GitLab is a complete DevOps platform that provides tools for code management, CI/CD and collaboration.

What is GitLab?

GitLab is a DevOps platform that integrates code management, CI/CD, monitoring and collaboration in a single solution.

Main Features

Code Management

  • Git: Git version control
  • Repositories: Repository management
  • Branches: Branch management
  • Merge Requests: Merge requests

CI/CD

  • Pipelines: CI/CD pipelines
  • Jobs: Automated jobs
  • Stages: Pipeline stages
  • Artifacts: Build artifacts

Collaboration

  • Issues: Issue management
  • Milestones: Project milestones
  • Wiki: Documentation
  • Discussions: Discussions

Components

Git

  • Repositories: Git repositories
  • Branches: Development branches
  • Tags: Version tags
  • Hooks: Git hooks

CI/CD

  • GitLab CI: CI/CD system
  • Runners: CI/CD runners
  • Variables: Environment variables
  • Secrets: Secret management

Monitoring

  • Metrics: Application metrics
  • Logs: Log analysis
  • Tracing: Distributed tracing
  • Alerting: Alert system

Configuration

GitLab CI

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# .gitlab-ci.yml
stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - npm install
    - npm run build
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - dist/

test:
  stage: test
  script:
    - npm run test
  coverage: '/Lines\s*:\s*(\d+\.\d+)%/'

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - npm run deploy
  only:
    - main

Variables

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# Environment variables
variables:
  NODE_VERSION: "16"
  NPM_CONFIG_CACHE: "$CI_PROJECT_DIR/.npm"
  NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION: "false"

# Secret variables
variables:
  DATABASE_URL: $DATABASE_URL
  API_KEY: $API_KEY

Use Cases

Development

  • Code management: Version control
  • Collaboration: Team collaboration
  • Code Review: Code review
  • Documentation: Project documentation

CI/CD

  • Build: Automated builds
  • Testing: Automated testing
  • Deployment: Automated deployment
  • Monitoring: Application monitoring

DevOps

  • Infrastructure: Infrastructure management
  • Security: Application security
  • Compliance: Regulatory compliance
  • Audit: Code audits

Best Practices

Code

  • Commits: Descriptive commits
  • Branches: Branch strategy
  • Code Review: Code review
  • Documentation: Updated documentation

CI/CD

  • Pipelines: Efficient pipelines
  • Testing: Exhaustive testing
  • Security: Security in CI/CD
  • Monitoring: Pipeline monitoring

Collaboration

  • Issues: Issue management
  • Milestones: Milestone planning
  • Communication: Effective communication
  • Knowledge: Knowledge management

References