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Pipelines for the GitLab project

Pipelines for https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab and https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss (as well as the dev instance's mirrors) are configured in the usual .gitlab-ci.yml which itself includes files under .gitlab/ci/ for easier maintenance.

We're striving to dogfood GitLab CI/CD features and best-practices as much as possible.

Stages

The current stages are:

  • sync: This stage is used to synchronize changes from https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab to https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss.
  • prepare: This stage includes jobs that prepare artifacts that are needed by jobs in subsequent stages.
  • quick-test: This stage includes test jobs that should run first and fail the pipeline early (currently used to run Geo tests when the branch name starts with geo-, geo/, or ends with -geo).
  • test: This stage includes most of the tests, DB/migration jobs, and static analysis jobs.
  • post-test: This stage includes jobs that build reports or gather data from the test stage's jobs (e.g. coverage, Knapsack metadata etc.).
  • review-prepare: This stage includes a job that build the CNG images that are later used by the (Helm) Review App deployment (see Review Apps for details).
  • review: This stage includes jobs that deploy the GitLab and Docs Review Apps.
  • qa: This stage includes jobs that perform QA tasks against the Review App that is deployed in the previous stage.
  • post-qa: This stage includes jobs that build reports or gather data from the qa stage's jobs (e.g. Review App performance report).
  • notification: This stage includes jobs that sends notifications about pipeline status.
  • pages: This stage includes a job that deploys the various reports as GitLab Pages (e.g. https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab/coverage-ruby/, https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab/coverage-javascript/, https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab/webpack-report/).

Default image

The default image is currently registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-build-images:ruby-2.6.3-golang-1.12-git-2.24-lfs-2.9-chrome-73.0-node-12.x-yarn-1.16-postgresql-9.6-graphicsmagick-1.3.33.

It includes Ruby 2.6.3, Go 1.12, Git 2.24, Git LFS 2.9, Chrome 73, Node 12, Yarn 1.16, PostgreSQL 9.6, and Graphics Magick 1.3.33.

The images used in our pipelines are configured in the gitlab-org/gitlab-build-images project, which is push-mirrored to https://dev.gitlab.org/gitlab/gitlab-build-images for redundancy.

The current version of the build images can be found in the "Used by GitLab section".

Default variables

In addition to the predefined variables, each pipeline includes default variables defined in https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/master/.gitlab-ci.yml.

Common job definitions

Most of the jobs extend from a few CI definitions that are scoped to a single configuration parameter.

These common definitions are:

  • .default-tags: Ensures a job has the gitlab-org tag to ensure it's using our dedicated runners.
  • .default-retry: Allows a job to retry upon unknown_failure, api_failure, runner_system_failure.
  • .default-before_script: Allows a job to use a default before_script definition suitable for Ruby/Rails tasks that may need a database running (e.g. tests).
  • .default-cache: Allows a job to use a default cache definition suitable for Ruby/Rails and frontend tasks.
  • .default-only: Restricts the cases where a job is created. This currently includes master, /^[\d-]+-stable(-ee)?$/ (stable branches), /^\d+-\d+-auto-deploy-\d+$/ (auto-deploy branches), /^security\// (security branches), merge_requests, tags. Note that jobs won't be created for branches with this default configuration.
  • .only:variables-canonical-dot-com: Only creates a job if the project is located under https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org.
  • .only:variables_refs-canonical-dot-com-schedules: Same as .only:variables-canonical-dot-com but add the condition that pipeline is scheduled.
  • .except:refs-deploy: Don't create a job if the ref is an auto-deploy branch.
  • .except:refs-master-tags-stable-deploy: Don't create a job if the ref is one of:
    • master
    • a tag
    • a stable branch
    • an auto-deploy branch
  • .only:kubernetes: Only creates a job if a Kubernetes integration is enabled on the project.
  • .only-review: This extends from:
    • .only:variables-canonical-dot-com
    • .only:kubernetes
    • .except:refs-master-tags-stable-deploy
  • .only-review-schedules: This extends from:
    • .only:variables_refs-canonical-dot-com-schedules
    • .only:kubernetes
    • .except:refs-deploy
  • .use-pg9: Allows a job to use the postgres:9.6 and redis:alpine services.
  • .use-pg10: Allows a job to use the postgres:10.9 and redis:alpine services.
  • .use-pg9-ee: Same as .use-pg9 but also use the docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:5.6.12 services.
  • .use-pg10-ee: Same as .use-pg10 but also use the docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:5.6.12 services.
  • .only-ee: Only creates a job for the gitlab or gitlab-ee project.
  • .only-ee-as-if-foss: Same as .only-ee but simulate the FOSS project by setting the FOSS_ONLY='1' environment variable.

