Is there a way to keep Hudson / Jenkins configuration files in source control?

Question

I am new to Hudson / Jenkins and was wondering if there is a way to check in Hudson\'s configuration files to source control.

Ideally I want to be able to click some

Answer 1

You can find configuration files in Jenkins home folder (e.g. /var/lib/jenkins).

To keep them in VCS, first login as Jenkins (sudo su - jenkins) and create its git credentials:

git config --global user.name "Jenkins"
git config --global user.email "jenkins@example.com"

Then initialize, add and commit the basic files such as:

git init
git add config.xml jobs/ .gitconfig
git commit -m'Adds Jenkins config files' -a

also consider creating .gitignore with the following files to ignore (customize as needed):

# Git untracked files to ignore.

# Cache.
.cache/

# Fingerprint records.
fingerprints/

# Working directories.
workspace/

# Secret files.
secrets/
secret.*
*.enc
*.key
users/
id_rsa

# Plugins.
plugins/

# State files.
*.state

# Job state files.
builds/
lastStable
lastSuccessful
nextBuildNumber

# Updates.
updates/

# Hidden files.
.*
# Except git config files.
!.git*
!.ssh/

# User content.
userContent/

# Log files.
logs/
*.log

# Miscellaneous litter
*.tmp
*.old
*.bak
*.jar
*.json
*.lastExecVersion

Then add it: git add .gitignore.

When done, you can add job config files, e.g.

shopt -s globstar
git add **/config.xml
git commit -m'Added job config files' -a

Finally add and commit any other files if needed, then push it to the remote repository where you want to keep the config files.

---

When Jenkins files are updated, you need to reload them (Reload Configuration from Disk) or run reload-configuration from Jenkins CLI.