Configuring JENKINS_HOME

The .jenkins is the main that contains all the details for Jenkins installation files, configurations, plugins, build job configuration, and so on.

Getting ready

It is important to keep the .jenkins directory at a location where a good amount of free space is available. By default, Jenkins creates .jenkins (or JENKINS_HOME) at a specific location considering the operating systems.

For example, in Windows it is available at C:\Users\<USER_NAME>\.jenkins.

How to do it...

1. In Windows, to change to JENKINS_HOME, go to the Control Panel | All Control Panel Items | System.
2. Click on Advanced System Settings.
3. Click on Environment Variables.
4. Create a new variable JENKINS_HOME and give the path:

5. In Ubuntu, go to /etc/default/Jenkins.
6. Change the JENKINS_HOME location:

7. Once changes are done, save the changes.

How it works...

Once JENKINS_HOME is changed, you need to restart Jenkins. The next time Jenkins starts, it will take JENKINS_HOME as the location that you have configured.

There's more...

The following table describes the default location of JENKINS_HOME in different operating systems:

Operating system	$JENKINS_HOME location
Windows	C:\Program Files (x86)\jenkins or C:\Users\<USER>\.jenkins
Mac OSX	Macintosh HD/Users/Shared/Jenkins
Ubuntu/Debian	/var/lib/jenkins
Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora	/var/lib/jenkins
OpenSUSE	/var/lib/jenkins
FreeBSD	/usr/local/etc/jenkins
OpenBSD	/usr/local/etc/jenkins