The Build Environment

Learn about the specialized build environment that Cloud Manager users to build and test your code.

Environment Details

Cloud Manager’s build environments have following attributes.

• The build environment is Linux-based, derived from Ubuntu 18.04.
• Apache Maven 3.8.8 is installed.
• The Java versions installed are Oracle JDK 8u371 and Oracle JDK 11.0.20.
  • /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_371
  • /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-11.0.20
• By default, the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_371 which contains Oracle JDK 8u371. See the section Alternate Maven Execution JDK Version section for more details.
• There are some additional system packages installed which are necessary.
  • bzip2
  • unzip
  • libpng
  • imagemagick
  • graphicsmagick
• Other packages may be installed at build time as described in the section Installing Additional System Packages.
• Every build is done on a pristine environment. The build container does not keep any state between executions.
• Maven is always run with these three commands:
  • mvn --batch-mode org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:3.1.2:resolve-plugins
  • mvn --batch-mode org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-clean-plugin:3.1.0:clean -Dmaven.clean.failOnError=false
  • mvn --batch-mode org.jacoco:jacoco-maven-plugin:prepare-agent package
• Maven is configured at a system level with a settings.xml file which automatically includes the public Adobe artifact repository using a profile named adobe-public.
  • Refer to the Adobe public Maven repository for more details.

Using a Specific Java Version

By default, projects are built by the Cloud Manager build process using the Oracle 8 JDK. Customers wishing to use an alternate JDK have two options.

• Maven Toolchains
• Selecting an alternate JDK version for the entire Maven execution process

Maven Toolchains

The Maven Toolchains plugin allows projects to select a specific JDK (or toolchain) to be used in the context of toolchains-aware Maven plugins. This is done in the project’s pom.xml file by specifying a vendor and version value. A sample section in the pom.xml file is:

        <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-toolchains-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.1</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <goals>
                <goal>toolchain</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
    <configuration>
        <toolchains>
            <jdk>
                <version>11</version>
                <vendor>oracle</vendor>
            </jdk>
        </toolchains>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

This will cause all toolchains-aware Maven plugins to use the Oracle JDK, version 11.

When using this method, Maven itself still runs using the default JDK (Oracle 8) and the JAVA_HOME environment variable is not changed. Therefore checking or enforcing the Java version through plugins like the Apache Maven Enforcer Plugin does not work and such plugins must not be used.

The currently available vendor/version combinations are:

Alternate Maven Execution JDK Version

It is also possible to select Oracle 8 or Oracle 11 as the JDK for the entire Maven execution. Unlike the toolchains options, this changes the JDK used for all plugins unless the toolchains configuration is also set in which case the toolchains configuration is still applied for toolchains-aware Maven plugins. As a result, checking and enforcing the Java version using the Apache Maven Enforcer Plugin will work.

To do this, create a file named .cloudmanager/java-version in the git repository branch used by the pipeline. This file can have either the content 11 or 8. Any other value is ignored. If 11 is specified, Oracle 11 is used and the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-11.0.2. If 8 is specified, Oracle 8 is used and the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_202.

Environment Variables

Standard Environment Variables

In some cases, you may find it necessary to vary the build process based on information about the program or pipeline.

For example, if build-time JavaScript minification is done through a tool like gulp, there may be a desire to use a different minification level when building for a development environment as opposed to building for staging and production.

To support this, Cloud Manager adds standard environment variables to the build container for every execution.

Standard Environment Variable Availability

Standard environment variables can be used in a number of places.

Author, Preview, and Publish

Both regular environment variables and secrets can be used in the authoring, preview, and publishing environments.

Dispatcher

Only regular environment variables can be used with the dispatcher. Secrets can not be used.

However environment variables can not be used in IfDefine directives.

OSGi Configurations

Both regular environment variables and secrets can be used in OSGi configurations.

Pipeline Variables

In some cases, your build process may depend upon specific configuration variables which would be inappropriate to place in the git repository or need to vary between pipeline executions using the same branch.

Cloud Manager allows for these variables to be configured through the Cloud Manager API or Cloud Manager CLI on a per-pipeline basis. Variables may be stored as either plain text or encrypted at rest. In either case, variables are made available inside the build environment as an environment variable which can then be referenced from inside the pom.xml file or other build scripts.

To set a variable using the CLI, run a command similar to the following.

$ aio cloudmanager:set-pipeline-variables PIPELINEID --variable MY_CUSTOM_VARIABLE test

Current variables can be listed using a command similar to the following.

$ aio cloudmanager:list-pipeline-variables PIPELINEID

Variables must adhere to certain limitations.

• Variable names may only contain alphanumeric characters and the underscore (_).
  • By convention, the names should be all uppercase.
• There is a limit of 200 variables per pipeline.
• Each name must be less than 100 characters.
• Each string value must be less than 2048 characters.
• Each secretString value must be less than and 500 characters.

When used inside a Maven pom.xml file, it is typically helpful to map these variables to Maven properties using a syntax similar to the following.

        <profile>
            <id>cmBuild</id>
            <activation>
                <property>
                    <name>env.CM_BUILD</name>
                </property>
            </activation>
            <properties>
                <my.custom.property>${env.MY_CUSTOM_VARIABLE}</my.custom.property>
            </properties>
        </profile>

Installing Additional System Packages

In order to function fully, some builds require additional system packages to be installed. For example, a build may invoke a Python or Ruby script and, as a result, need to have an appropriate language interpreter installed. This can be done by calling the exec-maven-plugin to invoke APT. This execution should generally be wrapped in a Cloud Manager-specific Maven profile. For example, to install Python:

        <profile>
            <id>install-python</id>
            <activation>
                <property>
                        <name>env.CM_BUILD</name>
                </property>
            </activation>
            <build>
                <plugins>
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                        <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>1.6.0</version>
                        <executions>
                            <execution>
                                <id>apt-get-update</id>
                                <phase>validate</phase>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>exec</goal>
                                </goals>
                                <configuration>
                                    <executable>apt-get</executable>
                                    <arguments>
                                        <argument>update</argument>
                                    </arguments>
                                </configuration>
                            </execution>
                            <execution>
                                <id>install-python</id>
                                <phase>validate</phase>
                                <goals>
                                    <goal>exec</goal>
                                </goals>
                                <configuration>
                                    <executable>apt-get</executable>
                                    <arguments>
                                        <argument>install</argument>
                                        <argument>-y</argument>
                                        <argument>--no-install-recommends</argument>
                                        <argument>python</argument>
                                    </arguments>
                                </configuration>
                            </execution>
                        </executions>
                    </plugin>
                </plugins>
            </build>
        </profile>

This same technique can be used to install language specific packages, i.e. using gem for RubyGems or pip for Python Packages.