debian-mirror-gitlab/doc/development/documentation/site_architecture/deployment_process.md

---
stage: none
group: unassigned
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
---

# Documentation deployments

## Deployment environments

The [GitLab documentation site](https://docs.gitlab.com/) is a static site hosted by [GitLab Pages](../../../user/project/pages/index.md). The deployment is done by the [Pages deploy job](#pages-deploy-job).

The website hosts documentation only for the [currently supported](../../../policy/maintenance.md) GitLab versions. Documentation for older versions is built and uploaded as Docker images to be downloaded from [GitLab Docs archives](https://docs.gitlab.com/archives/).

## Parts of release process

The documentation [release process](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/main/doc/releases.md)
involves:

- Merge requests, to make changes to the `main` and relevant stable branches.
- Pipelines, to build and deploy Docker images to the [`gitlab-docs` container registry](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/container_registry)
  for the relevant stable branches.
- Docker images used to build and deploy all the online documentation, including stable versions and the latest documentation.

Documentation deployments have dependencies on pipelines and Docker images as follows:

- The latest documentation pipelines and images depend on the stable documentation pipelines and images.
- The Pages deployment pipelines depend on the latest documentation images (which, in turn, depend on the stable
  pipelines and images.)

For general information on using Docker with CI/CD pipelines, see [Docker integration](../../../ci/docker/index.md).

## Stable branches

Pipelines for stable branches in the documentation project pull the relevant stable branches of included projects. For example, the documentation for stable version `14.4` is built from the [`14.4`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/tree/14.4) branch of the `gitlab-docs` project, which then includes:

- The [`14-4-stable-ee`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/tree/14-4-stable-ee) branch of the `gitlab` project.
- The [`14-4-stable`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-runner/-/tree/14-4-stable) branch of the `gitlab-runner` project.
- The [`14-4-stable`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/tree/14-4-stable) branch of the `omnibus-gitlab` project.
- The [`5-4-stable`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/charts/gitlab/-/tree/5-4-stable) branch of the `charts/gitlab` project.
  `charts/gitlab` versions are [mapped](https://docs.gitlab.com/charts/installation/version_mappings.html) to GitLab
  versions.

The Technical Writing team
[creates the stable branch](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/main/doc/releases.md#create-stable-branch-and-docker-image-for-release)
for the `gitlab-docs` project, which makes use of the stable branches created by other teams.

## Stable documentation

When merge requests are merged that target stable branches of `gitlab-docs`, a pipeline builds
that stable documentation and deploys it to the registry. For example:

- [14.4 merge request pipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipelines/394459635).
- [14.3 merge request pipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipelines/393774811).
- [14.2 merge request pipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipelines/393774758).
- [13.12 merge request pipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipelines/395365202).
- [12.10 merge request pipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipelines/395365405).

In particular, the [`image:docs-single` job](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/4c18963fe0a414ad62f55b9e18f922588b2dd155/.gitlab-ci.yml#L655) in each pipeline runs automatically.
It takes what is built, and pushes it to the [container registry](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/container_registry/631635).

```mermaid
graph TD
  A["14.4 MR merged"]
  B["14.3 MR merged"]
  C["14.2 MR merged"]
  D["13.12 MR merged"]
  E["12.10 MR merged"]
  F{{"Container registry on `gitlab-docs` project"}}
  A--"`image:docs-single`<br>job runs and pushes<br>`gitlab-docs:14.4` image"-->F
  B--"`image:docs-single`<br>job runs and pushes<br>`gitlab-docs:14.3` image"-->F
  C--"`image:docs-single`<br>job runs and pushes<br>`gitlab-docs:14.2` image"-->F
  D--"`image:docs-single`<br>job runs and pushes<br>`gitlab-docs:13.12` image"-->F
  E--"`image:docs-single`<br>job runs and pushes<br>`gitlab-docs:12.10` image"-->F
```

### Rebuild stable documentation images

To rebuild any of the stable documentation images, create a [new pipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipelines/new)
for the stable branch of the image to rebuild. You might do this:

- To include new documentation changes from an upstream stable branch into a stable version Docker image. For example,
  rebuild the `14.4` Docker image to include changes subsequently merged in the `gitlab` project's
  [`14-4-stable-ee`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/tree/14-4-stable-ee) branch.
- To incorporate changes made to the `gitlab-docs` project itself to a stable branch. For example:
  - CSS style changes.
  - Changes to the [version menu for a new release](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/main/doc/releases.md#update-dropdown-for-online-versions).

## Latest documentation

We build a Docker image (tagged `latest`) that contains:

- The latest online version of the documentation.
- The documentation from the stable branches of upstream projects.

The [`image:docs-latest` job](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/4c18963fe0a414ad62f55b9e18f922588b2dd155/.gitlab-ci.yml#L678):

- Pulls the latest documentation from the default branches of the relevant upstream projects.
- Pulls the Docker images previously built by the `image:docs-single` jobs.
- Must be run manually on a scheduled pipeline.

