GitLab

🔍🧰 Overview

GitLab is an open-source DevOps platform that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for source code management, continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD), issue tracking, and more—all in a single application.

It is free for individuals and offers private repositories at no cost, making it a strong alternative to GitHub for personal and professional projects.

💡 Key Features

• Free private repositories (unlike GitHub's historical limitations)
• Native CI/CD integration with powerful pipeline configuration using .gitlab-ci.yml
• Built-in support for deploying public GitLab Pages from private repositories
• Issue tracking, merge requests, and project management features
• Self-hosting available via GitLab CE (Community Edition)

🚀 How I Use It

• ✅ Hosting and deploying my Portfolio using GitLab Pages
• ✅ Source control and version tracking for personal and professional codebases
• ✅ Automating builds, tests, and deployments using GitLab CI/CD pipelines

⚙️ Setup & Configuration

1. Sign up at gitlab.com
2. Create a new repository (public or private)
3. Push your local Git project or start a new one
4. Add a .gitlab-ci.yml file for CI/CD configuration
5. Optionally enable GitLab Pages for static site deployment

Example basic CI/CD config:

pages:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - mkdir .public
    - cp -r * .public
    - mv .public public
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - public
  only:
    - main

📚 Resources

• GitLab Documentation
• GitLab CI/CD Reference
• GitLab Pages Docs

🧠 Notes & Tips

• Consider using lazygit for a fast, intuitive Git CLI interface!
• For static sites, combine GitLab Pages with MkDocs or Hugo for documentation hosting
• You can use project access tokens for secure automation without exposing personal credentials.