Introduction
Configuration parameters
Parameter details
Deprecated parameters
- types
- type
Custom build directories
- Handling concurrency
Special YAML features
- Hidden keys (jobs)
- Anchors
Triggers
Processing Git pushes
Skipping jobs

GitLab CI/CD Pipeline Configuration Reference

GitLab CI/CD pipelines are configured using a YAML file called .gitlab-ci.yml within each project.

The .gitlab-ci.yml file defines the structure and order of the pipelines and determines:

What to execute using GitLab Runner.
What decisions to make when specific conditions are encountered. For example, when a process succeeds or fails.

This topic covers CI/CD pipeline configuration. For other CI/CD configuration information, see:

GitLab CI/CD Variables, for configuring the environment the pipelines run in.
GitLab Runner advanced configuration, for configuring GitLab Runner.

We have complete examples of configuring pipelines:

For a quick introduction to GitLab CI, follow our quick start guide.
For a collection of examples, see GitLab CI/CD Examples.
To see a large .gitlab-ci.yml file used in an enterprise, see the .gitlab-ci.yml file for gitlab-ce.

Note: If you have a mirrored repository where GitLab pulls from, you may need to enable pipeline triggering in your project’s Settings > Repository > Pull from a remote repository > Trigger pipelines for mirror updates.

Introduction

Pipeline configuration begins with jobs. Jobs are the most fundamental element of a .gitlab-ci.yml file.

Jobs are:

Defined with constraints stating under what conditions they should be executed.
Top-level elements with an arbitrary name and must contain at least the script clause.
Not limited in how many can be defined.

For example:

job1:
  script: "execute-script-for-job1"

job2:
  script: "execute-script-for-job2"

The above example is the simplest possible CI/CD configuration with two separate jobs, where each of the jobs executes a different command. Of course a command can execute code directly (./configure;make;make install) or run a script (test.sh) in the repository.

Jobs are picked up by Runners and executed within the environment of the Runner. What is important, is that each job is run independently from each other.

Validate the .gitlab-ci.yml

Each instance of GitLab CI has an embedded debug tool called Lint, which validates the content of your .gitlab-ci.yml files. You can find the Lint under the page ci/lint of your project namespace. For example, https://gitlab.example.com/gitlab-org/project-123/-/ci/lint.

Unavailable names for jobs

Each job must have a unique name, but there are a few reserved keywords that cannot be used as job names:

image
services
stages
types
before_script
after_script
variables
cache

Using reserved keywords

If you get validation error when using specific values (for example, true or false), try to:

Quote them.
Change them to a different form. For example, /bin/true.

Configuration parameters

A job is defined as a list of parameters that define the job’s behavior.

The following table lists available parameters for jobs:

Keyword	Description
`script`	Shell script which is executed by Runner.
`image`	Use docker images. Also available: `image:name` and `image:entrypoint`.
`services`	Use docker services images. Also available: `services:name`, `services:alias`, `services:entrypoint`, and `services:command`.
`before_script`	Override a set of commands that are executed before job.
`after_script`	Override a set of commands that are executed after job.
`stages`	Define stages in a pipeline.
`stage`	Defines a job stage (default: `test`).
`only`	Limit when jobs are created. Also available: `only:refs`, `only:kubernetes`, `only:variables`, and `only:changes`.
`except`	Limit when jobs are not created. Also available: `except:refs`, `except:kubernetes`, `except:variables`, and `except:changes`.
`tags`	List of tags which are used to select Runner.
`allow_failure`	Allow job to fail. Failed job doesn’t contribute to commit status.
`when`	When to run job. Also available: `when:manual` and `when:delayed`.
`environment`	Name of an environment to which the job deploys. Also available: `environment:name`, `environment:url`, `environment:on_stop`, and `environment:action`.
`cache`	List of files that should be cached between subsequent runs. Also available: `cache:paths`, `cache:key`, `cache:untracked`, and `cache:policy`.
`artifacts`	List of files and directories to attach to a job on success. Also available: `artifacts:paths`, `artifacts:name`, `artifacts:untracked`, `artifacts:when`, `artifacts:expire_in`, `artifacts:reports`, and `artifacts:reports:junit`. In GitLab Enterprise Edition, these are available: `artifacts:reports:codequality`, `artifacts:reports:sast`, `artifacts:reports:dependency_scanning`, `artifacts:reports:container_scanning`, `artifacts:reports:dast`, `artifacts:reports:license_management`, `artifacts:reports:performance` and `artifacts:reports:metrics`.
`dependencies`	Other jobs that a job depends on so that you can pass artifacts between them.
`coverage`	Code coverage settings for a given job.
`retry`	When and how many times a job can be auto-retried in case of a failure.
`parallel`	How many instances of a job should be run in parallel.
`trigger`	Defines a downstream pipeline trigger.
`include`	Allows this job to include external YAML files. Also available: `include:local`, `include:file`, `include:template`, and `include:remote`.
`extends`	Configuration entries that this job is going to inherit from.
`pages`	Upload the result of a job to use with GitLab Pages.
`variables`	Define job variables on a job level.

