Build environment build-environment

Learn about Cloud Manager’s build environment and how it builds and tests your code.

Build environment details build-environment-details

Cloud Manager builds and tests your code using a specialized build environment.

HTTPS Maven repositories https-maven

Cloud Manager release 2023.10.0 began a rolling update to the build environment (completing with release 2023.12.0), which included an update to Maven 3.8.8. A significant change introduced in Maven 3.8.1 was a security enhancement aimed at mitigating potential vulnerabilities. Specifically, Maven now disables all insecure http://* mirrors by default, as outlined in the Maven release notes.

As a result of this security enhancement, some users may face issues during the build step, particularly when downloading artifacts from Maven repositories that use insecure HTTP connections.

To ensure a smooth experience with the updated version, Adobe recommends that users update their Maven repositories to use HTTPS instead of HTTP. This adjustment aligns with the industry’s growing shift towards secure communication protocols and helps maintain a secure and reliable build process.

Use a specific Java version

The Cloud Manager build process uses the Oracle 8 JDK to build projects by default, but AEM Cloud Service customers should set the Maven execution JDK version to 11.

Set the Maven JDK version

Adobe recommends that you set the JDK version for the entire Maven execution to 11 in a .cloudmanager/java-version file.

To do so, create a file named .cloudmanager/java-version in the git repository branch used by the pipeline. Edit the file so that it contains only the text, 11. While Cloud Manager also accepts a value of 8, this version is no longer supported for AEM Cloud Service projects. Any other value is ignored. When 11 is specified, Oracle 11 is used and the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-11.0.22.

Environment variables - standard environment-variables

You may find it necessary to vary the build process based on information about the program or pipeline.

For instance, if JavaScript minification occurs at build time using a tool like gulp, different minification levels may be preferred for various environments. A development build might use a lighter minification level compared to staging and production.

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

Environment variables - pipeline pipeline-variables

Your build process might require specific configuration variables that should not be stored in the Git repository. Additionally, you may need to adjust these variables between pipeline executions using the same branch.

See also Configure Pipeline Variables for more information.

Install additional system packages installing-additional-system-packages

Some builds require additional system packages to function fully. For example, a build may invoke a Python or Ruby script and must have an appropriate language interpreter installed. This installation process can be managed by calling the exec-maven-plugin in your pom.xml to invoke APT. This execution should generally be wrapped in a Cloud Manager-specific Maven profile. This example installs 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, for example, using gem for RubyGems or pip for Python Packages.