Glossary

Table of Contents

General Terms

Agent

An agent is typically a machine, or container, which connects to a Jenkins master and executes tasks when directed by the master.

Artifact

An immutable file generated during a Build or Pipeline run which is archived onto the Jenkins Master for later retrieval by users.

Build

Result of a single execution of a Project

Cloud

A System Configuration which provides dynamic Agent provisioning and allocation, such as that provided by the Azure VM Agents or Amazon EC2 plugins.

Core

The primary Jenkins application (jenkins.war) which provides the basic web UI, configuration, and foundation upon which Plugins can be built.

Downstream

A configured Pipeline or Project which is triggered as part of the execution of a separate Pipeline or Project.

Executor

A slot for execution of work defined by a Pipeline or Project on a Node. A Node may have zero or more Executors configured which corresponds to how many concurrent Projects or Pipelines are able to execute on that Node.

Fingerprint

A hash considered globally unique to track the usage of an Artifact or other entity across multiple Pipelines or Projects.

Folder

An organizational container for Pipelines and/or Projects, similar to folders on a file system.

Item

An entity in the web UI corresponding to either a: Folder, Pipeline, or Project.

Job

A deprecated term, synonymous with Project.

Label

User-defined text for grouping Agents, typically by similar functionality or capability. For example linux for Linux-based agents or docker for Docker-capable agents.

Master

The central, coordinating process which stores configuration, loads plugins, and renders the various user interfaces for Jenkins.

Node

A machine which is part of the Jenkins environment and capable of executing Pipelines or Projects. Both the Master and Agents are considered to be Nodes.

Project

A user-configured description of work which Jenkins should perform, such as building a piece of software, etc.

Pipeline

A user-defined model of a continuous delivery pipeline, for more read the Pipeline chapter in this handbook.

Plugin

An extension to Jenkins functionality provided separately from Jenkins Core.

Publisher

Part of a Build after the completion of all configured Steps which publishes reports, sends notifications, etc.

Stage

stage is part of Pipeline, and used for defining a conceptually distinct subset of the entire Pipeline, for example: "Build", "Test", and "Deploy", which is used by many plugins to visualize or present Jenkins Pipeline status/progress.

Step

A single task; fundamentally steps tell Jenkins what to do inside of a Pipeline or Project.

Trigger

A criteria for triggering a new Pipeline run or Build.

Update Center

Hosted inventory of plugins and plugin metadata to enable plugin installation from within Jenkins.

Upstream

A configured Pipeline or Project which triggers a separate Pipeline or Project as part of its execution.

Workspace

A disposable directory on the file system of a Node where work can be done by a Pipeline or Project. Workspaces are typically left in place after a Build or Pipeline run completes unless specific Workspace cleanup policies have been put in place on the Jenkins Master.



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