What is an artifact?
An artifact is a software binary or code that you package, which can be distributed or shipped as a single unit to be executed or can be used as a dependency for other software programs. For example, in our aws-code-pipeline sample application, which we developed in Chapter 3, we produced a JAR file (aws-code-pipeline-xxx.jar) as an artifact that can be executed as a Spring Boot application.
Similarly, in our application, we are using a bunch of Maven dependencies as we import those in our pom.xml files; those dependencies are the artifacts that get downloaded by Maven to build our application.
An artifact is a term used for the software package, and it can have different packaging types or extensions. For example, an Android mobile app will have an APK file as an artifact.
Now that we understand what an artifact is, we need to understand how to manage and store these artifacts effectively.
