How To Install and Configure Jenkins on Arch Linux

In my recent article I explain how you can installing Jenkins on Ubuntu System and install Jenkins Server on CentOS 8. In this guide, we’ll cover installation and configuration of Jenkins on Arch Linux. Jenkins is an open-source server-based automation server forked from Hudson project with support for Git, Source Control Management, and SVN. Jenkins is capable of running scheduled automated builds and test suits of managed software projects.

For Ubuntu, see: How to Install Jenkins on Ubuntu

For CentOS refer to: CentOS 7 and CentOS 8 articles.

Jenkins package for Arch Linux is available on official Pacman Repositories.

Install Jenkins Server on Arch Linux Prerequisite:

Root access
Java OpenJDK 8
Internet access to download Packages

Install Jenkins on Arch Linux using the command:

sudo pacman -S jenkins

After the package has been installed, check default Java set on your Arch Linux machine. If you have java-7-openjdk set as default, Jenkins service will fail to start:

$ archlinux-java status 
Available Java environments:
java-7-openjdk (default)
java-8-openjdk/jre

Change default to java-8-openjdk/jre using:

sudo archlinux-java set java-8-openjdk/jre

Check default version again to confirm:

$ archlinux-java get
java-8-openjdk/jre

$ archlinux-java status
Available Java environments:
java-7-openjdk
java-8-openjdk/jre (default)

Start Jenkins application:

sudo systemctl start jenkins

Check application status to confirm that it is running:

$ systemctl status jenkins
● jenkins.service - Extendable continuous integration server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/jenkins.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2018-06-27 17:31:41 EAT; 5s ago
Main PID: 31909 (sh)
Tasks: 16 (limit: 4915)
Memory: 223.8M
CGroup: /system.slice/jenkins.service
├─31909 /bin/sh -c eval $JENKINS_COMMAND_LINE
└─31914 /usr/bin/java -Xmx512m -jar /usr/share/java/jenkins/jenkins.war --webroot=/var/cache/jenkins --httpPort=8090 --ajp13Port=-1

Jun 27 17:31:41 archbase systemd[1]: Started Extendable continuous integration server.
Jun 27 17:31:43 archbase jenkins[31909]: Running from: /usr/share/java/jenkins/jenkins.war
Jun 27 17:31:44 archbase jenkins[31909]: Jun 27, 2018 5:31:44 PM org.eclipse.jetty.util.log.Log initialized
Jun 27 17:31:44 archbase jenkins[31909]: INFO: Logging initialized @2648ms to org.eclipse.jetty.util.log.JavaUtilLog
Jun 27 17:31:44 archbase jenkins[31909]: Jun 27, 2018 5:31:44 PM winstone.Logger logInternal
Jun 27 17:31:44 archbase jenkins[31909]: INFO: Beginning extraction from war file

The configuration file of the daemon running Jenkins is located at /etc/conf.d/jenkins

If all is okay, proceed to configure Jenkins from UI. Open http://localhost:8090 with your browser and start setting up Jenkins.

Obtain Jenkins default administrator password:

$ sudo cat /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPassword
1f24a7140dbe4dc79aa45b3e9c4c89c

Enter the password on Administrator Password box and click continue. The next page will ask you to install recommended plugins or plugins that suit your desired Jenkins usage. if not sure, select installation of recommended plugins.