Jenkins

Jenkins (also known as Jenkins CI) is the world’s most powerful open source continuous integration server designed from the offset to provide over 300 plugins for building and testing any software project. It is a web-based application that runs on top of a web server, such as Apache.

Features at a glance

With Jenkins, you can monitor the execution of repeated jobs, including those run by cron or a similar automation software. It is easily installable, configurable and supports third-party plugins, distributed builds, as well as file fingerprinting.

In addition, Jenkins’ highlights include after-the-fact tagging, JUnit and TestNG test reporting, support for permanent links, support for mainstream operating systems and architectures, change set support, RSS, Instant Messaging and email integration.

Getting started with Jenkins

Jenkins is an easy-to-use and easy-to-install software project, but it has a great number of advanced feartures, for which its developers offer a detailed getting started with Jenkins guide, teaching you how to start, access and administering Jenkins, as well as to do various operations.

For example, you will learn how to build a software project, a Maven project, a matrix project, an Android app, monitor external jobs, use Jenkins plugins, file fingerprint tracking, secure Jenkins, change the timezone, use other shells, split a large job in smaller pieces, use Jenkins for non-Java projects, as well as to access the Jenkins script console, the command-line interface and SSH (Secure Shell).

Additionally, the user will learn how to integrate Jenkins with Drupal, Python, Perl and .NET projects, remove and disable third-party plugins, run Jenkins from behind a HTTP/HTTPS proxy, and many other useful things.

Supported operating systems

Being designed for the Web, Jenkins is a platform-independent application that has been successfully tested on several GNU/Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, CentOS, openSUSE and Gentoo, various BSD flavors, including FreeBSD and OpenBSD, Solaris (OpenIndiana), Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

What is new in this release:

• Security fixes.
• Security hardening related to Stapler routing.

What is new in version 2.116:

• Security fixes.

What is new in version :

• Updating Jenkins jobs and views by XML left fields at their old value if not defined in the new XML. (issue 21017)

What is new in version 2.90:

• Default the built-in Jenkins Update Center URL to https://updates.jenkins.io instead of obsolete HTTP endpoint. (pull 2996)
• Fix problem with auto upgrade when using custom JENKINS_HOME on Windows. (issue 13153)
• Administrative monitor did not detect when Tomcat's URL escaping does not permit forward slashes. (issue 31068)
• Fix broken UI for users with Discover permission when renaming a job. (issue 41637)
• Internal: Avoid code duplication using default methods. (pull 2999)

What is new in version 2.77:

• Default the built-in Jenkins Update Center URL to https://updates.jenkins.io instead of obsolete HTTP endpoint. (pull 2996)
• Fix problem with auto upgrade when using custom JENKINS_HOME on Windows. (issue 13153)
• Administrative monitor did not detect when Tomcat's URL escaping does not permit forward slashes. (issue 31068)
• Fix broken UI for users with Discover permission when renaming a job. (issue 41637)
• Internal: Avoid code duplication using default methods. (pull 2999)

What is new in version 2.65:

• Prevent NullPointerException when calling restart CLI command (regression in 2.57). (issue 44769)
• Packaging: Docker alpine image had a Jenkins-incompatible JDK installation (regression in 2.64). (issue 44733, corresponding Alpine Linux issue)

What is new in version 2.46:

• Failure to serialize a single Action could cause an entire REST export response to fail. Upgraded to Stapler 1.250 with a fix. (issue 40088)
• Do not fail to write a log file just because something deleted the parent directory. (issue 16634)
• Use extensible BUILD_NOW_TEXT for parameterized jobs. (issue 41457)
• Display an informative message, rather than a Groovy exception, when View#getItems fails. (issue 41825)
• Don't consider a project to be parameterized if no parameters are defined. (issue 37590)
• Don't add all group names as HTTP headers on "access denied" pages. (issue 39402)
• Ensure that PluginManager#dynamicLoad runs as SYSTEM. (issue 41684)
• Add Usage Statistics section to the global configuration to make it easier to find. (issue 32938)
• Allow groovy CLI command via SSH CLI. (issue 41765)

What is new in version 2.45:

• Delete obsolete pinning UI. (issue 34065)
• Don't try to set Agent Port when it is enforced, breaking form submission. (issue 41511)
• Use project-specific validation URL for SCM Trigger, so H is handled correctly in preview. (issue 26977)
• Fix completely wrong Basque translation. (pull 2731)

What is new in version 2.39:

• Properties were not passed to Maven command by Maven build step (issue 39268)
• Update remoting to 3.4 (issue 39835)

What is new in version 2.32:

• Important security fixes (security advisory)
• Allow disabling the Jenkins CLI over HTTP and JNLP agent port by setting the System property jenkins.CLI.disabled to true.

