Continuous integration

Introduction#

The GitLab CI runs build jobs based on a checked in .gitlab-ci.yml. Jobs are run on a remote server in it’s own docker container.

The CI server itself is configured with a config.toml.

Remarks#

A build will fail if any lines in a job return an exit code != 0.

Runner installation

Debian, Ubuntu and CentOS

Add the official repository

Debian/Ubuntu

curl -L https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/runner/gitlab-ci-multi-runner/script.deb.sh | sudo bash

CentOS

curl -L https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/runner/gitlab-ci-multi-runner/script.rpm.sh | sudo bash

Install the gitlab-ci-multi-runner package

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install gitlab-ci-multi-runner

CentOS

sudo yum install gitlab-ci-multi-runner

Enter the URL to your GitLab CI. It should look like this https://example.com/ci
Enter the registration token. If this is a project specfic runner you can find the token in Project settings -> Runners. If it is a shared runner go to Admin area -> Runners and find the registration token there.
Now give your runner a descriptive name.
Select the executor which you want to use. Valid executors are: shell (These can be later configured to use sh or bash),docker,docker-ssh,ssh,parallels,virtualbox,docker+machine or docker-ssh+machine. For more detail information on executors check the official documentation.

Windows

Download the runner binary and place it somewhere appropriate on your system.
Open a command prompt as Administrator
Register the runner

register

Enter the URL to your GitLab CI. It should look like this https://example.com/ci
Enter the registration token. If this is a project specfic runner you can find the token in Project settings -> Runners. If it is a shared runner go to Admin area -> Runners and find the registration token there.
Now give your runner a descriptive name.
Select the executor which you want to use. Valid executors are: shell(Can be later configured to use cmd or powershell),ssh,parallels or virtualbox. For more detail information on executors check the official documentation.

(Optional) Register runner as service

install —user —password
Start the runner

start

Runner configuration

The config location for your runner is:

Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS

/etc/gitlab-runner/config.toml if run as root

~/.gitlab-runner/config.toml if run as non-root

Windows

config.toml where your binary is located

A minimal config.toml can look like this:

concurrent = 1
[[runners]]
  name = "ExampleRunner"
  url = "https://example.com/ci"
  token = "f3058595ca4b2d217726466b1feed9"
  executor = "shell"
  shell = "bash"

For advanced configuration please check the official documentation.

Setup Gitlab CI to allow cloning other private repositories

Some projects like GoLang might need to clone other dependent GitLab repositories during build. To get this working you can add a Deploy Key to dependent repositories and put the private key (without password) into the origin repository.

Create and check-in a SSH key inside the Git Repository that depends on some other repository during build time:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "My CI Deploykey"

# In the following promt name the key "deploykey" and leave the passphrase empty
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa): deploykey
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in deploykey.
Your public key has been saved in deploykey.pub.

# check-in both files

Use the deploykey.pub to configure a deploykey in the dependent repository. You can find an Deploykey page in the GitLab Project Settings.

Now add the following to you .gitlab-ci.yml

before_script:
  # Git and SSH setup to clone private repos
  # Needs the deploykey file to be installed in all dependent repositories
  - git config --global url."git@gitlab.com:".insteadOf "https://gitlab.com/"
  # Add gitlab to known_hosts
  - mkdir -p ~/.ssh && chmod 700 ~/.ssh
  - ssh-keyscan -H gitlab.com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
  # Start the ssh agent and add the deploykey
  - chmod 400 deploykey
  - eval $(ssh-agent -s)
  - ssh-add deploykey

Now any call to git clone inside your build should work. Even if it’s via some other tools like go get, govendor sync, or whatever you are using.