Note: Parameters types and type are deprecated.

Parameter details

The following are detailed explanations for parameters used to configure CI/CD pipelines.

`script`

script is the only required keyword that a job needs. It’s a shell script which is executed by the Runner. For example:

job:
  script: "bundle exec rspec"

This parameter can also contain several commands using an array:

job:
  script:
    - uname -a
    - bundle exec rspec

Note: Sometimes, script commands will need to be wrapped in single or double quotes. For example, commands that contain a colon (:) need to be wrapped in quotes so that the YAML parser knows to interpret the whole thing as a string rather than a “key: value” pair. Be careful when using special characters: :, {, }, [, ], ,, &, *, #, ?, |, -, <, >, =, !, %, @, `.

`image`

Used to specify a Docker image to use for the job.

For:

Simple definition examples, see Define image and services from .gitlab-ci.yml.
Detailed usage information, refer to Docker integration documentation.

`image:name`

An extended docker configuration option.

For more information, see Available settings for image.

`image:entrypoint`

An extended docker configuration option.

For more information, see Available settings for image.

`services`

Used to specify a service Docker image, linked to a base image specified in image.

For:

Simple definition examples, see Define image and services from .gitlab-ci.yml.
Detailed usage information, refer to Docker integration documentation.
For example services, see GitLab CI Services.

`before_script` and `after_script`

Introduced in GitLab 8.7 and requires GitLab Runner v1.2.

before_script is used to define the command that should be run before all jobs, including deploy jobs, but after the restoration of artifacts. This can be an array or a multi-line string.

after_script is used to define the command that will be run after all jobs, including failed ones. This has to be an array or a multi-line string.

Script specified in before_script is:

Concatenated with script specified in the main script. Job-level before_script definition override global-level before_script definition when concatenated with script definition.
Executed together with main script script as one script in a single shell context.

Script specified in after_script:

Have a current working directory set back to the default.
Is executed in a shell context separated from before_script and script scripts.
Because of separated context, cannot see changes done by scripts defined in before_script or script scripts:
- in shell - for example, command aliases and variables exported in script script,
- outside of the working tree (depending on the Runner executor) - for example, software installed by a before_script or script script.

It’s possible to overwrite the globally defined before_script and after_script if you set it per-job:

before_script:
  - global before script

job:
  before_script:
    - execute this instead of global before script
  script:
    - my command
  after_script:
    - execute this after my script

`stages`

stages is used to define stages that can be used by jobs and is defined globally.

The specification of stages allows for having flexible multi stage pipelines. The ordering of elements in stages defines the ordering of jobs’ execution:

Jobs of the same stage are run in parallel.
Jobs of the next stage are run after the jobs from the previous stage complete successfully.

Let’s consider the following example, which defines 3 stages:

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

First, all jobs of build are executed in parallel.
If all jobs of build succeed, the test jobs are executed in parallel.
If all jobs of test succeed, the deploy jobs are executed in parallel.
If all jobs of deploy succeed, the commit is marked as passed.
If any of the previous jobs fails, the commit is marked as failed and no jobs of further stage are executed.

There are also two edge cases worth mentioning:

If no stages are defined in .gitlab-ci.yml, then the build, test and deploy are allowed to be used as job’s stage by default.
If a job doesn’t specify a stage, the job is assigned the test stage.

`stage`

stage is defined per-job and relies on stages which is defined globally. It allows to group jobs into different stages, and jobs of the same stage are executed in parallel (subject to certain conditions). For example:

stages:
  - build
  - test
  - deploy

job 1:
  stage: build
  script: make build dependencies

job 2:
  stage: build
  script: make build artifacts

job 3:
  stage: test
  script: make test

job 4:
  stage: deploy
  script: make deploy

Using your own Runners

When using your own Runners, GitLab Runner runs only one job at a time by default (see the concurrent flag in Runner global settings for more information).

