What is the type and files in artifacts, aws buildspec yaml file

Question

I am a noob. What is the 'artifacts' in the buildsepc yaml file?

I read on https://docs.aws.amazon.com/codebuild/latest/userguide/getting-started-create-build-spec-console.html,

"Artifacts represents the set of build output artifacts that CodeBuild uploads to the output bucket. files represents the files to include in the build output."

Maybe, I am not understanding it correctly. Given the settings in the screenshot above, I expect two zipped files(template.yml and outputtemplate.yml) to be uploaded to the output bucket, say BUCKET=MYBUCKET.

But, when I check my S3 bucket after I build and deploy it, I have 2 files named like c7e84f72729709f7a0.

Also, just to understand what's going on, I tried removing the lines: 'type: zip' and '-template.yml', and built and deployed again. I expected only 1 file since I removed line 8 and 10. But, the result was still two files sitting in my bucket. What exactly are the artifacts? And What is the type?(this I can't even find any documentations). Why is the type in most cases, if not always, zip? when in fact the uploaded file is not actually not a zip file?

Thank you.

Answer 1

The file c7e84f72729709f7a0 is your zip file. It will contain both yml files. Just unpack it as any other zip file. May need to add extension .zip if required by your unpacking software.

I don't know where the type: zip comes from. The reference docs for the buldspec.yml do not document such a field.

And artifacts are outcomes files of your build. For example, when you are building a C++ project, it would be executable or library files resulting from compilation of your C++ source code.

The artifices are also carried over to a next stage of your CI/CD pipeline, such as integration testing or deployment with CodeDeploy.

Answer 2

Just to add to Marcin's answer, the type property of artifacts was deprecated in version 0.2 (the one that's being used here). You can see the changes across buildspec versions at the bottom of this page.