Those who are already familiar with Jenkins are well aware of the freestyle Jenkins job. The classic way of creating a pipeline in Jenkins is by using the freestyle job, wherein each CI stage is represented using a Jenkins job (freestyle).
The Jenkins freestyle job is a web-based, GUI-propelled configuration. Any modification to the CI pipeline requires you to log in to Jenkins and reconfigure each of the Jenkins freestyle jobs.
The concept of Pipeline as Code rethinks the way we create a CI pipeline. The idea is to write the whole CI/CD pipeline as a code that offers some level of programming and that can be version controlled.
The following are some of the advantages of taking the Pipeline as Code route:
- It's programmable
- All of your CI/CD pipeline configurations can be described using just a single file (Jenkinsfile)
- It's version controllable, just like any other code
- It comes with an option to define your pipeline using the Declarative Pipeline syntax, which is...