CI stands for Continuous Integration, and CD stands for Continuous Delivery or Continuous Deployment.
CI/CD is an approach or set of practices used in software development to automate and streamline the process of building, testing, and delivering software.
Continuous Integration (CI)
CI focuses on the frequent integration of code changes from multiple developers into a shared repository.
Whenever a developer changes the code, these changes are automatically merged with the main codebase.
The CI system then builds the integrated code, runs automated tests, and provides feedback on the results.
This process helps identify and resolve conflicts or errors early on, ensuring that the codebase remains stable and functional.
Continuous Delivery (CD)
CD is the next step after continuous integration.
It involves automating the process of packaging, verifying, and delivering software to various environments, such as staging or production.
With continuous delivery, the software is always in a releasable state.
The goal is to have a reliable and repeatable process for deploying changes to any environment at any time, with minimal manual intervention.
Continuous Deployment (CD)
While continuous delivery focuses on preparing software for release, continuous deployment takes it a step further by automatically deploying the software to production environments.
This means that whenever changes pass through the continuous delivery pipeline and meet the necessary criteria (such as passing tests and meeting quality standards), they are automatically deployed to the live production environment, making the updated software immediately available to users.
Conclusion
In summary, CI/CD is an approach that automates the process of integrating, testing, and delivering software changes.
Continuous integration ensures that code changes from multiple developers are regularly merged and tested, maintaining code stability.
Continuous delivery focuses on automating the packaging and deployment of software to different environments, making it ready for release at any time.
Continuous deployment takes it even further by automatically deploying changes to the live production environment.
By adopting CI/CD practices, development teams can achieve faster, more reliable software releases, reduce errors, and increase efficiency in the software development lifecycle.
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