QtLucide CI/CD Documentation

This document describes the modernized CI/CD pipeline for QtLucide, designed with security, performance, and reliability in mind.

🚀 Overview

Our CI/CD pipeline consists of several workflows that ensure code quality, security, and reliable releases:

• CI Workflow (ci.yml) - Main continuous integration
• Release Workflow (release.yml) - Automated releases with modern practices
• XMake Workflow (xmake.yml) - Alternative build system testing
• Security Workflow (security.yml) - Comprehensive security scanning
• Performance Workflow (performance.yml) - Performance benchmarking and memory leak detection

🔧 Workflows

CI Workflow (ci.yml)

Triggers: Push to main branches, pull requests, manual dispatch

Features:

• ✅ Modern Qt Versions: Tests with Qt 6.7.3 and 6.8.0
• ✅ Multi-Platform: Ubuntu 22.04, Windows 2022, macOS 13/14
• ✅ Security Hardening: Step Security Harden Runner
• ✅ Advanced Caching: Qt installation and build artifacts
• ✅ Code Coverage: LCOV coverage reporting with Codecov integration
• ✅ Code Quality: clang-format, cppcheck, clang-tidy
• ✅ Container Builds: Docker multi-arch builds with SBOM generation
• ✅ Parallel Builds: Optimized build performance

Matrix Strategy:

- Ubuntu 22.04 + Qt 6.8.0 + Release + Coverage
- Ubuntu 22.04 + Qt 6.7.3 + Debug
- Windows 2022 + Qt 6.8.0/6.7.3 + Release/Debug
- macOS 14/13 + Qt 6.8.0/6.7.3 + Release/Debug

Release Workflow (release.yml)

Triggers: Git tags (v*), manual dispatch

Modern Features:

• ✅ Modern Release Action: Uses softprops/action-gh-release@v2
• ✅ Automated Changelog: Extracts from CHANGELOG.md
• ✅ Multi-Platform Builds: Linux, Windows, macOS
• ✅ Security: SBOM generation, build provenance attestation
• ✅ Code Signing: Windows code signing support (when certificates available)
• ✅ Checksums: SHA256 checksums for all artifacts
• ✅ Container Publishing: Multi-arch container images to GHCR
• ✅ Pre-release Detection: Automatic pre-release detection for alpha/beta/rc tags

Security Workflow (security.yml)

Triggers: Push, pull requests, weekly schedule, manual dispatch

Security Tools:

• 🔒 CodeQL Analysis: GitHub's semantic code analysis
• 🔒 Dependency Review: Automated dependency vulnerability scanning
• 🔒 Trivy Scanner: Comprehensive vulnerability scanning
• 🔒 Semgrep: Static analysis security scanner
• 🔒 OSV Scanner: Open Source Vulnerability scanner
• 🔒 TruffleHog: Secret detection
• 🔒 SBOM Generation: Software Bill of Materials
• 🔒 OSSF Scorecard: Security posture assessment

Performance Workflow (performance.yml)

Triggers: Push to main, pull requests, weekly schedule, manual dispatch

Performance Features:

• 📊 Google Benchmark: Comprehensive performance benchmarking
• 📊 Memory Profiling: Valgrind massif memory profiling
• 📊 Memory Leak Detection: Valgrind memcheck
• 📊 Performance Reports: HTML reports deployed to GitHub Pages
• 📊 PR Comments: Automatic performance results in pull requests

XMake Workflow (xmake.yml)

Triggers: Push, pull requests, manual dispatch

XMake Features:

• 🔨 Alternative Build System: Tests XMake alongside CMake
• 🔨 Build Comparison: Compares CMake vs XMake outputs
• 🔨 Installation Testing: Verifies package installation
• 🔨 Multi-Platform: Ubuntu, Windows, macOS support