Jobs will run on your own Runners in parallel only if:

Run on different Runners.
The Runner’s concurrent setting has been changed.

`only`/`except` (basic)

only and except are two parameters that set a job policy to limit when jobs are created:

only defines the names of branches and tags for which the job will run.
except defines the names of branches and tags for which the job will not run.

There are a few rules that apply to the usage of job policy:

only and except are inclusive. If both only and except are defined in a job specification, the ref is filtered by only and except.
only and except allow the use of regular expressions (supported regexp syntax).
only and except allow to specify a repository path to filter jobs for forks.

In addition, only and except allow the use of special keywords:

Value	Description
`branches`	When a git reference of a pipeline is a branch.
`tags`	When a git reference of a pipeline is a tag.
`api`	When pipeline has been triggered by a second pipelines API (not triggers API).
`external`	When using CI services other than GitLab.
`pipelines`	For multi-project triggers, created using the API with `CI_JOB_TOKEN`.
`pushes`	Pipeline is triggered by a `git push` by the user.
`schedules`	For scheduled pipelines.
`triggers`	For pipelines created using a trigger token.
`web`	For pipelines created using Run pipeline button in GitLab UI (under your project’s Pipelines).
`merge_requests`	When a merge request is created or updated (See pipelines for merge requests).
`chats`	For jobs created using a GitLab ChatOps command.

In the example below, job will run only for refs that start with issue-, whereas all branches will be skipped:

job:
  # use regexp
  only:
    - /^issue-.*$/
  # use special keyword
  except:
    - branches

Pattern matching is case-sensitive by default. Use i flag modifier, like /pattern/i to make a pattern case-insensitive:

job:
  # use regexp
  only:
    - /^issue-.*$/i
  # use special keyword
  except:
    - branches

In this example, job will run only for refs that are tagged, or if a build is explicitly requested via an API trigger or a Pipeline Schedule:

job:
  # use special keywords
  only:
    - tags
    - triggers
    - schedules

The repository path can be used to have jobs executed only for the parent repository and not forks:

job:
  only:
    - branches@gitlab-org/gitlab-ce
  except:
    - master@gitlab-org/gitlab-ce
    - /^release/.*$/@gitlab-org/gitlab-ce

The above example will run job for all branches on gitlab-org/gitlab-ce, except master and those with names prefixed with release/.

If a job does not have an only rule, only: ['branches', 'tags'] is set by default. If it doesn’t have an except rule, it is empty.

For example,

job:
  script: echo 'test'

is translated to:

job:
  script: echo 'test'
  only: ['branches', 'tags']

Regular expressions

Because @ is used to denote the beginning of a ref’s repository path, matching a ref name containing the @ character in a regular expression requires the use of the hex character code match \x40.

Only the tag or branch name can be matched by a regular expression. The repository path, if given, is always matched literally.

If a regular expression shall be used to match the tag or branch name, the entire ref name part of the pattern has to be a regular expression, and must be surrounded by /. (With regular expression flags appended after the closing /.) So issue-/.*/ won’t work to match all tag names or branch names that begin with issue-.

Tip Use anchors ^ and $ to avoid the regular expression matching only a substring of the tag name or branch name. For example, /^issue-.*$/ is equivalent to /^issue-/, while just /issue/ would also match a branch called severe-issues.

Supported `only`/`except` regexp syntax

Warning: This is a breaking change that was introduced with GitLab 11.9.4.

In GitLab 11.9.4, GitLab begun internally converting regexp used in only and except parameters to RE2.

This means that only subset of features provided by Ruby Regexp is supported. RE2 limits the set of features provided due to computational complexity, which means some features became unavailable in GitLab 11.9.4. For example, negative lookaheads.

For GitLab versions from 11.9.7 and up to GitLab 12.0, GitLab provides a feature flag that can be enabled by administrators that allows users to use unsafe regexp syntax. This brings compatibility with previously allowed syntax version and allows users to gracefully migrate to the new syntax.

Feature.enable(:allow_unsafe_ruby_regexp)

`only`/`except` (advanced)

Warning: This an alpha feature, and it is subject to change at any time without prior notice!

