What tools do you use for automating the process of building and deploying applications?

For automating the build and deployment of applications, I use the following tools:

• CI/CD systems: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions — for automatically running builds, tests, and deployments when changes are made to the repository.
• Build scripts: npm scripts, Makefile, Gradle, Maven — for describing the process of building and packaging the application.
• Containerization: Docker — for creating application images that can be easily transferred and run in different environments.
• Orchestration: Kubernetes, Docker Compose — for managing deployment and scaling of containers.
• Infrastructure as code: Terraform, Ansible — for automating server and environment setup.

An example of a simple pipeline in GitLab CI for a Node.js application:

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - npm install
    - npm run build

test:
  stage: test
  script:
    - npm test

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - ./deploy.sh
  only:
    - main

This approach helps minimize manual errors and speeds up the release of new versions.