GitLab
ExplainedTool
DevOps platform with Git hosting, CI/CD, a container registry and more in a single tool.
GitLab, explained
Written by EduVerseWhat it is
GitLab is a platform for hosting Git repositories that also covers much of the rest of development: issues, code review, CI/CD pipelines, a container registry and more. You can use it on gitlab.com, or a company can install it on its own servers. Its version of a pull request is called a merge request.
Why teams use it
Teams like having one tool for the whole journey from ticket to deployment. Self-hosting is a big reason too: banks and government agencies that won’t put their code in someone else’s cloud run their own GitLab. GitHub can be self-hosted as well, but GitLab also offers an open-source edition that companies can run for free.
An example from work
On your first day you get an account on your company’s own GitLab server instead of GitHub. Colleagues ask you to “open an MR”, which means a merge request: the same idea as a pull request. You push your branch, and GitLab prints a link in your terminal to create one.
Our own explanation, not a quote from the book.
Where it fits
The complete DevOps lifecycle, self-hosted or SaaS
Coverage in the book
Explained and compared with alternatives, so you know where and why it’s used.
