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Creating a Job ​

General Steps to Create a Job ​

Create a new "item" (which is what Jenkins calls a job) and giving it a name and type.

  1. From the Jenkins dashboard, click New Item in the top-left corner.

  2. Enter a name for your job (e.g., my-github-project or my-local-build).

  3. Select Freestyle project. This is a good, all-purpose job type for basic tasks.

  4. Click OK. You will be taken to the job's configuration page.

Specific instructions below can be followd for either GitHub or a local repository.

1. Configure Job for a GitHub Repository ​

This is the most common method. Jenkins will clone the repository from GitHub.com.

  1. Go to Source Code Management: On the configuration page, scroll down to the Source Code Management section.

  2. Select Git: Click on Git.

  3. Enter Repository URL: In the Repository URL field, paste the HTTPS or SSH URL of your GitHub repository (e.g., https://github.com/your-username/your-repo.git).

  4. Add Credentials (if private):

    • If your repository is private, you'll need to add credentials.

    • Click the Add button next to the Credentials dropdown.

    • Select Jenkins as the provider.

    • Choose the Kind of credential:

      • Username with password: Use your GitHub username and a Personal Access Token (PAT) as the password. (Using actual password often won't work).

      • SSH Username with private key: Use this if you've set up SSH keys between your Jenkins server and GitHub.

    • Enter the details, give it an ID (e.g., github-credentials), and click Add.

    • Select your new credentials from the dropdown.

  5. Specify Branch: In the Branches to build section, specify which branch to build ( */main).

  6. Add Build Steps: Scroll down to the Build Steps section.

    • Click Add build step and choose what you want Jenkins to do (e.g., Execute shell to run a script like npm install && npm test, or Invoke Ant/Maven/Gradle script).

  7. Save: Click Save at the bottom of the page.

To run it, go to the job's page and click Build Now.

2. Configure Job for a Local Directory ​

This method tells Jenkins to pull code from a folder that is already on the same machine (the Jenkins server or agent) where the job will run.

NOTE

This is less common and generally not recommended for team environments, as it's harder to manage. It's usually better to push your local code to a Git server (like GitHub, GitLab, or Gitea) first.

  1. Go to Source Code Management: On the configuration page, scroll down to the Source Code Management section.

  2. Select Git: Click on Git.

  3. Enter Repository URL: In the Repository URL field, enter the file path to your local .git repository using the file:// protocol.

    • On Linux/macOS: file:///path/to/your/local/repo (Note the three slashes)

    • On Windows: file://C:/path/to/your/local/repo

  4. Specify Branch: In the Branches to build section, specify the local branch you want to build (e.g., */main).

  5. Add Build Steps: Scroll down to the Build Steps section and add your steps (e.g., Execute shell).

  6. Save: Click Save.

Possible Security Error:

For security reasons, Jenkins blocks local repository access by default. If your build fails with an error like local-checkout-is-not-allowed, you must start your Jenkins server with a special Java system property:

java -Dhudson.plugins.git.GitSCM.ALLOW_LOCAL_CHECKOUT=true -jar jenkins.war

You'll need to modify your Jenkins service's startup configuration to add this flag.