Add or remove Omnibus GitLab configuration options

Add a configuration option

Adding a configuration option may happen during any release milestone.

  • Add an entry to files/gitlab-config-template/gitlab.rb.template as documentation for administrators.
  • Add a default value for the new option:
    • Values specific to a service should be set in the appropriate files/gitlab-cookbooks/SERVICE_NAME/attributes/default.rb
    • General values may be set in files/gitlab-cookbooks/gitlab/attributes/default.rb
  • If the value requires calculations at runtime, then it should be added to the defined parse_variables method in the related cookbook.
  • Consider whether the option should be added to public attributes.

Remove a configuration option

Distribution follows a strict process when removing configuration options to minimize disruptions for Omnibus GitLab administrators.

  1. Create an issue for deprecating the configuration option.
  2. Create an issue for removing the configuration option that happens no less than three milestones after adding the deprecation messages.

Deprecate the option

  • Add deprecation messages.
  • Remove the configuration options from files/gitlab-config-template/gitlab.rb.template to prevent their use in new installations.

Final removal of the option

  • Remove the default values for the deprecated option from files/gitlab-cookbooks/gitlab/attributes/default.rb.