Packagecloud to get the best of both worlds.
What can Jenkins and Packagecloud do together?
Having Jenkins and Packagecloud work together adds a package manager to your CI/CD pipeline. While Jenkins helps with automatically generating code, testing the new code’s functionality, and deploying the code to containers or virtual machines, Packagecloud helps you distribute that code as software packages.
What kind of packages? Here are a few of the most popular!
-
OpenSUSE packages (with Jenkins X, a version that uses Kubernetes)
-
Red Hat packages (with Jenkins X)
More benefits from Packagecloud
Adding Packagecloud’s package distribution service to your CI/CD pipelines does more than streamline your workflows. Packagecloud comes with several features that make Jenkins a better way to update software.
Improved security
When you add new code to your repository, Packagecloud compares it to known vulnerabilities. This list of known vulnerabilities is regularly updated, and regular checks makes sure no malicious software can creep in, in your packages.
Verifiable SBOMs
Packagecloud is among the first package distribution platforms to implement the software bill of materials SBOM framework. Packagecloud performs audits to verify that SBOMs list all of your software components and dependencies, making it easier for you to get end-to-end visibility of your software supply chain.
How to use Packagecloud with Jenkins
Getting Jenkins and Packagecloud to work together is super-easy.
-
Within the Jenkins UI, open Manage Jenkins and choose the Packagecloud plugin under the Available section.
-
Select Credentials to add your Packagecloud account information and API token.
-
Select Push to Packagecloud.
-
Enter the name of the repository you want to use, and select your operating system.
That was fast!
