3.13. What’s in the Jenkins Home Directory

The Jenkins home directory contains all the details of your Jenkins server configuration, details that you configure in the Manage Jenkins screen. These configuration details are stored in the form of a set of XML files. Much of the core configuration, for example, is stored in the config.xml file. Other tools-specific configuration is stored in other appropriately-named XML files: the details of your Maven installations, for example, are stored in a file called hudson.tasks.Maven.xml. You rarely need to modify these files by hand, though occasionally it can come in handy.

The Jenkins home directory also contains a number of subdirectories (see Figure 3-7). Not all of the files and directories will be present after a fresh installation, as some are created when required by Jenkins. And if you look at an existing Jenkins installation, you will see additional XML files relating to Jenkins configuration and plugins.