GitLab supports both simple and complex strategies, so it’s possible to use an array and a hash configuration scheme.

Four keys are available:

refs
variables
changes
kubernetes

If you use multiple keys under only or except, they act as an AND. The logic is:

(any of refs) AND (any of variables) AND (any of changes) AND (if kubernetes is active)

`only:refs`/`except:refs`

refs policy introduced in GitLab 10.0.

The refs strategy can take the same values as the simplified only/except configuration.

In the example below, the deploy job is going to be created only when the pipeline has been scheduled or runs for the master branch:

deploy:
  only:
    refs:
      - master
      - schedules

`only:kubernetes`/`except:kubernetes`

kubernetes policy introduced in GitLab 10.0.

The kubernetes strategy accepts only the active keyword.

In the example below, the deploy job is going to be created only when the Kubernetes service is active in the project:

deploy:
  only:
    kubernetes: active

`only:variables`/`except:variables`

variables policy introduced in GitLab 10.7.

The variables keyword is used to define variables expressions. In other words, you can use predefined variables / project / group or environment-scoped variables to define an expression GitLab is going to evaluate in order to decide whether a job should be created or not.

Examples of using variables expressions:

deploy:
  script: cap staging deploy
  only:
    refs:
      - branches
    variables:
      - $RELEASE == "staging"
      - $STAGING

Another use case is excluding jobs depending on a commit message:

end-to-end:
  script: rake test:end-to-end
  except:
    variables:
      - $CI_COMMIT_MESSAGE =~ /skip-end-to-end-tests/

Learn more about variables expressions.

`only:changes`/`except:changes`

changes policy introduced in GitLab 11.4.

Using the changes keyword with only or except makes it possible to define if a job should be created based on files modified by a git push event.

For example:

docker build:
  script: docker build -t my-image:$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG .
  only:
    changes:
      - Dockerfile
      - docker/scripts/*
      - dockerfiles/**/*
      - more_scripts/*.{rb,py,sh}

In the scenario above, when pushing multiple commits to GitLab to an existing branch, GitLab creates and triggers the docker build job, provided that one of the commits contains changes to any of the following:

The Dockerfile file.
Any of the files inside docker/scripts/ directory.
Any of the files and subdirectories inside the dockerfiles directory.
Any of the files with rb, py, sh extensions inside the more_scripts directory.

You can also use glob patterns to match multiple files in either the root directory of the repo, or in any directory within the repo. For example:

test:
  script: npm run test
  only:
    changes:
      - "*.json"
      - "**/*.sql"

Note: In the example above, the expressions are wrapped double quotes because they are glob patterns. GitLab will fail to parse .gitlab-ci.yml files with unwrapped glob patterns.

The following example will skip the CI job if a change is detected in any file in the root directory of the repo with a .md extension:

build:
  script: npm run build
  except:
    changes:
      - "*.md"

Warning: There are some caveats when using this feature with new branches and tags. See the section below.

Using `changes` with new branches and tags

When pushing a new branch or a new tag to GitLab, the policy always evaluates to true and GitLab will create a job. This feature is not connected with merge requests yet and, because GitLab is creating pipelines before a user can create a merge request, it is unknown what the target branch is at this point.

Using `changes` with `merge_requests`

With pipelines for merge requests, it is possible to define a job to be created based on files modified in a merge request.

For example:

docker build service one:
  script: docker build -t my-service-one-image:$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG .
  only:
    refs:
      - merge_requests
    changes:
      - Dockerfile
      - service-one/**/*

In the scenario above, if a merge request is created or updated that changes either files in service-one directory or the Dockerfile, GitLab creates and triggers the docker build service one job.

`tags`

tags is used to select specific Runners from the list of all Runners that are allowed to run this project.

During the registration of a Runner, you can specify the Runner’s tags, for example ruby, postgres, development.

tags allow you to run jobs with Runners that have the specified tags assigned to them:

job:
  tags:
    - ruby
    - postgres

The specification above, will make sure that job is built by a Runner that has both ruby AND postgres tags defined.

Tags are also a great way to run different jobs on different platforms, for example, given an OS X Runner with tag osx and Windows Runner with tag windows, the following jobs run on respective platforms:

windows job:
  stage:
    - build
  tags:
    - windows
  script:
    - echo Hello, %USERNAME%!

osx job:
  stage:
    - build
  tags:
    - osx
  script:
    - echo "Hello, $USER!"

