DevOps Beginner

What is Artifact?

A packaged, versioned output of a build process — such as a Docker image, JAR file, or compiled binary — ready for deployment.

Build artifacts are the deployable outputs of CI/CD pipelines. They are versioned, immutable, and stored in artifact repositories (Docker Hub, AWS ECR, Nexus, Artifactory, GitHub Packages). A single artifact is built once and promoted through environments (dev to staging to production) ensuring consistency. Artifacts include Docker images, language-specific packages (JAR, wheel, gem), compiled binaries, and infrastructure templates. Proper artifact management with version tagging, retention policies, and vulnerability scanning is essential for reliable software delivery.

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A lightweight virtualization method that packages applications with their dependencies into isolated, portable containers.

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A Kubernetes object for storing sensitive data like passwords, tokens, and certificates, with base64 encoding and optional encryption at rest.

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An open-source automation server for building, testing, and deploying software through configurable CI/CD pipelines.

Semantic Versioning

A versioning scheme using MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH numbers that communicates the nature of changes in each release.

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