Why yet another plugin?
I wanted to use the Gerrit CI validation workflow with potentially any project, including Gerrit plugins or anybody else wanting to adopt it.
I could just "copy & paste" our Groovy workflow, however, that does not seem a sensible and long-term approach.
I wanted to have "something more" than a pure triggering mechanism: I wanted to extend the power of Jenkisfile with the Gerrit review workflow verbs.
Why not?
Why should I write yet another Gerrit/Jenkins plugin? Isn't Gerrit Trigger Plugin (https://wiki.jenkins.io/display/JENKINS/Gerrit+Trigger) enough?
We couldn't use it against gerrit-review.googlesource.com because stream events are just not accessible.
There are unresolved issues about:
- Stability
stream-events are based on SSH, which isn't scalable or reliable against downtime, doesn't allow smart Git routing - Complex configuration
requires a node-level and project-level configuration, which is orthogonal to the Jenkinsfile pipeline - Integration
using it inside a Jenkinsfile isn't that straightforward and multi-branch projects aren't supported either
Why a new name?
The new name "Gerrit Code Review Plugin" indicates Gerrit as the first-class citizen of the Jenkins ecosystem, and not just as an "extra triggering or validation" logic of a Jenkins job.
Jenkinsfile / Scripted pipeline example, with Gerrit Code Review integration:
node {
checkout scm
try {
stage('Hello') {
echo 'Hello World'
}
gerritReview score:1
} catch (e) {
gerritReview score:-1
throw e
}
}
Jenkinsfile / Declarative pipeline example, with Gerrit Code Review integration:
pipeline {
agent any
stages {
stage('Example') {
steps {
echo 'Hello World'
}
}
}
post {
success { gerritReview score:1 }
failure { gerritReview score:-1 }
}
}
One key aspect will be: stateless, configuration-less apart the standard SCM configuration settings.
That means that multiple Jobs, multiple branches of the same Job, can have their own Gerrit integration defined and working out-of-the-box.
No more people asking "how do I configure the Gerrit integration"? it will just work.
General Availability
I have presented the first prototype of this new plugin at the Jenkins World Conference in San Francisco back in 2017 inside my "Data-Driven Pipeline workshop."
(https://jenkinsworld20162017.sched.com/event/APTd/data-driven-pipeline-workshop-free)
The first version was published and available in the Jenkins Plugin Registry since April 2018 and has been used so far by hundreds of developers around the world that provided already very useful feedback and started contributing with pull-requests.
Release Notes and RoadMap
See below the roadmap I have envisaged for this plugin. However, I do follow a fully Agile approach where it is really the user that drives the development of the product, rather than a project plan.
The roadmap below can then change based on what are your needs and the adoption by the community.
v1.0 - Planned
Highlights
First fully functional release of the Gerrit Code Review integration that can be functionally equivalent to the historical Gerrit Trigger Plugin but with a focus on Jenkinsfile pipelines.
v0.7 - Planned
Highlights
Support for internal networks where any calls outside the Jenkins node can be made via Proxy servers.
v0.6 - Planned
Highlights
Support for builds against Gerrit replicas, where API for review feedback can be different from the one used for fetching the changes.
The challenge of this release is how to automatically discover the upstream Gerrit node purely based on the fetch URL.
v0.5 - Planned
Highlights
Introduction of the Git/SSH protocol support and use for review feedback.
v0.4 - Planned
Highlights
Support for BlueOcean, including change description, hyperlink and owner visible from Jenkins UI.
v0.3.4 - Released - 10 October 2019
New features:
- 40a5144 Set automatically change details to build environment variables, align with the Gerrit Trigger Plugin variables names
- JENKINS-54722 Generate the standard change hyperlink to the original Gerrit change that triggered a build
Fixes:
- e6c56b7 Running web hook as System ACL
v0.3.3 - Released - 8 March 2019
Fixes:
- JENKINS-5479 Fix exception thrown when trying to parse unhandled events
7d31723 Allow for remote URLs containing .git when matching webhook project events
4ee2b3f Log user account who posted the webhook
520c932 Fix processing WebHooks POST with unknown body length
v0.3.2 - Released - 3 November 2018
Fixes
- JENKINS-54432 Restore normal behaviour when using Gerrit as anonymous SCM source
v0.3.1 - Released - 29 October 2018
Highlights
Integration of the support for Gerrit in conjunction with the Gerrit Trigger Plugin and single branch pipelines. Improvements on the support for Gerrit API with the introduction of multiple labels in a single review.
Features
- eea176e Support for multiple labels in a single `gerritReview` step invocation
- 8a9d947 Support for integration with the Gerrit Trigger Plugin
- 427c0fc Remove the support for deprecated `GerritDSL` style invocation (e.g. `gerrit.review` step)
Fixes
- JENKINS-54224 restapi: cleanup restapi usage
v0.2.1 - Released - 27 October 2018
Highlights
Bug-fix release from feedback and contributions of the adopters of the v0.2 release.
Fixes
3359ba3 - Amendements to the documentation to explain the first-time setup
e320d18 - Allow feedback to an open change without changing current score / label
fc0bc91 - Restapi: allow the use of remote Gerrit server with non-root prefix
JENKINS-54214 - Avoid NPE when credentials are not provided
JENKINS-54212 - Fix detection of project name with refupdate
v0.2 - Released - 23 October 2018
Highlights
Many bug fixes thanks to the initial adoption in real life use-cases. Improvement of the compliance of the plugin with the rest of the ecosystem of Jenkinsfile steps.
One major addition is the support for Jenkins Declarative Pipelines and the deprecation of the old DSL-based integration, which was not compatible with the way plugins should be written and integrated with the rest of the CPS scripts and pipelines.
Features
- JENKINS-54070 - Support for Jenkinsfile declarative pipelines
- JENKINS-50783 - Support for file-based comments from Jenkinsfile steps
Fixes
- JENKINS-49695 - Could not fetch branches from source while using Discover open changes
- JENKINS-50930 - Multibranch fails if gerrit lives at a subdirectory
- JENKINS-49983 - NullPointerException from gerrit plugin due to lack of configuration
- JENKINS-49985 - hudson.remoting.ProxyException: org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.typehandling.GroovyCastException
- JENKINS-49713 - gerrit-plugin exposes change-requests as normal branches instead of pull-requests
- JENKINS-49692 - Could not update folder level actions from source
v0.1.1 - Released - 4 April 2018
Initial version of the Gerrit Code Review plugin for Jenkins CI, with support for the scripted pipeline with DSL.
What about the Gerrit Trigger Plugin?
The new plugin is not going to replace the current Gerrit Trigger Plugin, but would rather represent an alternative to simpler scenarios when you just require a standard Jenkinsfile Gerrit validation workflow. For all the current users of the Gerrit Trigger Plugin things wouldn't change, unless they need a more Jenkisfile-integrated experience.
Issues
Below you can see a list of open issues related to the gerrit-plugin which are not resolved yet.