`allow_failure`

allow_failure allows a job to fail without impacting the rest of the CI suite. The default value is false, except for manual jobs.

When enabled and the job fails, the job will show an orange warning in the UI. However, the logical flow of the pipeline will consider the job a success/passed, and is not blocked.

Assuming all other jobs are successful, the job’s stage and its pipeline will show the same orange warning. However, the associated commit will be marked “passed”, without warnings.

In the example below, job1 and job2 will run in parallel, but if job1 fails, it will not stop the next stage from running, since it’s marked with allow_failure: true:

job1:
  stage: test
  script:
    - execute_script_that_will_fail
  allow_failure: true

job2:
  stage: test
  script:
    - execute_script_that_will_succeed

job3:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - deploy_to_staging

`when`

when is used to implement jobs that are run in case of failure or despite the failure.

when can be set to one of the following values:

on_success - execute job only when all jobs from prior stages succeed (or are considered succeeding because they are marked allow_failure). This is the default.
on_failure - execute job only when at least one job from prior stages fails.
always - execute job regardless of the status of jobs from prior stages.
manual - execute job manually (added in GitLab 8.10). Read about manual actions below.

For example:

stages:
  - build
  - cleanup_build
  - test
  - deploy
  - cleanup

build_job:
  stage: build
  script:
    - make build

cleanup_build_job:
  stage: cleanup_build
  script:
    - cleanup build when failed
  when: on_failure

test_job:
  stage: test
  script:
    - make test

deploy_job:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - make deploy
  when: manual

cleanup_job:
  stage: cleanup
  script:
    - cleanup after jobs
  when: always

The above script will:

Execute cleanup_build_job only when build_job fails.
Always execute cleanup_job as the last step in pipeline regardless of success or failure.
Allow you to manually execute deploy_job from GitLab’s UI.

`when:manual`

Introduced in GitLab 8.10.
Blocking manual actions were introduced in GitLab 9.0.
Protected actions were introduced in GitLab 9.2.

Manual actions are a special type of job that are not executed automatically, they need to be explicitly started by a user. An example usage of manual actions would be a deployment to a production environment. Manual actions can be started from the pipeline, job, environment, and deployment views. Read more at the environments documentation.

Manual actions can be either optional or blocking. Blocking manual actions will block the execution of the pipeline at the stage this action is defined in. It’s possible to resume execution of the pipeline when someone executes a blocking manual action by clicking a play button.

When a pipeline is blocked, it will not be merged if Merge When Pipeline Succeeds is set. Blocked pipelines also do have a special status, called manual. Manual actions are non-blocking by default. If you want to make manual action blocking, it is necessary to add allow_failure: false to the job’s definition in .gitlab-ci.yml.

Optional manual actions have allow_failure: true set by default and their Statuses do not contribute to the overall pipeline status. So, if a manual action fails, the pipeline will eventually succeed.

Manual actions are considered to be write actions, so permissions for protected branches are used when a user wants to trigger an action. In other words, in order to trigger a manual action assigned to a branch that the pipeline is running for, the user needs to have the ability to merge to this branch.

`when:delayed`

Introduced in GitLab 11.4.

Delayed job are for executing scripts after a certain period. This is useful if you want to avoid jobs entering pending state immediately.

You can set the period with start_in key. The value of start_in key is an elapsed time in seconds, unless a unit is provided. start_in key must be less than or equal to one hour. Examples of valid values include:

10 seconds
30 minutes
1 hour

When there is a delayed job in a stage, the pipeline will not progress until the delayed job has finished. This means this keyword can also be used for inserting delays between different stages.

The timer of a delayed job starts immediately after the previous stage has completed. Similar to other types of jobs, a delayed job’s timer will not start unless the previous stage passed.

The following example creates a job named timed rollout 10% that is executed 30 minutes after the previous stage has completed:

timed rollout 10%:
  stage: deploy
  script: echo 'Rolling out 10% ...'
  when: delayed
  start_in: 30 minutes

You can stop the active timer of a delayed job by clicking the Unschedule button. This job will never be executed in the future unless you execute the job manually.

You can start a delayed job immediately by clicking the Play button. GitLab runner will pick your job soon and start the job.

