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BitBucket Pipelines

Overview​

BitBucket Pipelines uses a YAML-based syntax to define pipelines and actions. In Semaphore, you can use the visual workflow editor to more easily configure and preview pipelines.

Semaphore is great at modeling complex delivery workflows for fast feedback with chainable pipelines, parallel execution, and dependency management.BitBucket Pipelines require some rather creative juggling to accomplish relatively trivial tasks.

BitBucket Pipelines vs Semaphore​

This section describes how to implement common BitBucket Pipelines functionalities in Semaphore.

Checkout​

Checkout clones the repository in the CI environment.

Checkout is implicit in all Travis CI workflows by default.

Artifacts​

Artifacts are used to store deliverables and persist files between runs.

BitBucket defines artifacts using the artifacts keyword. Artifacts are automatically available in the other steps without the need to import them manually.

pipelines:
  default:
    - step:
        name: Build and test
        image: node:10.15.0
        script:
          - npm install
          - npm test
          - npm run build
        artifacts:
          - dist/**
          - reports/*.txt
    - step:
        name: Integration test
        image: node:10.15.0
        caches:
          - node
        services:
          - postgres
        script:
          # using one of the artifacts from the previous step
          - cat reports/tests.txt
          - npm run integration-test

Caching​

Caching speeds up the workflows by storing downloaded files in a hot cache.

BitBucket Pipelines provide predefined caches to multiple build systems and dependency managers. You can also define custom cache stores to store arbitrary data.

In this example, we cache Node dependencies:

pipelines:
  default:
    - step:
        caches:
          - node
        script:
          - npm install
          - npm test

Language versions​

We often need to activate specific language or tool versions to ensure consistent builds.

BitBucket Pipelines uses pre-built Docker versions to run commands in specific language and runtime versions.

image: node:20.17.0
pipelines:
  default:
    - step:
        script:
          - node -v

Database and services​

Testing sometimes require disposable databases and services in the CI environment.

BitBucket Pipelines uses Docker images to run databases and services.

definitions:
  services:
    redis:
      image: redis:3.2
    mysql:
      image: mysql:5.7
      variables:
        MYSQL_DATABASE: my-db
        MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: $password

Secrets​

Secrets inject sensitive data and credentials into the workflow securely.

In BitBucket Pipelines you create hidden variables that are interpolated as environment variables at runtime.

pipelines:
  default:
    - step:
        script:
          - expr 10 / $MY_HIDDEN_NUMBER
          - echo $MY_HIDDEN_NUMBER

Complete example​

The following comparison shows how to build and test a Ruby on Rails project on BitBucket Pipelines and on Semaphore.

This pipeline runs steps in parallel. Each step installs Ruby and the Gems before running the test commands.

pipelines:
  pull-requests:
    '**':
      - parallel:
          - step:
              name: Scan Ruby
              script:
                - apt-get update && apt-get install -y ruby-full
                - ruby --version
                - gem install bundler
                - bundle install
                - bin/brakeman --no-pager
          - step:
              name: Scan JavaScript
              script:
                - apt-get update && apt-get install -y ruby-full
                - ruby --version
                - gem install bundler
                - bundle install
                - bin/importmap audit
          - step:
              name: Lint
              script:
                - apt-get update && apt-get install -y ruby-full
                - ruby --version
                - gem install bundler
                - bundle install
                - bin/rubocop -f github
          - step:
              name: Test
              script:
                - apt-get update && apt-get install -y ruby-full curl libjemalloc2 libvips sqlite3
                - ruby --version
                - gem install bundler
                - bundle install
                - cp .sample.env .env
                - bundle exec rake db:setup
                - bundle exec rake
                - bin/rails db:test:prepare test test:system
              services:
                - docker
              env:
                RAILS_ENV: test

  branches:
    main:
      - parallel:
          - step:
              name: Scan Ruby
              script:
                - apt-get update && apt-get install -y ruby-full
                - ruby --version
                - gem install bundler
                - bundle install
                - bin/brakeman --no-pager
          - step:
              name: Scan JavaScript
              script:
                - apt-get update && apt-get install -y ruby-full
                - ruby --version
                - gem install bundler
                - bundle install
                - bin/importmap audit
          - step:
              name: Lint
              script:
                - apt-get update && apt-get install -y ruby-full
                - ruby --version
                - gem install bundler
                - bundle install
                - bin/rubocop -f github
          - step:
              name: Test
              script:
                - apt-get update && apt-get install -y ruby-full curl libjemalloc2 libvips sqlite3
                - ruby --version
                - gem install bundler
                - bundle install
                - cp .sample.env .env
                - bundle exec rake db:setup
                - bundle exec rake
                - bin/rails db:test:prepare test test:system
              env:
                RAILS_ENV: test

See also​