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DevOps Bootcamp - Build Tools and Package Manager Tools

Source: My personal notes from DevOps course by TechWorld with Nana

Introduction to Build Tools

Section titled “Introduction to Build Tools”
  • Use case:
    • An application after development needs to be deployed to where it will run
    • Package app into a single file, packaging will build the code (compile, compress)
    • Keep file to deploy later, like other environments, backup, and share with people = artifact repository, examples are Nexus, JFrog artifactory
  • Artifact look different depending on programming language
    • Examples:
      • Java - Java Archive (JAR), Web Archive (WAR) including code, dependencies

Install Build Tools

Section titled “Install Build Tools”

Build Artifact

Section titled “Build Artifact”
  • Use a build tool specific to the programming language
    • Install dependencies
    • Compile, compress code

About Tools

Section titled “About Tools”
  • Maven: uses XML
    • Use mvn install to build JAR file
    • See target folder
  • Gradle: uses Groovy
    • Use gradle build
    • See build, build/libs folders for artifacts

Build Tools for Development, Managing Dependencies

Section titled “Build Tools for Development, Managing Dependencies”
  • Build tools are needed locally when developing an app to get dependencies
  • Maven, Gradle have their dependencies file to manage them
    • Files:
      • Maven: pom.xml
      • Gradle: build.gradle
    • Both Maven and Gradle using the Maven repository
    • To add dependencies, search for the name/version you need and add to dependency file and use tool
    • The commands above will automatically get the dependencies
      • Dependencies stored in a local repository, like home folder

Run the Application

Section titled “Run the Application”
  • Use the artifact to run app
  • Example:
    • Java: java -jar <jar file location>

Build JavaScript (JS) Applications

Section titled “Build JavaScript (JS) Applications”
  • Artifact can be zip or tar file, but is just the code
  • Dependency / package tools, not build tools:
    • npm
      • npm install to get dependencies
      • Can use npm start, stop, public, test for local use
      • npm pack to compress code to tar file
    • yarn
    • Uses npm repository for dependencies
      • Search for package in repository to add
  • Both use package.json file to manage dependencies
  • Not as structured and standardized compared to Java

Running the app

Section titled “Running the app”
  • Copy zip/tar, package.json to server
  • Install dependencies

  1. Frontend and backend

    • Can package front and back ends separately or combined package with common package.json
    • In example repo, my-app and api can be separated
    • Frontend/React Code needs to be transpiled to allow browsers to understand it and compress/minified to improve app loading
      • JS, CSS files
      • Done by build tools/bundlers (e.g. webpack with React, webpack can be specified as a dependency)
      • Example: npm run build can use webpack to do packaging: transpiled, minified code
    • Best practice to use same tools for front and back end, package into WAR file

Common Concepts and Differences of Build Tools

Section titled “Common Concepts and Differences of Build Tools”
  • Concepts similar for other languages
    • Python: pip package manager
  • Patterns in other tools:
    • Dependency file: packages, versions
    • Repository for dependencies
    • Command line tool
    • Package managers: e.g. gradle, maven, npm, yarn, pip

Publish an Artifact

Section titled “Publish an Artifact”
  • Build tools can publish artifacts to a repository and server can retrieve it like with curl, wget
  • Push artifacts, pull from server

Build Tools and Docker

Section titled “Build Tools and Docker”

Docker gives these advantages:

  • No need to build and move different artifact types like JAR, WAR, Zip. Instead, use docker images from the applications
  • Just one repository type with Docker images - all items are in image - dependencies, code
  • Docker image can be a universal artifact, just need docker on server, not other binaries
    • Still need to build the apps

Example Dockerfile that gets code, installs dependencies, and runs app from: https://github.com/techworld-with-nana/react-nodejs-example/blob/master/Dockerfile

FROM node:10 AS ui-build
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY my-app/ ./my-app/
RUN cd my-app && npm install && npm run build


FROM node:10 AS server-build
WORKDIR /root/
COPY --from=ui-build /usr/src/app/my-app/build ./my-app/build
COPY api/package*.json ./api/
RUN cd api && npm install
COPY api/server.js ./api/


EXPOSE 3080


CMD ["node", "./api/server.js"]

Example Dockerfile that reuses existing artifact and runs app from: https://gitlab.com/twn-devops-bootcamp/latest/04-build-tools/java-app/-/blob/master/Dockerfile?ref_type=heads

FROM amazoncorretto:17-alpine-jdk


EXPOSE 8080


COPY ./build/libs/java-app-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar /usr/app
WORKDIR /usr/app


ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-jar", "java-app-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar"]

Build Tools for DevOps

Section titled “Build Tools for DevOps”

DevOps responsibilities:

  • Need to test locally by running the tools, verify
  • Understand build docker image, push to repository, run on server
    • Configure build automation tool, CICD pipeline
    • Install dependencies, run tests, build/bundle app, push to repo, run
      • Example:
        • Run tests: npm/yarn test, gardle/mvn test
        • Build and package into Docker image: docker build