What is new in version 2.13:

• IllegalStateException under certain conditions when reloading configuration from disk while jobs are in the queue. (issue 27530
• Eliminate "dead executor" UI appearing after certain errors, such as JENKINS-27530. (PR 2440)

What is new in version 2.1:

What is new in version 2.0:

• New password-protected setup wizard shown on first run to guide users through installation of popular plugins and setting up an admin user. (issue 30749, issue 9598)
• Plugin bundling overhaul: Bundled plugins are only installed if necessary when upgrading, all plugins can be uninstalled. (issue 20617)
• Redesigned job configuration form makes it easier to understand the option hierarchy, and to navigate the form. (issue 32357)
• Richer 'Create Item' form with job icons and job categories (once a threshold of three categories has been reached). (issue 31162)
• Upgrade wizard encourages installation of Pipeline related plugins when upgrading from 1.x. (issue 33662)
• Jenkins now requires Servlet 3.1. Upgraded embedded Winstone-Jetty to Jetty 9 accordingly. This removes AJP support when using the embedded Winstone-Jetty container. (issue 23378)
• Bundled Groovy updated from 1.8.9 to 2.4.6. (issue 21249)
• Added option to prohibit anonymous access to security realm "Logged in users can do anything", enable by default. (issue 30749)
• Renamed 'slave' to 'agent' on the UI. (issue 27268)
• Improvements to inline documentation of numerous form fields in Jenkins global and job configuration. (issue 33364)
• Change default CSRF protection crumb name to Jenkins-Crumb for nginx compatibility. (issue 12875)
• Enforce correct icon size in list view. (issue 33799)
• CLI: Fixed NPE when non-existent run is requested. (issue 33942)

What is new in version 1.654:

• Improve logging and error message when JNLP is already in use. (issue 33453)
• NullPointerException from BuildTrigger$DescriptorImpl.doCheck when using Build other projects in Promotion process of a CloudBees template, and perhaps other circumstances. (issue 32525)
• Improved the Build Other Projects help message. (issue 32134)
• FutureImpl.cancel() doesn't cancel the linked job. (issue 33038)
• Reject malformed range syntax in fingerprints data. (issue 33037)
• Do not fail update center check if there are no tool installers defined. (issue 32831)
• Log otherwise unhandled exceptions when threads die. (issue 33395)
• Do not specifically require .NET framework 2.0 since 4.0 will do as well. (issue 21484)

What is new in version 1.651:

• Move periodic task log files from JENKINS_HOME/*.log to JENKINS_HOME/logs/tasks/*.log and rotate them periodically rather than overwrite every execution. (issue 33068)
• Fix documentation of proxy configuration. (pull 2060)

What is new in version 1.637:

• Remove useless warnings about a JDK named null. (issue 31217)
• New OptionalJobProperty class to simplify JobProperty creation. (pull 1888)

What is new in version 1.630:

• Make JenkinsRule useable on systems which don't support JNA (issue 29507)

What is new in version 1.620:

• Display system info even when slave is temporarily offline. (issue 29300)

What is new in version 1.616:

• Job loading can be broken by NullPointerException in a build trigger (issue 27549)

What is new in version 1.612:

• Handle AbortException publisher status in the same way as deprecated false boolean status (issue 26964)
• Ensures GlobalSettingsProvider does not swallow fatal exceptions (issue 26604)
• add datestamp to node-offline message (issue 23917)
• Larger minimum popup menu height. (issue 27067)
• As promised, shipping with Java7 class files. (issue 28120)
• Descriptor.getId fix in 1.610 introduced regressions affecting at least the Performance and NodeJS plugins. (issue 28093 and issue 28110)
• Under rare conditions Executor.getProgress() can throw a Division by zero exception. (issue 28115)
• The Run from the command line option for launching a JNLP slave should display the configured JVM options. (issue 28111)

