Continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) is a set of tools and practices that enable software developers to quickly and reliably build, test, and deploy code changes. It is a key component of DevOps and Agile software development processes.
Continuous integration (CI) is the practice of merging code changes from multiple developers into a single codebase regularly. This process is typically automated and triggered when developers commit changes to a source code repository. Automated tests are then used to verify that the code changes do not break existing functionality.
Continuous delivery (CD) is the practice of automating the deployment of code changes to production systems. This process typically involves creating a release package, running automated tests against it, and then deploying the package to production systems.
CI/CD is a combination of CI and CD practices. It is designed to enable rapid and reliable software development by automating the process of building, testing, and deploying code changes. It also helps to ensure that code changes are tested and deployed to production systems in a consistent and reliable manner.
CI/CD typically involves the following steps:
An example of a CI/CD process is as follows:
The main benefits of CI/CD are:
The main drawbacks of CI/CD are:
CI/CD is closely related to other DevOps and Agile software development practices, such as:
CI/CD is an essential part of modern software development, and is becoming increasingly popular as organizations strive to become more agile and responsive to customer needs. It is also becoming increasingly important as organizations move towards cloud-native architectures and microservices-based architectures.