For example, [a pipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipelines/399233948) containing the
[`image:docs-latest` job](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/jobs/1733948330):

```mermaid
graph TD
  A["Latest `gitlab`, `gitlab-runner`<br>`omnibus-gitlab`, and `charts`"]
  subgraph "Container registry on `gitlab-docs` project"
    B["14.4 versioned docs<br>`gitlab-docs:14.4`"]
    C["14.3 versioned docs<br>`gitlab-docs:14.3`"]
    D["14.2 versioned docs<br>`gitlab-docs:14.2`"]
    E["13.12 versioned docs<br>`gitlab-docs:13.12`"]
    F["12.10 versioned docs<br>`gitlab-docs:12.10`"]
  end
  G[["Scheduled pipeline<br>`image:docs-latest` job<br>combines all these"]]
  A--"Default branches<br>pulled down"-->G
  B--"`gitlab-docs:14.4` image<br>pulled down"-->G
  C--"`gitlab-docs:14.3` image<br>pulled down"-->G
  D--"`gitlab-docs:14.2` image<br>pulled down"-->G
  E--"`gitlab-docs:13.12` image<br>pulled down"-->G
  F--"`gitlab-docs:12.10` image<br>pulled down"-->G
  H{{"Container registry on gitlab-docs project"}}
  G--"Latest `gitlab-docs:latest` image<br>pushed up"-->H
```

## Pages deploy job

[GitLab Docs](https://docs.gitlab.com) is a [Pages site](../../../user/project/pages/index.md) and documentation updates
for it must be deployed to become available.

The [`pages`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/4c18963fe0a414ad62f55b9e18f922588b2dd155/.gitlab-ci.yml#L491)
job runs automatically when a pipeline runs on the default branch (`main`).
It runs the necessary commands to combine:

- A very up-to-date build of the `gitlab-docs` site code.
- The latest docs from the default branches of the upstream projects.
- The documentation from `image:docs-latest`.

For example, [a pipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipelines/399233948) containing the
[`pages` job](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/jobs/1733948332).

```mermaid
graph LR
  A{{"Container registry on gitlab-docs project"}}
  B[["Scheduled pipeline<br>`pages` and<br>`pages:deploy` job"]]
  C([docs.gitlab.com])
  A--"`gitlab-docs:latest`<br>pulled"-->B
  B--"Unpacked documentation uploaded"-->C
```

### Manually deploy to production

GitLab Docs is deployed to production whenever the `Build docs.gitlab.com every hour` scheduled pipeline runs. By
default, this pipeline runs every hour.

Maintainers can [manually](../../../ci/pipelines/schedules.md#run-manually) run this pipeline to force a deployment to
production:

1. Go to the [scheduled pipelines](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipeline_schedules) for `gitlab-docs`.
1. Next to `Build docs.gitlab.com every hour`, select **Play** (**{play}**).

The updated documentation is available in production after the `pages` and `pages:deploy` jobs
complete in the new pipeline.

If you do not have the Maintainer role to perform this task, ask for help in the
`#docs` Slack channel.

## Docker files

The [`dockerfiles` directory](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/) contains all needed
Dockerfiles to build and deploy <https://docs.gitlab.com>. It is heavily inspired by Docker's
[Dockerfile](https://github.com/docker/docker.github.io/blob/06ed03db13895bfe867761b6fc2ad40acf6026dd/Dockerfile).

| Dockerfile                                                                                                                 | Docker image                  | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
|:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|:------------------------------|:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| [`bootstrap.Dockerfile`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/bootstrap.Dockerfile)             | `gitlab-docs:bootstrap`       | Contains all the dependencies that are needed to build the website. If the gems are updated and `Gemfile{,.lock}` changes, the image must be rebuilt.                                                                                                                                 |
| [`builder.onbuild.Dockerfile`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/builder.onbuild.Dockerfile) | `gitlab-docs:builder-onbuild` | Base image to build the docs website. It uses `ONBUILD` to perform all steps and depends on `gitlab-docs:bootstrap`.                                                                                                                                                                  |
| [`nginx.onbuild.Dockerfile`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/nginx.onbuild.Dockerfile)     | `gitlab-docs:nginx-onbuild`   | Base image to use for building documentation archives. It uses `ONBUILD` to perform all required steps to copy the archive, and relies upon its parent `Dockerfile.builder.onbuild` that is invoked when building single documentation archives (see the `Dockerfile` of each branch) |
| [`archives.Dockerfile`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/archives.Dockerfile)               | `gitlab-docs:archives`        | Contains all the versions of the website in one archive. It copies all generated HTML files from every version in one location.                                                                                                                                                       |

### How to build the images

Although build images are built automatically via GitLab CI/CD, you can build and tag all tooling images locally:

1. Make sure you have [Docker installed](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/).
1. Make sure you're in the `dockerfiles/` directory of the `gitlab-docs` repository.
1. Build the images:

   ```shell
   docker build -t registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs:bootstrap -f Dockerfile.bootstrap ../
   docker build -t registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs:builder-onbuild -f Dockerfile.builder.onbuild ../
   docker build -t registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs:nginx-onbuild -f Dockerfile.nginx.onbuild ../
   ```

For each image, there's a manual job under the `images` stage in
[`.gitlab-ci.yml`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/.gitlab-ci.yml) which can be invoked at any time.