CI/CD

What is CI/CD?

CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (or Continuous Delivery). It’s a set of practices and tools in software development that automate the process of integrating code changes, testing them, and deploying to production environments. The goal is to detect problems early, deliver updates faster, and maintain high software quality.

Simple Analogy

Think of CI/CD like a modern assembly line in a car factory:

• Traditional Software Development: Like handcrafting individual cars from start to finish. Craftsmen work separately on different cars, only seeing others’ work occasionally. When they finally try to combine parts, many compatibility issues arise.

• Continuous Integration (CI): Like an assembly line where workers continually add their parts to the main car frame. If a worker’s part doesn’t fit, they know immediately and can fix it before more work is added on top.

• Continuous Deployment (CD): Like the quality control and delivery system after the assembly line. Cars come off the assembly line, pass automated quality checks, and are immediately loaded onto trucks for delivery

Key Concepts

• Continuous Integration: Frequently merging code changes into a shared repository, with automated build and test processes
• Continuous Deployment: Automatically deploying all code changes to production after passing tests
• Pipeline: The automated sequence of steps code changes go through (build, test, deploy)
• Automated Testing: Running tests automatically to validate code changes
• Builds: The process of converting source code into a runnable application
• Environments: Different stages for the application (dev, test, staging, production)

Example

# Example GitHub Actions CI/CD workflow
name: CI/CD Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  build-and-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    
    - name: Set up Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v2
      with:
        node-version: '16'
        
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: npm ci
      
    - name: Run tests
      run: npm test
      
    - name: Build application
      run: npm run build
      
  deploy:
    needs: build-and-test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
    - name: Deploy to production
      run: |
        echo "Deploying to production server..."
        # Deploy commands would go here