[Jenkins](https://jenkins.torproject.org/) is a Continuous Integration server that we used to build
websites and run tests from the [legacy git infrastructure](howto/git).

WARNING: Jenkins was retired at the end of 2021 and this documentation
is now outdated. It is kept for historical purposes.

[[_TOC_]]

# Tutorial

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<!-- no technical background -->

# How-to

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## Removing a job

To remove a job, you first need to build a list of currently available
jobs on the Jenkins server:

    sudo -u jenkins jenkins-jobs --conf /srv/jenkins.torproject.org//etc/jenkins_jobs.ini list -p /srv/jenkins.torproject.org/jobs > jobs-before

Then remove the job(s) from the YAML file (or the entire YAML file, if
the file ends up empty) from [jenkins/jobs.git][] and push the
result.

Then, regenerate a list of jobs:

    sudo -u jenkins jenkins-jobs --conf /srv/jenkins.torproject.org//etc/jenkins_jobs.ini list -p  /srv/jenkins.torproject.org/jobs > jobs-after

And generate the list of jobs that were removed:

    comm -23 jobs-before jobs-after

Then delete those jobs:

    comm -23 jobs-before jobs-after | while read job; do 
        sudo -u jenkins jenkins-jobs --conf /srv/jenkins.torproject.org//etc/jenkins_jobs.ini delete $job
    done

## Pager playbook

<!-- information about common errors from the monitoring system and -->
<!-- how to deal with them. this should be easy to follow: think of -->
<!-- your future self, in a stressful situation, tired and hungry. -->

## Disaster recovery

<!-- what to do if all goes to hell. e.g. restore from backups? -->
<!-- rebuild from scratch? not necessarily those procedures (e.g. see -->
<!-- "Installation" below but some pointers. -->

# Reference

## Installation

Jenkins is a Java application deployed through the [upstream Debian
package repository](http://pkg.jenkins-ci.org/debian-stable). The app listens on `localhost` and is proxied
by Apache, which handles TLS.

[Jenkins Job Builder][] is installed through the official [Debian
package](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/jenkins-job-builder).

Slaves are installed through the `debian_build_box` Puppet class and
must be added through the Jenkins web interface.

## SLA

Jenkins is currently "low availability": it doesn't have any
redundancy in the way it is deployed, and jobs are typically slow to
run.

## Design

Jenkins is mostly used to build websites but also run tests for
certain software project. Configuration and data used for websites and
test are stored in Git and, if published, generally pushed to the
[static site mirror system](howto/static-component).

This section aims at explaining how Jenkins works. The following
diagram should provide a graphical overview of the various components
in play. Note that the static site mirror system is somewhat elided
here, see the [architecture diagram there](howto/static-component#design) for a view from that
other end.

![Jenkins CI architecture diagram](jenkins/architecture.png)

What follows should explain the above in narrative form, with more
details.

### Jobs configuration

Jenkins is configured using [Jenkins Job Builder][] which is based a
set of YAML configuration files. In theory, job definitions are
usually written in a Java-based [Apache Groovy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Groovy) domain-specific
language, but in practice we only operate on the YAML files. Those
define "pipelines" which run multiple "jobs".

In our configuration, the YAML files are managed in the
[jenkins/jobs.git][] repository. When commits are pushed there, a
special hook on the git server (in
`/srv/git.torproject.org/git-helpers/post-receive-per-repo.d/project%jenkins%jobs/trigger-jenkins`)
kicks the `/srv/jenkins.torproject.org/bin/update` script on the
Jenkins server, over SSH, which, ultimately, runs:

[jenkins/jobs.git]: https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git

    jenkins-jobs --conf "$BASE"/etc/jenkins_jobs.ini update .

.. where the current directory is the root of `jenkins/jobs.git`
working tree.

This does depend on a `jenkins_jobs.ini` configuration file stored in
`"$BASE"/etc/jenkins_jobs.ini` (as stated above, which is really
`/srv/jenkins.torproject.org/etc/jenkins_jobs.ini`). That file has the
parameters to contact the Jenkins server, like username (`jenkins`),
password, and URL (`https://jenkins.torproject.org/`), so that the job
builder can talk to the API.

