What is GitLab?

Category: Programming | Posted date: 2023-04-26 02:00:37 | Posted by: Admin

GitLab, a DevOps software package that may be used to create, secure, and manage software, is run by GitLab Inc., an open-source business.



What is GitLab?

Git repositories can be accessed online through a service called Gitlab. The services offer extra tools for managing the software development lifecycle in addition to hosting your code. Tools for "social coding," such as bug tracking, wiki space, and coordinating the sharing of code between multiple people, are some of these added features.

Gitlab definition follows, but before, we need to comprehend a few terms. Terms like Git, Gitlab, GitHub, and Bitbucket are frequently used. Let's analyze each of these descriptions individually:

Git - It is a source code versioning system that enables you to push or pull changes from remote resources as well as track local changes.

GitLab, GitHub, and Bitbucket - allow services for remote access to Git repositories. In addition to hosting your code, the services provide additional capabilities for controlling the software development lifecycle. Tools for "social coding," such as bug tracking, wiki space, and coordinating the sharing of code between multiple people, are some of these added features.

  • GitHub is a freely accessible public service that demands that all source code be made public (unless you have a premium account). Anyone can view the code you post to GitHub and provide improvement recommendations. Tens of thousands of open-source projects currently have their source code hosted on GitHub.
  • GitLab is a service similar to github that businesses may use to manage their corporate git repositories. It is a self-hosted Git repository management solution that protects the privacy of user code and makes it simple to release code modifications.

Features of GitLab

  • Your (personal) software projects are hosted for free on GitLab.
  • A platform for managing Git repositories is called GitLab.
  • GitLab provides free wikis, issue-tracking, and public and private repositories.
  • GitLab is an intuitive web interface layer added to Git that speeds up working with Git.
  • For managing projects, GitLab has its own Continuous Integration (CI) system and user interface in addition to its other features.


Advantages

  • The GitLab Community Edition allows users to view the servers where their code is stored.
  • A limitless number of free private and public repositories are available with GitLab.
  • In the Snippet section, you can share smaller chunks of code as opposed to the complete project.

Disadvantages

  • It is slower while pushing and pulling repositories than GitHub.
  • While switching from one page to another, the GitLab interface will take some time.


Best Alternative of GitLab

  • Red Hat Ansible.
  • Octopus Deploy.
  • Azure Pipelines.
  • UrbanCode Deploy.
  • Puppet Enterprise.
  • CloudBees Flow.
  • Continuous Delivery Automation (CDA)


Use case of GitLab

  • Creating a new issue
  • Leaving comments
  • Writing on the project wall
  • Pulling the project code
  • Downloading the project
  • Creating a new merge request
  • Creating code snippets
  • Creating new branches
  • Pushing to non-protected branches
  • Removing non-protected branches
  • Adding tags
  • Writing a Wiki
  • Adding new team members
  • Pushing to protected branches
  • Removing protected branches
  • Pushing with force option
  • Adding deploy keys to the project
  • Configuring the project hooks


Why Use GitLab?

The main benefit of adopting GitLab is that it allows all team members to collaborate during every phase of the project. GitLab makes it possible to trace work from inception to completion, helping developers automate each phase of the DevOps lifecycle and get the best results. More developers are using GitLab due to its rich feature set and unlimited accessibility to code blocks.


Final Thought

We hope this lesson has clarified the importance of GitLab. You have gained a foundational understanding of Git and its online repository, GitLab, through this article. Thanks to the practical demonstration at the end of the What is GitLab course, you now understand how GitLab functions.