Jenkins build pipeline template for C++ project

Features
Jenkins pipeline overview
Setup
Usage
Todo
Credits

Features

• CMake-based Qt6/C++17 project
• Semantic Versioning (version.txt)
• Cross-compilation (x64 Linux and Windows via MinGW-w64), multi-configurations (debug and release) builds
• Static analysis and runtime memory check
• Unit and functional testing
• Dockerized builds
• Git pre-commit hook
• GitHub hook build triggers (via smee.io)
• Desktop notifications (just use CatLight)

Jenkins pipeline overview

1. Buildsystem generation (CMake)
2. Static code analysis (Cppcheck)
3. Build (g++)
4. Sanity check (Valgrind's memcheck)
5. Unit tests and coverage (CTest)
6. Functional tests (Robot Framework)
7. Artifacts packaging

Setup

All commands/scripts must be run from repository's root directory.

Requirements

• Linux
• Jenkins
• Docker (optional, for dockerized builds)
• g++, CMake
• MinGW-w64 + runtime environment for gcc and Wine64
• Cppcheck, Valgrind, Clang-Tidy (for analysis)
• Python3, pip and venv module (for Robot Framework)

See docker/Dockerfile for a complete list of required packages (Debian-based distros).

Jenkins plugins used

• Git
• Build Name and Description Setter
• Robot Framework
• Workspace Cleanup
• Multibranch Scan Webhook Trigger
• CatLight Notification

Docker setup

• Build (builds Qt from sources and setups build environment):

$ docker build --progress=plain -t tarikbelabbas/jenkins_agent -f docker/Dockerfile .

• Test (interactive shell):

$ docker run -it --mount type=bind,source=${PWD},target=/home/jenkins/test_ci_cd --rm tarikbelabbas/jenkins_agent bash

• Cleanup:

$ docker system prune -a -f
$ docker builder prune

Usage

Pipeline script (for manual builds)

• Linux build:

$ scripts/pipeline.sh --platform linux --build-type debug --qt-target-path /home/jenkins/qt_install_linux/ all

• Windows (cross-compilation) build:

$ scripts/pipeline.sh --platform windows --build-type debug --qt-target-path /home/jenkins/qt_install_windows/ --qt-host-path /home/jenkins/qt_install_linux/ all

Other scripts

• Install Git pre-commit hook:

$ scripts/install_pre_commit_hook.sh

• Transfer GitHub webhooks via smee to local Jenkins (port 8080):

$ scripts/smee.sh <smee-id>

Todo

• update-binfmts not working
• windows dynamic linking/library search path/windeployqt shenanigans
• max warning + warnings as error
• use clang
• other static analyzers: clang-tidy, clazy (qt-oriented analyzer)
• code formatting: clang-format, cpplint
• dependency (like catch2) management via conan?
• separate debug symbols? (+ generate symbols in release too)
• JCasC (Jenkins Configuration as Code)?
• git checkout only once (for both debug and release)
• track and monitor build times
• check if plugins exists (robot, etc.) before using them in jenkins pipeline?
• performance analysis and tracking
• refactor scripts/install.sh into a --install pipeline option
• add port argument to smee script
• c++ 20/23

Credits

• Robot Framework real world example in C / C++ sample project by Paran Lee (Apache-2.0 license)
• GitVersion CMake script for getting version from git by Amin Khozaei (no license)
• cmake toolchain file for mingw-w64 x86_64 builds on Ubuntu by Peter Spackman (no license)