🛡️ Security Features

Supply Chain Security

• SBOM Generation: Software Bill of Materials for all builds
• Build Provenance: Cryptographic attestation of build integrity
• Dependency Scanning: Automated vulnerability detection
• Secret Detection: Prevents credential leaks

Runtime Security

• Harden Runner: Network egress monitoring and restriction
• Minimal Permissions: Principle of least privilege for all workflows
• Security Scanning: Multiple security tools for comprehensive coverage

📈 Performance Monitoring

Benchmarking

• Automated Benchmarks: Performance regression detection
• Memory Profiling: Memory usage analysis
• Leak Detection: Memory leak prevention
• Performance Reports: Visual performance tracking

Optimization

• Parallel Builds: Optimized build times
• Smart Caching: Reduced CI execution time
• Artifact Management: Efficient artifact handling

🔄 Dependency Management

Dependabot Configuration

• GitHub Actions: Weekly updates for workflow dependencies
• Python Dependencies: Weekly updates for build tools
• Docker Dependencies: Weekly updates for container images
• Grouped Updates: Batched minor/patch updates

📦 Artifact Management

Build Artifacts

• Multi-Platform Packages: Linux (tar.gz), Windows (zip), macOS (tar.gz)
• Container Images: Multi-arch Docker images (amd64, arm64)
• Debug Information: Build logs and debug artifacts on failure
• Retention Policies: Optimized storage with appropriate retention

Release Assets

• Checksums: SHA256 verification for all releases
• SBOM: Software Bill of Materials for transparency
• Signatures: Build provenance attestation
• Documentation: Automated changelog integration

🚦 Quality Gates

Code Quality

• Formatting: clang-format enforcement
• Static Analysis: cppcheck and clang-tidy
• Security Analysis: Multiple security scanners
• Coverage: Code coverage reporting and tracking

Testing

• Unit Tests: Comprehensive test suite
• Integration Tests: Cross-platform compatibility
• Performance Tests: Regression prevention
• Memory Tests: Leak detection and profiling

🔧 Configuration

Environment Variables

CMAKE_BUILD_PARALLEL_LEVEL: 4    # Parallel build jobs
CTEST_PARALLEL_LEVEL: 4          # Parallel test execution
XMAKE_PARALLEL_JOBS: 4           # XMake parallel jobs

Secrets Required

• GITHUB_TOKEN: Automatically provided
• CODECOV_TOKEN: For coverage reporting (optional)
• WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE: For Windows code signing (optional)
• WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD: For Windows code signing (optional)

📊 Monitoring and Reporting

GitHub Pages

• Performance Reports: Automated performance tracking
• Documentation: API documentation deployment
• Coverage Reports: Code coverage visualization

Notifications

• PR Comments: Automated performance and security feedback
• Security Alerts: Vulnerability notifications
• Build Status: Comprehensive build reporting

🎯 Best Practices Implemented

1. Security First: Comprehensive security scanning and hardening
2. Performance Monitoring: Continuous performance tracking
3. Supply Chain Security: SBOM and provenance attestation
4. Modern Tooling: Latest versions of all tools and actions
5. Efficient Caching: Optimized build times
6. Multi-Platform Support: Comprehensive platform coverage
7. Automated Quality: Enforced code quality standards
8. Transparent Reporting: Comprehensive reporting and feedback

🔄 Migration from Legacy CI

Key Improvements

• Updated Qt Versions: 6.5.0/6.6.0 → 6.7.3/6.8.0
• Modern Actions: Deprecated actions replaced with current versions
• Enhanced Security: Added comprehensive security scanning
• Performance Tracking: Added benchmarking and profiling
• Better Caching: Improved build performance
• Container Support: Added Docker builds and publishing
• Supply Chain Security: SBOM and attestation support

Breaking Changes

• Minimum Qt version now 6.7.3
• Some older OS versions no longer supported
• Additional security requirements for releases

This modernized CI/CD pipeline provides enterprise-grade security, performance monitoring, and reliability while maintaining compatibility with the existing QtLucide codebase.