`environment`

Introduced in GitLab 8.9.
You can read more about environments and find more examples in the documentation about environments.

environment is used to define that a job deploys to a specific environment. If environment is specified and no environment under that name exists, a new one will be created automatically.

In its simplest form, the environment keyword can be defined like:

deploy to production:
  stage: deploy
  script: git push production HEAD:master
  environment:
    name: production

In the above example, the deploy to production job will be marked as doing a deployment to the production environment.

`environment:name`

Introduced in GitLab 8.11.
Before GitLab 8.11, the name of an environment could be defined as a string like environment: production. The recommended way now is to define it under the name keyword.
The name parameter can use any of the defined CI variables, including predefined, secure variables and .gitlab-ci.yml variables. You however cannot use variables defined under script.

The environment name can contain:

letters
digits
spaces
-
_
/
$
{
}

Common names are qa, staging, and production, but you can use whatever name works with your workflow.

Instead of defining the name of the environment right after the environment keyword, it is also possible to define it as a separate value. For that, use the name keyword under environment:

deploy to production:
  stage: deploy
  script: git push production HEAD:master
  environment:
    name: production

`environment:url`

Introduced in GitLab 8.11.
Before GitLab 8.11, the URL could be added only in GitLab’s UI. The recommended way now is to define it in .gitlab-ci.yml.
The url parameter can use any of the defined CI variables, including predefined, secure variables and .gitlab-ci.yml variables. You however cannot use variables defined under script.

This is an optional value that when set, it exposes buttons in various places in GitLab which when clicked take you to the defined URL.

In the example below, if the job finishes successfully, it will create buttons in the merge requests and in the environments/deployments pages which will point to https://prod.example.com.

deploy to production:
  stage: deploy
  script: git push production HEAD:master
  environment:
    name: production
    url: https://prod.example.com

`environment:on_stop`

Introduced in GitLab 8.13.
Starting with GitLab 8.14, when you have an environment that has a stop action defined, GitLab will automatically trigger a stop action when the associated branch is deleted.

Closing (stopping) environments can be achieved with the on_stop keyword defined under environment. It declares a different job that runs in order to close the environment.

Read the environment:action section for an example.

`environment:action`

Introduced in GitLab 8.13.

The action keyword is to be used in conjunction with on_stop and is defined in the job that is called to close the environment.

Take for instance:

review_app:
  stage: deploy
  script: make deploy-app
  environment:
    name: review
    on_stop: stop_review_app

stop_review_app:
  stage: deploy
  script: make delete-app
  when: manual
  environment:
    name: review
    action: stop

In the above example we set up the review_app job to deploy to the review environment, and we also defined a new stop_review_app job under on_stop. Once the review_app job is successfully finished, it will trigger the stop_review_app job based on what is defined under when. In this case we set it up to manual so it will need a manual action via GitLab’s web interface in order to run.

The stop_review_app job is required to have the following keywords defined:

when - reference
environment:name
environment:action
stage should be the same as the review_app in order for the environment to stop automatically when the branch is deleted

Dynamic environments

Introduced in GitLab 8.12 and GitLab Runner 1.6.
The $CI_ENVIRONMENT_SLUG was introduced in GitLab 8.15.
The name and url parameters can use any of the defined CI variables, including predefined, secure variables and .gitlab-ci.yml variables. You however cannot use variables defined under script.

For example:

deploy as review app:
  stage: deploy
  script: make deploy
  environment:
    name: review/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME
    url: https://$CI_ENVIRONMENT_SLUG.example.com/

The deploy as review app job will be marked as deployment to dynamically create the review/$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME environment, where $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME is an environment variable set by the Runner. The $CI_ENVIRONMENT_SLUG variable is based on the environment name, but suitable for inclusion in URLs. In this case, if the deploy as review app job was run in a branch named pow, this environment would be accessible with an URL like https://review-pow.example.com/.

This of course implies that the underlying server which hosts the application is properly configured.

The common use case is to create dynamic environments for branches and use them as Review Apps. You can see a simple example using Review Apps at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-examples/review-apps-nginx/.

`cache`

Introduced in GitLab Runner v0.7.0.
cache can be set globally and per-job.
From GitLab 9.0, caching is enabled and shared between pipelines and jobs by default.
From GitLab 9.2, caches are restored before artifacts.

