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+---
+date: 2023-03-08
+title: Using Laminar for Self-hosted CI
+tags:
+- Bash
+- CI
+- Git
+- Linux
+---
+
+I've hosted my [own git repositories](https://git.tyil.nl) for quite a while,
+but I hadn't found a simple self-hosted CI solution yet. I've tried several,
+and found them to be a bit too cumbersome to setup and actually put to use. The
+majority requires you to host a full "git forge", such as GitLab or Gitea, in
+order to use their webhook functionality in order to trigger a CI build. This
+didn't seem worth the effort to me, so I kept looking for an alternative that
+worked well for me.
+
+I think I've finally found one in [Laminar](https://laminar.ohwg.net/), after a
+suggestion from a friend on the Fediverse. I do wonder how I could've spent so
+much time searching without ever finding this solution!
+
+Laminar itself was easy to install from source, but another person chimed in to
+let me know they already made an `ebuild` for it, which is available in their
+overlay, making it even easier for me to try out. A single `emerge laminar`,
+and a couple seconds of building it, and I was ready to start trying it out.
+
+Configuration of jobs is done through scripts in whichever language you prefer,
+giving you quite a bit of power. The documentation seems to mostly use Bash,
+and that seemed to be a logical choice for me too, so that's what I've been
+playing with as well.
+
+Running jobs itself is as easy as `laminarc queue <name>`. It can't be much
+simpler, and this CLI interface makes it very easy to start a new job from a
+git `post-receive` hook. I wrote one which also shows the URL of the job's logs
+whenever I push new comments to [the Bashtard
+repository](https://git.tyil.nl/bashtard/about/).
+
+{{<highlight bash>}}
+while read old new ref
+do
+        laminarc queue bashtard \
+                "GIT_BRANCH=$ref" \
+                "GIT_COMMIT=$new" \
+                | awk -F: '{ print "https://ci.tyil.nl/jobs/"$1"/"$2 }'
+done
+{{</highlight>}}
+
+Using this, I can verify a job started, and immediately go to the page that
+shows the logs. I plan to use Laminar's post-job script to leverage `ntfy` to
+send me a notification on failed builds.
+
+Since all the worthwhile configuration for Laminar is just plain text, it is
+also very easy to manage in your preferred configuration management system,
+which is also something I plan to do in the nearby future.
+
+One slight annoyance I have so far is that I can't use (sub)directories for all
+the job scripts. Since I don't have many yet, this isn't a real problem yet,
+but it could pose a minor issue in the far future once I've written more job
+scripts.
+
+Given that that's the only "issue" I've found thus far, after a couple days of
+playing with it, I'd highly recommend taking a look at it if you want to set up
+a CI system for your self-hosted git repositories!