Introducing the GitLab platform
What is GitLab?
The company called GitLab makes a single product: a web application that is also called GitLab.Behind the scenes, the GitLab web application is a complicated collection of tools, databases, queues, and glue code holding it all together, but as far as the user is concerned, it’s just a single, web-based tool for building software.
Different Meanings of “GitLab”
Throughout this book, the term “GitLab” refers to the tool rather than the company, unless we explicitly say otherwise.
As we discussed in the first chapter, GitLab’s single-tool model is much easier to install, administer, and upgrade than any collection of separate, more focused tools. It requires only a single set of credentials per user. It offers a consistent GUI for all of its features. It integrates all the software development life cycle tools, allowing data to flow smoothly and without loss or distortion from one feature...