CI log timestamps

Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate Offering: GitLab.com, Self-managed, GitLab Dedicated
History
  • Introduced in GitLab 17.1 with flags named FF_TIMESTAMPS and parse_ci_job_timestamps. Disabled by default.
  • Feature flag parse_ci_job_timestamps enabled on GitLab.com in GitLab 17.1.
  • Feature flag parse_ci_job_timestamps removed in GitLab 17.2.
The availability of this feature is controlled by a feature flag. For more information, see the history.

Prerequisites:

  • You must be on GitLab Runner 17.0 and later.
  • An administrator must enable the FF_TIMESTAMPS feature flag in .gitlab-ci.yml.

This feature generates a timestamp in the ISO 8601 format for each line in the CI log. With CI log timestamps, you can identify the duration of a specific section in the CI job.

For CI jobs where FF_TIMESTAMPS is enabled, the size of generated artifacts is bigger by approximately 10 percent.

note
If FF_TIMESTMPS is disabled or not included in .gitlab-ci.yml, the CI log output does not include the timestamp for each log line.

Example configuration and output

Example pipeline configuration with FF_TIMESTAMPS enabled: 

variables:
  FF_TIMESTAMPS: true

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

Example log output with FF_TIMESTAMPS enabled:

Timestamps for each log line

Feedback

To provide feedback on this feature prior to GitLab 17.2, leave a comment on issue 463391.