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I Still Like Jenkins

6 points by hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago

immibis2 6mo ago
A GUI that lists all the available options is much more user-friendly than a YAML configuration file where you have to guess them or pore over documentation before starting, but even Jenkinsfile syntax looks better than YAML, and Groovy is a real (edit: realer) language that, in theory, can have things like syntax highlighting and auto-completion.
- yepyoukno 6mo ago
  Ugh! I knew someone would try to say groovy was a real language. I miss the good old days with bash scripts and cron. Why must so many diverging environments and tools mingle in our mental space.
  - hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago
    You can always just split the difference and call your shell script with sh "./whatever.sh"` if you want in a modern Jenkinsfile. It's really not that big of a deal to avoid Groovy if you truly cannot stand it. As for cron, that's also supported out of the box. triggers { cron('0 0 * * *') } At that point Jenkins is mostly acting as a nice frontend to all those cronjobs and shell scripts, but at least it keeps records of all the logs etc.
    - yepyoukno 6mo ago
      Oh brother don’t think I don’t know how to “work around” anyone else’s favorite tool. I guess I should be happy it isn’t CA Unicenter.
      - hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago
        See it how you wish; but shell script execution was part of Jenkins from day 1, to my knowledge, over 20 years ago now. It's a 'workaround' the same way walking upstairs is a workaround for an escalator, imo.
        yepyoukno 6mo ago
        Oh I know it! I was slighting Groovy when the old fashion way always worked just fine! Didn’t mean to draw it out as “one of those” battles. Cheers!
    - tomkarho 6mo ago
      It's all fun and shells until you start adding parameters especially when those parameters have quotemarks in them. Groovy can get pretty wild with the syntax.
pestatije 6mo ago
cant read those snippets... need more contrast
- hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago
  apologies, didn't test the layout on light mode - thanks for letting me know
mmarian 5mo ago
I miss Jenkins too. A lot more flexible compared to GitHub Actions. Also addresses the supply chain attack vector we've seeing recently, by design. You don't pull external dependencies on every CI/CD invocation; they're installed once, on the server. Realised this when I was writing my post on what you have to do to replicate this in a makeshift way in GitHub Actions: https://developerwithacat.com/blog/202604/github-actions-supply-chain-commit/ https://developerwithacat.com/blog/202604/github-actions-sup...

6 points by hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago

A GUI that lists all the available options is much more user-friendly than a YAML configuration file where you have to guess them or pore over documentation before starting, but even Jenkinsfile syntax looks better than YAML, and Groovy is a real (edit: realer) language that, in theory, can have things like syntax highlighting and auto-completion.

yepyoukno 6mo ago
Ugh! I knew someone would try to say groovy was a real language. I miss the good old days with bash scripts and cron. Why must so many diverging environments and tools mingle in our mental space.
- hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago
  You can always just split the difference and call your shell script with sh "./whatever.sh"` if you want in a modern Jenkinsfile. It's really not that big of a deal to avoid Groovy if you truly cannot stand it. As for cron, that's also supported out of the box. triggers { cron('0 0 * * *') } At that point Jenkins is mostly acting as a nice frontend to all those cronjobs and shell scripts, but at least it keeps records of all the logs etc.
  - yepyoukno 6mo ago
    Oh brother don’t think I don’t know how to “work around” anyone else’s favorite tool. I guess I should be happy it isn’t CA Unicenter.
    - hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago
      See it how you wish; but shell script execution was part of Jenkins from day 1, to my knowledge, over 20 years ago now. It's a 'workaround' the same way walking upstairs is a workaround for an escalator, imo.
      - yepyoukno 6mo ago
        Oh I know it! I was slighting Groovy when the old fashion way always worked just fine! Didn’t mean to draw it out as “one of those” battles. Cheers!
  - tomkarho 6mo ago
    It's all fun and shells until you start adding parameters especially when those parameters have quotemarks in them. Groovy can get pretty wild with the syntax.

pestatije 6mo ago

cant read those snippets... need more contrast

hiAndrewQuinn 6mo ago
apologies, didn't test the layout on light mode - thanks for letting me know

mmarian 5mo ago

I miss Jenkins too. A lot more flexible compared to GitHub Actions. Also addresses the supply chain attack vector we've seeing recently, by design. You don't pull external dependencies on every CI/CD invocation; they're installed once, on the server. Realised this when I was writing my post on what you have to do to replicate this in a makeshift way in GitHub Actions: https://developerwithacat.com/blog/202604/github-actions-supply-chain-commit/ https://developerwithacat.com/blog/202604/github-actions-sup...