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enku/gentoo-build-publisher

Gentoo Build Publisher is a way to build gentoo updates in CI/CD and have those builds published (rsync for the portage tree; http for binpkgs) to individual machines.

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Gentoo Build Publisher dashboard

Gentoo Build Publisher

Introduction

Gentoo Build Publisher (GBP) is a Gentoo build server, binary package host
(binhost), ebuild repo server, and configuration manager in one which uses
continuous integration
and other tools to deliver successful, consistent "builds" for a single
machine or multiple heterogeneous Gentoo machines.

In case you didn't know, Gentoo Linux is a
source-based rolling-release meta-distribution that you can twist and mold
into pretty much anything you like. That's just a verbose way of saying Gentoo
is awesome.

If you run a Gentoo system, say a laptop, you may be updating your system
using the standard emerge --sync followed by a world update. This pulls in
the latest ebuilds from the Gentoo repo and if there are any updates
applicable to your system then they get built on your system.

Except sometimes they don't.

Sometimes builds fail. Sometimes USE flags need to be changed. Sometimes
there's an update to a piece of software that is buggy and you want to revert.
Sometimes a build takes a long time and you don't want to wait.

Well since Gentoo is the distribution you build yourself, CI/CD seems like a
natural fit. Enter Gentoo Build Publisher.

Gentoo Build Publisher combines a repo/overlay server, basic configuration
management, and binary package server (binhost) for complete and atomic
builds. Successful builds performed by Jenkins are served by GBP where client
machines sync from.

Procedure

  • Build a Gentoo Build Publisher instance. Refer to the Install
    Guide    .
  • Create "machines" and "repos" jobs in Jenkins. For example gbp addrepo gentoo https://anongit.gentoo.org/git/repo/gentoo.git; gbp addmachine base https://github.com/enku/gbp-machines.git Use the gbp-machines
    repo     as a starting point. This can
    also be done manually within the Jenkins UI.
  • Once a Jenkins job has been pulled by Gentoo Build Publisher it can be
    published so that actual machines can use it (e.g. rsync for repos, http for
    binpkgs). Use the CLI (gbp publish) to publish a pulled build.
  • If the job fails, it will not be pulled.
  • Your real machine, for example, base, syncs from, rsync://gbp/repos/base/gentoo.
    You can dynamically acquire the repos.conf file from
    https://gbp/machines/base/repos.conf and the binrepos.conf from
    https://gbp/machines/base/binrepos.conf.

Jenkins build

CLI

The command-line interface can
inspect, publish, pull, schedule builds and more.

gbpcli screenshot

Plugins

Various plugins exist for Gentoo Build Publisher. Some are "server" plugins,
meaning they plug into Gentoo Build Publisher, the server. Others are "client"
plugins, meaning they plug into the CLI. And some are both. The following
Plugins are available.

Plugin Description Client/Server
archive A plugin to dump and restore builds Both (but only runs on from the server)
feeds Atom/RSS feeds for Gentoo Build Publisher Server
fl A pfl-inspired plugin Both
notifications A plugin that can send notifications when events occur Server
ps A plugin to display your Gentoo Build Publisher processes Both
purge A plugin to purge old builds Server
webhook A webhook for gbp-notifications to display desktop notifications and more Client

Articles

Below are some articles that explain some aspects of Build Publisher in
detail.

Languages

Python95.5%HTML3.0%JavaScript0.8%CSS0.4%Makefile0.2%

Contributors

ENAR
Other
Created March 20, 2021
Updated March 10, 2026
enku/gentoo-build-publisher | GitHunt