[Jenkins Job Builder]: https://docs.openstack.org/infra/jenkins-job-builder/

### Storage

Jenkins doesn't use a traditional (ie. SQL) database. Instead, data
like jobs, logs and so on are stored on disk in `/var/lib/jenkins/`,
inside XML, plain text logfiles, and other files.

Builders also have copies of various Debian and Ubuntu "chroots",
managed through the `schroot` program. Those chroots are managed
through the `debian_build_box` Puppet class, which setup the Jenkins
slave but also the various chroots.

In practice, new chroots are managed in the
`modules/debian_build_box/files/sbin/setup-all-dchroots` script, in
`tor-puppet.git`.

### Authentication

Jenkins authenticates against LDAP directly. That is configured in the
[configureSecurity](https://jenkins.torproject.org/configureSecurity/) admin panel. Administrators are granted access
by being in the `cn=Jenkins
Administrator,ou=users,dc=torproject,dc=org` `groupOfNames`.

But otherwise all users with an LDAP account can access the server and
run basic commands like trigger and cancel builds, look at their
workspace, and delete "Runs".

### Queues

Jenkins keeps a queue of jobs to be built by "slaves". Slaves are
build servers (generally named `build-$ARCH-$NN`, e.g. `build-arm-10`
or `build-x86-12`) which run Debian and generally run the configured
jobs in schroots.

The actual data model of the Jenkins job queue is visible in this
[hudson.model.Queue](https://javadoc.jenkins-ci.org/hudson/model/Queue.html) API documentation. The exact mode of operation
of the queue is not exactly clear.

### Triggering jobs

Jobs can get triggered in various ways (web hook, cron, other builds),
but in our environment, jobs are triggered through this hook, which
runs on every push:

    /srv/git.torproject.org/git-helpers/post-receive.d/xx-jenkins-trigger

That, in turns, runs this script:

    /home/git/jenkins-tools/gitserver/hook "$tmpfile" "https://git.torproject.org/$reponame"

... where `$tmpfile` has the list of revs updated in the push, and the
latter is the path to the HTTP URL of the git repository being
updated. 

The `hook` script is part of the [jenkins/tools.git](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/tools.git/) repository.

It depends on the `~git/.jenkins-config` file which defines the
`JENKINS_URL` variable, which itself includes the username (`git`),
password, and URL of the jenkins server.

It seems, however, that this URL is not actually used, so in effect,
the hook simply does a `curl` on the following URL, for each of the
rev defined in the `$tmpfile` above, and the `repo` passed as an
argument to the `hook` above:

    https://jenkins.torproject.org/git/notifyCommit?url=$repo&branches=$branch&sha1=$digest

In effect, this implies that the job queue can be triggered by anyone
having access to that HTTPS endpoint, which is everyone online. 

This also implies that *every* git repository triggers that
`notifyCommit` web hook. It's just that the hook is selective on which
repositories it accepts. Typically, it will refuse unknown
repositories with a message like:

```
No git jobs using repository: https://git.torproject.org/admin/tsa-misc.git and branches: master
No Git consumers using SCM API plugin for: https://git.torproject.org/admin/tsa-misc.git
```

Which comes straight out of the plain text output of the web hook.

### Job execution

The actual job configuration defines what happens next. But in
general, the `jenkins/tools.git` repository has a lot of common code
that gets ran in jobs. In practice, we generally copy-paste a bunch of
stuff until things work.

NOTE: this is obviously incomplete, but it might not be worth walking
through the entire `jenkins/tools.git` repository... A job generally
will run a command line:

    SUITE=buster ARCHITECTURE=amd64 /home/jenkins/jenkins-tools/slaves/linux/build-wrapper

... which then runs inside a `buster_amd64.tar.gz` chroot on the
builders. The `build-wrapper` takes care of unpacking the chroot and
find the right job script to run.

Scripts are generally the `build` command inside a directory, for
example Hugo websites are built with
[slaves/linux/hugo-website/build](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/tools.git/tree/slaves/linux/hugo-website/build), because the base name of the job
template is `hugo-website`.. The build ends up in
`RESULT/output.tar.gz`, which gets passed to the `install` job
(e.g. `hugo-website-$site-install`). That job then ships the files off
to the static source server for deployment.