What is new in version 1.609:

• When concurrent builds are enabled, artifact retention policy may delete artifact being used by an actually running build. (issue 27836)
• Documentation for $BUILD_ID did not reflect current reality (issue 26520)

What is new in version 1.599:

• Errors in some Maven builds since 1.598. (issue 26601)
• Build format change migrator in 1.597 did not work on some Windows systems. (issue 26519)
• Remote FilePath.chmod fails with ClassNotFoundException: javax.servlet.ServletException. (issue 26476)
• Added SimpleBuildWrapper API. (issue 24673)
• Animated ball in job's build history widget won't open Console Output. (issue 26365)
• Show job name in Schedule Build column tool tip. (issue 25234)
• Allow OldDataMonitor to discard promoted-build-plugin Promotions (issue 26718)

What is new in version 1.598:

• Build format change migrator in 1.597 did not work on some Windows systems. (issue 26519)
• FutureImpl does not cancel its start future. (issue 25514)
• Flyweight tasks were under some conditions actually being run on heavyweight executors. (issue 10944) (issue 24519)
• Folder loading broken when child item loading throws exception. (issue 22811)
• Plugin icon images were broken when running Jenkins from a UNC path. (issue 26203)
• Allow admin signup from /manage as well. (issue 26382)
• Amend JAVA_HOME check to work with JDK 9. (issue 25601)
• CLI list-jobs command should display raw name, not display name, where they differ. (issue 25338)
• Show queue item parameters in tool tip. (issue 22311)
• Better support functional tests from Gradle-based plugins. (issue 26331)
• Allow users to delete builds even if they are supposed to be kept. (issue 26281)
• Fixed side/main panel scrolling issues. (issue 26312, issue 26298, issue 26306)
• Improve error reporting when channel closed during build. (issue 26411)
• Fixed CodeMirror issue with height and re-enabled syntax highlighting in shell build step. (issue 25455, issue 23151)

What is new in version 1.597:

• JENKINS_HOME layout change: builds are now keyed by build numbers and not timestamps. See Wiki for details and downgrade. (issue 24380)
• Do not throw exception on /signup when not possible. (issue 11172)
• Tool installer which downloads and unpacks archives should not fail the build if the tool already exists and the server returns an error code. (issue 26196)
• Fingerprint compaction aggravated lazy-loading performance issues. (issue 19392)
• Possible unreleased workspace lock if SCM polling fails during setup. (issue 26201)
• Misleading description of the 'workspace' permission. (issue 20148)
• Run parameters should show display name if set, rather than build numbers. (issue 25174)
• Add range check for H(X-Y) syntax. (issue 25897)

What is new in version 1.596:

• Build page was broken in Hungarian localization while building. (issue 26155)
• Allow breaking label and node lists. (issue 25989)

What is new in version 1.595:

• Spurious warnings in the log after deleting builds. (issue 25788)
• Master labels disappear when system configuration is updated. (issue 23966)
• Updated icon-set dependency to version 1.0.5. (issue 25499, issue 25498)

What is new in version 1.594:

• After recent Java security updates, Jenkins would not gracefully recover from a deleted secrets/master.key. (issue 25937)
• Restrict where this project can be run regressed in 1.589 when using the ClearCase plugin. (issue 25533)

What is new in version 1.593:

• Dynamic Single/Multi line Build History layout. (issue 25381, issue 25393, issue 24687, issue 24589)

What is new in version 1.590:

• Basic Authentication in combination with Session is broken (issue 25144)
• Some plugins broken since 1.584 if they expected certain events to be fired under a specific user ID. (issue 25400)
• Fixed various real or potential resource leaks discovered by Coverity Scan (pull request 1434)
• API changes: Expose AbstractProject.AbstractProjectDescriptor#validateLabelExpression for plugins. (pull request 1456)
• API method to aggregate multiple FormValidations into one. (pull request 1458)
• Always use forward slashes in path separators during in ZIP archives generated by Directory Browser (issue 22514)
• API method to get non-null Jenkins instance with internal validation (issue 23339)