Learn more: Read how caching works and find out some good practices in the caching dependencies documentation.

cache is used to specify a list of files and directories which should be cached between jobs. You can only use paths that are within the project workspace.

If cache is defined outside the scope of jobs, it means it is set globally and all jobs will use that definition.

`cache:paths`

Use the paths directive to choose which files or directories will be cached. Wildcards can be used as well.

Cache all files in binaries that end in .apk and the .config file:

rspec:
  script: test
  cache:
    paths:
      - binaries/*.apk
      - .config

Locally defined cache overrides globally defined options. The following rspec job will cache only binaries/:

cache:
  paths:
    - my/files

rspec:
  script: test
  cache:
    key: rspec
    paths:
      - binaries/

Note that since cache is shared between jobs, if you’re using different paths for different jobs, you should also set a different cache:key otherwise cache content can be overwritten.

`cache:key`

Introduced in GitLab Runner v1.0.0.

Since the cache is shared between jobs, if you’re using different paths for different jobs, you should also set a different cache:key otherwise cache content can be overwritten.

The key directive allows you to define the affinity of caching between jobs, allowing to have a single cache for all jobs, cache per-job, cache per-branch or any other way that fits your workflow. This way, you can fine tune caching, allowing you to cache data between different jobs or even different branches.

The cache:key variable can use any of the predefined variables, and the default key, if not set, is just literal default which means everything is shared between each pipelines and jobs by default, starting from GitLab 9.0.

Note: The cache:key variable cannot contain the / character, or the equivalent URI-encoded %2F; a value made only of dots (., %2E) is also forbidden.

For example, to enable per-branch caching:

cache:
  key: "$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG"
  paths:
    - binaries/

If you use Windows Batch to run your shell scripts you need to replace $ with %:

cache:
  key: "%CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG%"
  paths:
    - binaries/

`cache:untracked`

Set untracked: true to cache all files that are untracked in your Git repository:

rspec:
  script: test
  cache:
    untracked: true

Cache all Git untracked files and files in binaries:

rspec:
  script: test
  cache:
    untracked: true
    paths:
      - binaries/

`cache:policy`

Introduced in GitLab 9.4.

The default behaviour of a caching job is to download the files at the start of execution, and to re-upload them at the end. This allows any changes made by the job to be persisted for future runs, and is known as the pull-push cache policy.

If you know the job doesn’t alter the cached files, you can skip the upload step by setting policy: pull in the job specification. Typically, this would be twinned with an ordinary cache job at an earlier stage to ensure the cache is updated from time to time:

stages:
  - setup
  - test

prepare:
  stage: setup
  cache:
    key: gems
    paths:
      - vendor/bundle
  script:
    - bundle install --deployment

rspec:
  stage: test
  cache:
    key: gems
    paths:
      - vendor/bundle
    policy: pull
  script:
    - bundle exec rspec ...

This helps to speed up job execution and reduce load on the cache server, especially when you have a large number of cache-using jobs executing in parallel.

Additionally, if you have a job that unconditionally recreates the cache without reference to its previous contents, you can use policy: push in that job to skip the download step.

`artifacts`

Introduced in GitLab Runner v0.7.0 for non-Windows platforms.
Windows support was added in GitLab Runner v.1.0.0.
From GitLab 9.2, caches are restored before artifacts.
Not all executors are supported.
Job artifacts are only collected for successful jobs by default.

artifacts is used to specify a list of files and directories which should be attached to the job when it succeeds, fails, or always.

The artifacts will be sent to GitLab after the job finishes and will be available for download in the GitLab UI.

`artifacts:paths`

You can only use paths that are within the project workspace. To pass artifacts between different jobs, see dependencies.

Send all files in binaries and .config:

artifacts:
  paths:
    - binaries/
    - .config

To disable artifact passing, define the job with empty dependencies:

job:
  stage: build
  script: make build
  dependencies: []

You may want to create artifacts only for tagged releases to avoid filling the build server storage with temporary build artifacts.

Create artifacts only for tags (default-job will not create artifacts):

default-job:
  script:
    - mvn test -U
  except:
    - tags

release-job:
  script:
    - mvn package -U
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - target/*.war
  only:
    - tags

`artifacts:name`

Introduced in GitLab 8.6 and GitLab Runner v1.1.0.

