Class Q+A

**Can I have Jenkins build a specific folder instead of a whole repo?**

That depends on a few things. Are you using Jenkins Pipelines (either the DSL plugin or native pipelines with 2.x+). If no, then they can't build specific folders. If yes, then it's a bit tricky but technically possible. What they would have to do is have an SCM step in their pipeline to checkout a specific folder, and they would need build instructions within that folder (.travis.yml, .circleci.yml, build.xml, etc)

Resources:
[Jenkins SCM](https://jenkins.io/doc/pipeline/steps/workflow-scm-step/)
[Customizing Your Pipeline](https://support.cloudbees.com/hc/en-us/articles/226122247-How-to-Customize-Checkout-for-Pipeline-Multibranch-)

**Can branches be tied to specific servers within Jenkins?**

Which context are the servers in? Jenkins build servers? GitHub Enterprise servers (non-clustered)? another context?

If we mean Jenkins build servers, the answer would be that they would need to specify the "agent" that the pipeline runs on. The pipeline script has "agent any" to specify that it can build anywhere... or you can assign labels to the Jenkins nodes and assign one specifically to the build

You can also assign a different agent in each step, so it's not really tied to the branch, but *can* be.

Resources:
[Jenkins Pipelines](https://jenkins.io/doc/book/pipeline/syntax/ )
[Controlling Your Build Environment](https://github.com/jenkinsci/pipeline-model-definition-plugin/wiki/Controlling-your-build-environment)

**How do we increase the timeout duration on LDAP searches, or pushes with 4K-5k files?**

It's generally not recommended to extend an LDAP timeout. You can look at disabling LDAP authentication for Git operations (new in 2.11). This will, however, mean that all users will need to use Personal Access Tokens in their Git clients (instead of username/password). LDAP will still be hit for web logins, but it’ll no longer hit LDAP for every single Git operation.

Generally, libraries should not be checked in and it would be more preferable to use a package registry like _NPM_. If you _have to_ include the library, it should only be done once as the library files shouldn’t change that often.

**We use databases and want to do small scale releases/deploys. Is I️t possible to get granular with tagging/releases to only address small parts of a repository?**

The best advice here would be to create smaller repositories. My team confirmed this sentiment.

cc: @nagjamna + @hollenberry (myself so I'm subscribed)

Feel free to add any pressing questions here and I'll be happy to follow up with the team if I have any spare time! Also, feel free to e-mail us directly at services@github.com