GitLab is an open-source platform that provides tools for software development, including version control, issue tracking, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD). The backend of GitLab is crucial for managing these functionalities:
- Version Control: At its core, GitLab uses Git for version control, allowing developers to manage code repositories efficiently. The backend handles the storage, retrieval, and manipulation of these repositories.
- Database: GitLab employs PostgreSQL as its primary database system. This choice is made for its robustness, scalability, and compliance with ACID properties, which are essential for maintaining data integrity in a collaborative environment.
- Application Server: The backend uses Puma as the default web server for Ruby on Rails applications, which powers the GitLab web interface.
- Background Jobs: Sidekiq is utilized for processing background jobs, which is vital for handling asynchronous tasks like sending notifications, performing repository imports, and executing CI/CD pipelines.
- CI/CD Pipeline: The backend supports GitLab CI/CD by executing jobs defined in
.gitlab-ci.yml files, managing runners, and coordinating the pipeline stages.
- API: GitLab offers a comprehensive RESTful API that allows interaction with nearly all features of GitLab, facilitating automation and integration with other tools.
- Authentication and Authorization: GitLab supports various authentication methods including LDAP, SAML, and OAuth, managed through its backend.
- Storage: For managing large files and repository data, GitLab uses object storage solutions like Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage for scalability and cost-effectiveness.
History and Context:
- GitLab was founded in 2011 by Dmitriy Zaporozhets and Valery Sizov. Initially, it was a fork of Gitorious, but it quickly evolved into a full-featured platform for DevOps.
- The backend development has been influenced by the need to scale from a single server to a multi-server, highly available architecture, which was necessitated by GitLab's rapid growth.
- Over the years, the focus has been on improving performance, security, and the developer experience, with significant contributions from the open-source community and the GitLab team.
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