Jenkins is a cross-platform and an open source “extensible continuous integration” tool written in Java and created by Kohsuke Kawaguchi. Jenkins is licensed by MIT and had its first release in 2011. It is described as an application that monitors execution of repeated jobs. Currently, Jenkins is focused on the following jobs:
- Building/testing software projects continuously – with Jenkins’ so-called continuous integration system increases productivity by making changes made on projects now easier for developers and it’s also obtaining fresh build is now easier for users.
- Monitoring executions of externally-run jobs – examples are cron jobs and procmail jobs, even those that are run on a remote machine.
The following are the features offered by Jenkins:
- Easy installation: No need for additional install or database.
- Easy configuration: Configuration made easy using its web GUI with extensive error checks and inline help wherein configuration made easy.
- Change set support
- Permanent links
- RSS/E-mail/IM Integration: can monitor build results
- After-the-fact tagging of build
- JUnit/TestNG test reporting: can produce tables, summary and display with history information of JUnit test reports.
- Distributed builds/test loads to multiple computers
- File fingerprinting: can also be used for tracking dependency.
- Plugin Support
Jenkins is widely used by companies and organizations such as Dell, eBay, Facebook, GitHub, LinkedIn, Michelin, Netflix, Salesforce.com, Sony, Tumblr, Yahoo, and a lot more. It also has been popular and highly recommended by developers. Other open source projects like AngularJS, Apache, Bazaar, JRuby, Mozilla, OpenSUSE, and many more also use Jenkins. In 2014, it won various awards, from InfoWorld’s BOSSIE Awards under the application development tool category to ZeroTurnAround’s Geek Choice Award.
To learn how to use Jenkins click here or go to this link to get details on how to install and other information on its plugins.