info:To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
---
# Documentation deployment process
# Documentation deployments
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
Stable branches for documentation include the relevant stable branches of all the projects required to publish the entire
documentation suite. For example, the stable version of documentation for version `14.4` includes:
- The [`14.4`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/tree/14.4) branch of the `gitlab-docs` project.
- 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:
In particular, the [`image:docs-single` job](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/blob/4c18963fe0a414ad62f55b9e18f922588b2dd155/.gitlab-ci.yml#L655) in each pipeline
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
```
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
- 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
A Docker image (tagged `latest`) is built 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.
For example, [a pipeline](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/-/pipelines/399233948) containing the
| [`Dockerfile.bootstrap`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.bootstrap) | `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. |
| [`Dockerfile.builder.onbuild`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.builder.onbuild) | `gitlab-docs:builder-onbuild` | Base image to build the docs website. It uses `ONBUILD` to perform all steps and depends on `gitlab-docs:bootstrap`. |
| [`Dockerfile.nginx.onbuild`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.nginx.onbuild) | `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. |
| [`Dockerfile.archives`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.archives) | `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. |
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.bootstrap`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.bootstrap) | `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. |
| [`Dockerfile.builder.onbuild`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.builder.onbuild) | `gitlab-docs:builder-onbuild` | Base image to build the docs website. It uses `ONBUILD` to perform all steps and depends on `gitlab-docs:bootstrap`. |
| [`Dockerfile.nginx.onbuild`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.nginx.onbuild) | `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) |
| [`Dockerfile.archives`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/blob/main/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.archives) | `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
### How to build the images
Although build images are built automatically via GitLab CI/CD, you can build
and tag all tooling images locally:
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/install/).
1. Make sure you're in the `dockerfiles/` directory of the `gitlab-docs` repository.
...
...
@@ -37,28 +169,3 @@ and tag all tooling images locally:
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.
## Update an old Docker image with new upstream docs content
If there are any changes to any of the stable branches of the products that are
not included in the single Docker image, just rerun the pipeline (`https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-docs/pipelines/new`)
for the version in question.
## Porting new website changes to old versions
WARNING:
Porting changes to older branches can have unintended effects as we're constantly
changing the backend of the website. Use only when you know what you're doing
and make sure to test locally.
The website keeps changing and being improved. In order to consolidate
those changes to the stable branches, we'd need to pick certain changes
from time to time.
If this is not possible or there are many changes, merge main into them:
