Glossary

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

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

Result of a single execution of a Job

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The main url for the jenkins application, as visited by a user. e.g. https://ci.jenkins.io/

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

Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. See Installing Jenkins / Kubernetes for more info.

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.

A long-term support Release line of Jenkins products, becoming available for downloads every 12 weeks. See this page for more info.

A deprecated term, synonymous with Controller.

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

A deprecated term, synonymous with job.

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

An extension to Jenkins functionality provided separately from Jenkins Core.

Part of a Build after the completion of all configured Steps which publishes reports, sends notifications, etc. A publisher may report Stable or Unstable result depending on the result of its processing and its configuration. For example, if a JUnit test fails, then the whole JUnit publisher may report the build result as Unstable.

A secondary url used to serve potentially untrusted content (especially build artifacts). This url is distinct from the Jenkins URL.

An event, indicating availability of Jenkins distribution products or one of Jenkins plugins. Jenkins products belong either to LTS or weekly Release lines.

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.

A single task; fundamentally steps tell Jenkins what to do inside of a Pipeline or job. See Pipelines / Getting Started and Pipeline / Using a jenkinsfile for more info.

A criteria for triggering a new Pipeline run or job.

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

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

A way of displaying the data of Jenkins in a dashboard style. This is an extensible object, so there are lots of different ways to list jobs, show trends, and analyze data.

A disposable directory on the file system of a Node where work can be done by a Pipeline or job. 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 Controller.

The Build was interrupted before it reaches its expected end. For example, the user has stopped it manually or there was a time-out.

The Build had a fatal error.

The Build was Successful and no Publisher reports it as Unstable.

The Build has no compilation errors.

The Build had some errors, but they were not fatal. A Build is unstable if it was built successfully and one or more publishers report it unstable. For example if the JUnit publisher is configured and a test fails then the Build will be marked unstable.