See [the static mirror jenkins docs](howto/static-component#jenkins-build-jobs) for more information on how
static sites are built.

### Interfaces

Most of the work on Jenkins happens through the web interface, at
<https://jenkins.torproject.org> although most of the *configuration*
actually happens through git, see above.

### Repositories

To recapitulate, the following Git repositories configure Jenkins job
and how they operate:

 * [jenkins/tools.git](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/tools.git/): wrapper scripts and glue
 * [jenkins/jobs.git](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/): YAML job definitions for [Jenkins Job
   Builder][]

Also note the [build scripts](https://gitweb.torproject.org/admin/static-builds.git/) that are used to build static
websites, as explained in the [static site mirroring
documentation](howto/static-component).

## Issues

There is no issue tracker specifically for this project, [File][] or
[search][] for issues in the [team issue tracker][search].

 [File]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/issues/new
 [search]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/tpa/team/-/issues

## Maintainer, users, and upstream

Peter Palfrader setup the Jenkins service and is the main service
admin.

Jenkins is an active project upstream, with regular releases. It was
originally created by Kohsuke Kawaguchi, who stepped away from the
project in 2020. It is a fork of Hudson, which was forked by Oracle,
who claimed a trademark on the name and consequently abandoned the
software, after donating it to the Eclipse foundation.

Jenkins is mostly written in Java, with about a million lines of code.

The Jenkins packages in Debian are not in a good shape: it was
[completely removed from Debian in 2016](https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=811522).

### Configured jobs

The following jobs are currently configured in [jenkins/jobs.git](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/):

 * [hugo-website.yaml](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/tree/hugo-website.yaml) - builds websites with [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/) and
   publishes them to the static mirror system. jobs based on this
   template:
   * hugo-website-research: builds <https://research.torproject.org/>
   * hugo-website-status: builds <https://status.torproject.org/> (see
     also [the status service](service/status)
 * [lektor-website.yaml](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/tree/lektor-website.yaml) - builds websites with [Lektor](https://www.getlektor.com/) and
   publishes them to the static mirror system. jobs based on this
   template:
   * lektor-website-community: <https://community.torproject.org>
   * lektor-website-donate: <https://donate.torproject.org>
   * lektor-website-gettor: <https://gettor.torproject.org>
   * lektor-website-newsletter: <https://newsletter.torproject.org>
   * lektor-website-styleguide: <https://styleguide.torproject.org>
   * lektor-website-support: <https://support.torproject.org>
   * lektor-website-torbrowser-manual: <https://tb-manual.torproject.org>
   * lektor-website-www: <https://www.torproject.org>
   * lektor-website-dev: code for the future developer portal
   * lektor-website-translation: this one is pecular and holds
     translations for the above websites, one branch per project,
     according to [the git repo](https://gitweb.torproject.org/translation.git/)
 * [onionperf-docs.yaml](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/tree/onionperf-docs.yaml): builds the [onionperf](https://gitweb.torproject.org/onionperf.git) documentation
   using [Sphinx](https://www.sphinx-doc.org/) and publishes them to the static mirror system
 * [stem.yaml](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/tree/stem.yaml): builds <https://stem.torproject.org/> and pushes to
   static
 * [tor-extra-libs-windows.yaml](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/tree/tor-extra-libs-windows.yaml): TBD
 * [tor.yaml](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/tree/tor.yaml): lots of jobs for the [core tor repository](https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git),
   notably builds:
   * `tor-ci-linux-$version-$variant`: various CI jobs (hardening,
     rust, basic CI, clang, fuzzing, windows, mingw, etc)
   * nightly debian package builds, shipped to
     <https://deb.torproject.org>
   * doxygen docs at <https://src-ref.docs.torproject.org>
 * [torsocks.yaml](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/tree/torsocks.yaml): runs CI for tor socks
 * [website.yaml](https://gitweb.torproject.org/project/jenkins/jobs.git/tree/website.yaml): old WebWML website build, deprecated

Another way to analyze this would be to group jobs by type:

