ibmi-ci

ibmi-ci is a command line tool to make it easier to work with IBM i from pipelines, like GitHub Actions, GitLab CICD, etc.

Installation

Install via npm:

npm i @ibm/ibmi-ci

      - run: npm i -g @ibm/ibmi-ci
      - name: Deploy to IBM i
        run: | 
          ici \
            --cmd "mkdir -p './builds/ics_${GITHUB_HEAD_REF}'" \
            --rcwd "./builds/ics_${GITHUB_HEAD_REF}" \
            --push "." \
            --cmd "/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/gmake BIN_LIB=CMPSYS"
        env:
          IBMI_HOST: ${{ secrets.IBMI_HOST }}
          IBMI_USER: ${{ secrets.IBMI_USER }}
          IBMI_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.IBMI_PASSWORD }}
          IBMI_SSH_PORT: ${{ secrets.IBMI_SSH_PORT }}

How to use

After installation, run ici to see the help text and available parameters.

ibmi-ci is made up of steps and steps are built up from parameters, with the default step of connecting to the remote system, which always takes a place.

The steps ici will take is based on the parameters used on the CLI. For example:

ici \
  --rcwd "./builds/myproject" \
  --push "." \
  --cmd "/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/gmake BIN_LIB=MYLIB"

This command will run 3 steps:

1. Set the remote working directory to ./builds/myproject
2. Upload the local working directory to the remote working directory (.)
3. Run a shell command

Default steps

By default, ibmi-ci will always:

1. Connect to the remote IBM i via SSH. Connection configuration is based on environment variables. Use ici to see more info.
2. Set the environment variables on the remote IBM i to those of the host runner (with some exceptions like SHELL, HOME, etc)

Ignoring errors

You can use a special ignore flag to suppress errors on certain steps: --ignore. This means if the following step errors, execution will continue nonetheless.

ici \
  --rcwd "./builds/myproject" \
  --push "." \
  --ignore --cl "CRTLIB $LIB"
  --cmd "/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/gmake BIN_LIB=MYLIB"

Development

After cloning the repo, there are two options:

1. npm run local to install ici
2. Open in VS Code and debug

Todo ✅

• [ ] Step for creating chroot automatically as the first step, or to specify which chroot to use
• [x] Ignore errors for certain steps. Sometimes we don't care if mkdir or CRTLIB failed.
• [ ] Daemon mode so ici can be run multiple times but use the same connection