The name directive allows you to define the name of the created artifacts archive. That way, you can have a unique name for every archive which could be useful when you’d like to download the archive from GitLab. The artifacts:name variable can make use of any of the predefined variables. The default name is artifacts, which becomes artifacts.zip when downloaded.

Note: If your branch-name contains forward slashes (e.g. feature/my-feature) it is advised to use $CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG instead of $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME for proper naming of the artifact.

To create an archive with a name of the current job:

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "$CI_JOB_NAME"
    paths:
      - binaries/

To create an archive with a name of the current branch or tag including only the binaries directory:

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"
    paths:
      - binaries/

To create an archive with a name of the current job and the current branch or tag including only the binaries directory:

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "$CI_JOB_NAME-$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"
    paths:
      - binaries/

To create an archive with a name of the current stage and branch name:

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "$CI_JOB_STAGE-$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"
    paths:
      - binaries/

If you use Windows Batch to run your shell scripts you need to replace $ with %:

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "%CI_JOB_STAGE%-%CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME%"
    paths:
      - binaries/

If you use Windows PowerShell to run your shell scripts you need to replace $ with $env::

job:
  artifacts:
    name: "$env:CI_JOB_STAGE-$env:CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"
    paths:
      - binaries/

`artifacts:untracked`

artifacts:untracked is used to add all Git untracked files as artifacts (along to the paths defined in artifacts:paths).

Note: artifacts:untracked ignores configuration in the repository’s .gitignore file.

Send all Git untracked files:

artifacts:
  untracked: true

Send all Git untracked files and files in binaries:

artifacts:
  untracked: true
  paths:
    - binaries/

`artifacts:when`

Introduced in GitLab 8.9 and GitLab Runner v1.3.0.

artifacts:when is used to upload artifacts on job failure or despite the failure.

artifacts:when can be set to one of the following values:

on_success - upload artifacts only when the job succeeds. This is the default.
on_failure - upload artifacts only when the job fails.
always - upload artifacts regardless of the job status.

To upload artifacts only when job fails:

job:
  artifacts:
    when: on_failure

`artifacts:expire_in`

Introduced in GitLab 8.9 and GitLab Runner v1.3.0.

expire_in allows you to specify how long artifacts should live before they expire and therefore deleted, counting from the time they are uploaded and stored on GitLab. If the expiry time is not defined, it defaults to the instance wide setting (30 days by default, forever on GitLab.com).

You can use the Keep button on the job page to override expiration and keep artifacts forever.

After their expiry, artifacts are deleted hourly by default (via a cron job), and are not accessible anymore.

The value of expire_in is an elapsed time in seconds, unless a unit is provided. Examples of parsable values:

‘42’
‘3 mins 4 sec’
‘2 hrs 20 min’
‘2h20min’
‘6 mos 1 day’
‘47 yrs 6 mos and 4d’
‘3 weeks and 2 days’

To expire artifacts 1 week after being uploaded:

job:
  artifacts:
    expire_in: 1 week

`artifacts:reports`

Introduced in GitLab 11.2. Requires GitLab Runner 11.2 and above.

The reports keyword is used for collecting test reports from jobs and exposing them in GitLab’s UI (merge requests, pipeline views). Read how to use this with JUnit reports.

Note: The test reports are collected regardless of the job results (success or failure). You can use artifacts:expire_in to set up an expiration date for their artifacts.

Note: If you also want the ability to browse the report output files, include the artifacts:paths keyword.

`artifacts:reports:junit`

Introduced in GitLab 11.2. Requires GitLab Runner 11.2 and above.

The junit report collects JUnit XML files as artifacts. Although JUnit was originally developed in Java, there are many third party ports for other languages like JavaScript, Python, Ruby, etc.

See JUnit test reports for more details and examples. Below is an example of collecting a JUnit XML file from Ruby’s RSpec test tool:

rspec:
  stage: test
  script:
  - bundle install
  - rspec --format RspecJunitFormatter --out rspec.xml
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit: rspec.xml

The collected JUnit reports will be uploaded to GitLab as an artifact and will be automatically shown in merge requests.

Note: In case the JUnit tool you use exports to multiple XML files, you can specify multiple test report paths within a single job and they will be automatically concatenated into a single file. Use a filename pattern (junit: rspec-*.xml), an array of filenames (junit: [rspec-1.xml, rspec-2.xml, rspec-3.xml]), or a combination thereof (junit: [rspec.xml, test-results/TEST-*.xml]).