Linking Jenkins to a Local Git Repository

I wanted to try creating a CI (continuous integration) pipeline using Jenkins at home for fun 🙂

I launched IntelliJ IDEA by jetbrains and created an empty test project. Then I added this project to Git. In case you don’t know how, below is how you can create a Git repository for you project in IntelliJ IDEA (Community 2017.1.2).

Once the Git repository has been successfully created you should see a .git folder as below (You may need to enable display of hidden folders).

Now, launch Jenkins (by default it should launch on http://localhost:8080/).

Now click on New Item, select “Freestyle project” and type a name for it, click OK.

Go to Source Code Management tab and select Git

The critical part is what you enter here as the “Repository URL”. The correct value should start with file://// for a local repository which is created on your PCs local file system.

For a test project which was created under “Users/serdarosmanonur/IdeaProjects/JavaProject” the Repository URL should be entered as “file:////Users/serdarosmanonur/IdeaProjects/JavaProject”.

Now save this configuration, go to “Jenkins” dashboard (http://localhost:8080/) and click your projects name on the right.