Getting Started with Pipelines

Prerequisites

• Completed the Getting Started example.

Extending your first CI/CD Workflow with a second Task and a Pipeline

As you learned previously, with Tekton, each operation in your CI/CD workflow becomes a Step, which is executed with a container image you specify. Steps are then organized in Tasks, which run as a Kubernetes pod in your cluster. You can further organize Tasks into Pipelines, which can control the order of execution of several Tasks.

To create a second Task, create a Kubernetes object using the Tekton API with the kind Task. The following YAML file specifies a Task with one simple Step, which prints a Goodbye World! message using the official Ubuntu image:

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
kind: Task
metadata:
  name: goodbye
spec:
  steps:
    - name: goodbye
      image: ubuntu
      script: |
        #!/bin/bash
        echo "Goodbye World!"

Write the YAML above to a file named task-goodbye.yaml, and apply it to your Kubernetes cluster:

kubectl apply -f task-goodbye.yaml

To run this task with Tekton, you need to create a TaskRun, which is another Kubernetes object used to specify run time information for a Task.

To view this TaskRun object you can run the following Tekton CLI (tkn) command:

tkn task start goodbye --dry-run

After running the command above, the following TaskRun definition should be shown:

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
kind: TaskRun
metadata:
  generateName: goodbye-run-
spec:
  taskRef:
    name: goodbye

To use the TaskRun above to start the echo Task, you can either use tkn or kubectl.

Start with tkn:

tkn task start goodbye

Start with kubectl:

# use tkn's --dry-run option to save the TaskRun to a file
tkn task start goodbye --dry-run > taskRun-goodbye.yaml
# create the TaskRun
kubectl create -f taskRun-goodbye.yaml

Tekton will now start running your Task. To see the logs of the TaskRun, run the following tkn command:

tkn taskrun logs --last -f 

It may take a few moments before your Task completes. When it executes, it should show the following output:

[goodbye] Goodbye World!

To create a Pipeline, create a Kubernetes object using the Tekton API with the kind Pipeline. The following YAML file specifies a Pipeline.

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
kind: Pipeline
metadata:
  name: hello-goodbye
spec:
  tasks:
  - name: hello
    taskRef:
      name: hello
  - name: goodbye
    runAfter:
     - hello
    taskRef:
      name: goodbye

Write the YAML above to a file named pipeline-hello-goodbye.yaml, and apply it to your Kubernetes cluster:

kubectl apply -f pipeline-hello-goodbye.yaml

To run this pipeline with Tekton, you need to create a pipelineRun, which is another Kubernetes object used to specify run time information for a Pipeline.

To view this pipelineRun object you can run the following Tekton CLI (tkn) command:

tkn pipeline start hello-goodbye --dry-run

After running the command above, the following PipelineRun definition should be shown:

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
kind: PipelineRun
metadata:
  generateName: hello-goodbye-run-
spec:
  pipelineRef:
    name: hello-goodbye

To use the pipelineRun above to start the echo Pipeline, you can either use tkn or kubectl.

Start with tkn:

tkn pipeline start hello-goodbye

Start with kubectl:

# use tkn's --dry-run option to save the pipelineRun to a file
tkn pipeline start hello-goodbye --dry-run > pipelineRun-hello-goodbye.yaml
# create the pipelineRun
kubectl create -f pipelineRun-hello-goodbye.yaml

Tekton will now start running your Pipeline. To see the logs of the pipelineRun, run the following tkn command:

tkn pipelinerun logs --last -f 

It may take a few moments before your Pipeline completes. When it executes, it should show the following output:

[hello : hello] Hello World!

[goodbye : goodbye] Goodbye World!

What’s next

Now you have the core component of Tekton, Tekton Pipelines, installed on your Kubernetes or OpenShift cluster with the Tekton CLI installed on your local machine. If you would like to install more components, see the list below:

• Tekton Triggers
• Tekton Dashboard

Learn more about Tekton in Concepts.

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