Configuring continuous integration

Many people (especially developers) will have heard of continuous integration (CI) or continuous deployment (CD). However, most of them cannot explain their meanings and the differences between the two terms. So, what is CI and CD, in reality?

When it comes to releasing your application, it might seem easy to upload some files to a server and then start the application through a simple command in the shell, via SSH.

This approach might be a solution for many developers or small applications that are not updated often. However, for most scenarios, it is not a good approach. The word continuous represents the fact that all changes or updates are continuously either tested, integrated, or even released. This would be a lot of work, and it would be tough to do if we stayed with a simple file upload and took a manual approach. Automating this workflow makes it convenient to update your application at any time.

CI is the development practice where...