 * critical website builds: www.torproject.org, gettor.tpo,
   donate.tpo, status.tpo, etc. mostly lektor builds, but also some
   hugo (status)
 * non-critical websites: mostly documentation sites: research.tpo,
   onionperf, stem, core tor API docs
 * Linux CI tests: mostly core tor tests, but also torsocks
 * Windows CI tests: some builds are done on Windows build boxes!
 * Debian package builds: core tor

### Users

From the above list, we can tentatively conclude the following teams
are actively using Jenkins:

 * **web team**: virtually all websites are built in Jenkins, and heavily
   depend on the static site mirror for proper performance
 * **network team**: the core tor project is also a heavy user of
   Jenkins, mostly to run tests and checks, but also producing some
   artefacts (Debian packages and documentation)
 * **TPA**: uses Jenkins to build the status website
 * **metrics team**: onionperf's documentation is built in Jenkins

## Monitoring and testing

Chroots are monitored for freshness by Nagios
(`dsa-check-dchroots-current`), but otherwise the service does not
have special monitoring.

## Logs and metrics

There are logs in `/var/log/jenkins/` but also in
`/var/lib/jenkins/logs` and probably elsewhere. Might be some PII like
usernames, IP addresses, email addresses, or public keys.

## Backups

No special provision is made for backing up the Jenkins server, since
it mostly uses plain text for storage.

## Other documentation

 * [Jenkins home page](https://www.jenkins.io/) and [user guide](https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/)
 * [Jenkins Job Builder][] documentation

# Discussion

## Overview

## Proposed Solution

See [TPA-RFC-10: Jenkins retirement](policy/tpa-rfc-10-jenkins-retirement).

## Cost

probably just labour.

## Alternatives considered

### GitLab CI

We have informally started using GitLab CI, just by virtue of
deploying [GitLab](howto/gitlab) in our infrastructure. It was just a matter of
time before someone hooked in some runners and, when they failed, turn
to us for help, which meant we actually deployed our own [GitLab CI
runners](service/ci).

Installing GitLab runners is somewhat easier than maintaining the
current Jenkins/buildbox infrastructure: it relies on Docker and
therefore outsources chroot management to Docker, at the cost of
security (although we could build, and allow only, our own images).

GitLab CI also has the advantage of being able to easily integrate
with GitLab pages, making it easier for people to build static
websites than the current combination of Jenkins and our [static sites
system](howto/static-component). See the [alternatives to the static site
system](static-component#Alternatives-considered) for more information.

### static site building

We currently use Jenkins to build some websites and push them to the
static mirror infrastructure, as documented above. To use GitLab CI
here, there are a few alternatives.

 1. trigger Jenkins jobs from GitLab CI: there is [a GitLab plugin to
    trigger Jenkins jobs](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/integration/jenkins.html), but that doesn't actually replace
    Jenkins
 2. replace Jenkins by replicating the `ssh` pipeline: this involves
    shipping the private SSH key as a [private environment
    variable](https://gitlab.torproject.org/help/ci/variables/README#custom-environment-variables) which then is used by the runner to send the file and
    trigger the build. this is seen as a too broad security issue
 3. replace Jenkins with a static source which would pull artifacts
    from GitLab when triggered by a new web hook server
 4. replace Jenkins with a static source running directly on GitLab
    and triggered by something to be defined (maybe a new web hook
    server as well, point is to skip pulling artifacts from GitLab)

The web hook, in particular, would run on "jobs" changes, and would
perform the following:

 1. run as a (Python? [WSGI](https://docs.python.org/3/library/wsgiref.html#module-wsgiref.simple_server)?) web server (wrapped by Apache?)
 2. listen to [webhooks from GitLab](https://gitlab.torproject.org/help/user/project/integrations/webhooks#pipeline-events), and only GitLab (ip allow list, in Apache?)
 3. map given project to given static site component (or secret token?)
 4. pull artifacts from job (do the equivalent to `wget` and
    `unzip`) -- or just run on the GitLab server directly
 5. `rsync -c` into a local static source, to avoid resetting
    timestamps
 6. triggers `static-update-component`

This would mean a new service, but would allow us to retire Jenkins
without rearchitecturing the entire static mirroring system.

UPDATE: the above design was expanded in [the static component
documentation](howto/static-component#replacing-jenkins-with-gitlab-ci-as-a-builder).
