CI/CD
Definition
CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment. It is a cornerstone of modern DevOps. Continuous Integration is the practice of merging all developer working copies to a shared mainline several times a day. Continuous Delivery is the practice of automatically deploying all code changes to a testing and/or production environment after the build stage.
Why It Matters
CI/CD automates the software release process, making it faster and more reliable. It allows teams to build, test, and release software with greater speed and frequency, and reduces the risk of human error.
Contextual Example
A developer pushes a code change to a Git repository. This automatically triggers a CI server, which runs all the automated tests. If the tests pass, the CD process automatically deploys the new version of the application to the cloud.
Common Misunderstandings
- Continuous Delivery means the code is always ready to be deployed, but a human must approve the final deployment to production. Continuous Deployment means the code is automatically deployed to production if it passes all tests, with no human intervention.
- A CI/CD pipeline is the set of automated steps that your code goes through to get from your machine to production.