What is new in version 1.589:

• JNA error in WindowsInstallerLink.doDoInstall. (issue 25358)
• Restore compatibility of label assignment for some plugins. (issue 25372)

What is new in version 1.588:

• JNA error in WindowsInstallerLink.doDoInstall. (issue 25358)
• Unnecessarily slow startup time with a massive number of jobs. (pull request 1439)
• Custom workspace option did not work under some conditions. (issue 25221)

What is new in version 1.586:

• Bumping up JNA to 4.10. This is potentially a breaking change for plugins that depend on JNA 3.x (issue 24521)
• Prevent empty file creation if file parameter is left empty. (issue 3539)
• Servlet containers may refuse to let us set secure cookie flag. Deal with it gracefully. (issue 25019)
• Existing FileParameters should be handled as different values to avoid merging of queued builds (issue 19017)

What is new in version 1.583:

• Fixes to multiple security vulnerabilities. (security advisory)
• Diagnostic thread names are now available while requests are still in filters
• When killing Windows processes, check its critical flag to avoid BSoD (issue 24453)
• When a user could not see a view, but could delete/move/rename jobs contained in it, the view was not properly updated. (issue 22769)

What is new in version 1.552:

• Fixed handling of default JENKINS_HOME when storing CLI credentials (issue 21772)
• Fixed broken action links on Label page (issue 21778)
• Allow Actions to contribute to Labels' main page (issue 21777)
• Expensive symlink-related calls on Windows can be simplified. (issue 20534)
• Slow rendering of directories with many entries in remote workspaces. (issue 21780)

What is new in version 1.551:

• Valentine's day security release that contains more than a dozen security fixes. (security advisory)
• Regression in Windows slaves since 1.547. (issue 21373)
• Using java -jar jenkins-core.jar folder/external-monitor-job cmd ... did not work. (issue 21525)
• Jenkins crash on startup after upgrade from 1.546 to 1.548. (issue 21474)
• f:combobox is narrow. (issue 21612)
• The workspace cleanup thread failed to handle the modern workspace location on master, and mishandled folders. (issue 21023)
• Fixed missing help items on "Configure Global Security" page (issue 19832)
• Sort groups on user index page alphabetically. (issue 21673)
• Should not be able to create a job named . (period). (issue 21639)
• Plugins implementing "AsyncPeriodicWork" can overwrite default logging level (pull request #1115)
• Wrong log message for out-of-order build record repair. (issue 20730)
• Existing Fingerprint Action is reused and not added a second time. (issue 19832)
• TestObject doesn't replace '%' character (issue 21707)
• "java -jar jenkins.war" should use unique session cookie for users who run multiple Jenkins on the same host.

What is new in version 1.549:

• Removing the "keep this build forever" lock on a build should require the DELETE permission. (issue 16417)
• Files added to zip archive are closed properly. (issue 20345)
• Broken CSS when reloading Jenkins after a time of inactivity (issue 17526)
• Replace description in error dialog instead of appending (issue 21457)

What is new in version 1.548:

• API for adding actions to a wide class of model objects at once. (issue 18224)
• Added infrastructure for moving items into or out of folders. (issue 20008) (issue 18028) (issue 18680)
• Apply buttons did not work in Internet Explorer in compatibility mode. (issue 19826)
• Builds can seem to disappear from a job in a folder if that folder is renamed. (issue 18694)
• /login offers link to /opensearch.xml which anonymous users cannot retrieve. (issue 21254)
• Added API class SecurityListener to receive login events and similar. (issue 20999)
• Option to hold lazy-loaded build references strongly, weakly, and more. (issue 19400)

What is new in version 1.546:

• Builds disappear after renaming a job. (issue 18678)
• When clicking Apply to rename a job, tell the user that Save must be used instead. (issue 17401)
• Exception from XStream running Maven builds on strange Java versions. (issue 21183)
• When clicking Apply results in an exception (error page), show it, rather than creating an empty dialog. (issue 20772)