difference between freestyle project and pipeline in jenkins

Question

I'm a little confused about Freestyle project and pipeline in jenkins when trying to create new items.

When should I create item with Freestyle project? And in which case should I use pipeline?

Do I need to store config.xml into code repository for future import? Or any other usage?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

if you've used jenkins in the past without using a Jenkinsfile, you've used something more similar to a freestyle project.

if you hate typing things into CI systems and therefore want to use pipelines as code--where you put all of your CI configuration into a file in source control (Jenkinsfile) and let Jenkins read that file to figure out what to do--use pipelines. once you know pipelines, there won't be many cases where you'll prefer freestyle projects.

Answer 2

The difference is that in Pipeline we have the ability to break our jobs out into different stages and we can have whatever stages we'd like to represent the process we use to deploy software and of course, if anything goes wrong, we can see which stage had the problem; for example. We even have the ability to add in verification before we proceed. We have the ability to run stages in parallel so we could have multiple tests executing in separate branches very easily.

Answer 3

If you’re a developer, writing your pipeline-as-code will feel more comfortable and natural. If you’re a DevOps professional, maintaining your pipeline will be easier because you can treat it like any other set of code that drives key processes.

Answer 4

Try to add retrofit plugin if you want to implement UCD tool for CI CD pipeline