Changes detection

If a job extends from .default-only (and most of the jobs should), it can restrict the cases where it should be created based on the changes from a commit or MR by extending from the following CI definitions:

  • .only:changes-code: Allows a job to only be created upon code-related changes.
  • .only:changes-qa: Allows a job to only be created upon QA-related changes.
  • .only:changes-docs: Allows a job to only be created upon docs-related changes.
  • .only:changes-graphql: Allows a job to only be created upon GraphQL-related changes.
  • .only:changes-code-backstage: Allows a job to only be created upon code-related or backstage-related (e.g. Danger, RuboCop, specs) changes.
  • .only:changes-code-qa: Allows a job to only be created upon code-related or QA-related changes.
  • .only:changes-code-backstage-qa: Allows a job to only be created upon code-related, backstage-related (e.g. Danger, RuboCop, specs) or QA-related changes.

See https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/master/.gitlab/ci/global.gitlab-ci.yml for the list of exact patterns.

Directed acyclic graph

We're using the needs: keyword to execute jobs out of order for the following jobs:

graph RL;
  A[setup-test-env];
  B["gitlab:assets:compile pull-push-cache<br/>(master only)"];
  C[gitlab:assets:compile pull-cache];
  D["cache gems<br/>(master and tags only)"];
  E[review-build-cng];
  F[build-qa-image];
  G[review-deploy];
  G2["schedule:review-deploy<br/>(master only)"];
  H[karma];
  I[jest];
  J["compile-assets pull-push-cache<br/>(master only)"];
  K[compile-assets pull-cache];
  L[webpack-dev-server];
  M[coverage];
  N[pages];
  O[static-analysis];
  P["schedule:package-and-qa<br/>(master schedule only)"];
  Q[package-and-qa];
  R[package-and-qa-manual];
  S["RSpec<br/>(e.g. rspec unit pg9)"]
  T[retrieve-tests-metadata];

subgraph "`prepare` stage"
    A
    F
    K
    J
    T
    end

subgraph "`test` stage"
    B --> |needs| A;
    C --> |needs| A;
    D --> |needs| A;
    H -.-> |needs and depends on| A;
    H -.-> |needs and depends on| K;
    I -.-> |needs and depends on| A;
    I -.-> |needs and depends on| K;
    L -.-> |needs and depends on| A;
    L -.-> |needs and depends on| K;
    O -.-> |needs and depends on| A;
    O -.-> |needs and depends on| K;
    S -.-> |needs and depends on| A;
    S -.-> |needs and depends on| K;
    S -.-> |needs and depends on| T;
    downtime_check --> |needs and depends on| A;
    db:* --> |needs| A;
    gitlab:setup --> |needs| A;
    downtime_check --> |needs and depends on| A;
    graphql-docs-verify --> |needs| A;
    end

subgraph "`review-prepare` stage"
    E --> |needs| C;
    X["schedule:review-build-cng<br/>(master schedule only)"] --> |needs| C;
    end

subgraph "`review` stage"
    G
    G2
    end

subgraph "`qa` stage"
    Q --> |needs| C;
    Q --> |needs| F;
    R --> |needs| C;
    R --> |needs| F;
    P --> |needs| C;
    P --> |needs| F;
    review-qa-smoke -.-> |needs and depends on| G;
    review-qa-all -.-> |needs and depends on| G;
    review-performance -.-> |needs and depends on| G;
    X2["schedule:review-performance<br/>(master only)"] -.-> |needs and depends on| G2;
    dast -.-> |needs and depends on| G;
    end

subgraph "`notification` stage"
    NOTIFICATION1["schedule:package-and-qa:notify-success<br>(on_success)"] -.-> |needs| P;
    NOTIFICATION2["schedule:package-and-qa:notify-failure<br>(on_failure)"] -.-> |needs| P;
    end

subgraph "`post-test` stage"
    M
    end

subgraph "`pages` stage"
    N -.-> |depends on| C;
    N -.-> |depends on| H;
    N -.-> |depends on| M;
    end

Test jobs

Consult GitLab tests in the Continuous Integration (CI) context for more information.

Review app jobs

Consult the Review Apps dedicated page for more information.

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