Gitlab cache not uploading due to policy - caching

Question

I am getting the error Not uploading cache {name of branch} due to policy in my gitlab runner. My .yaml file looks like this:
stages:
- test
- staging
- publish
- deploy
# cache using branch name
# https://gitlab.com/help/ci/caching/index.md
cache:
key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
paths:
- .yarn
- node_modules/
policy: pull
before_script:
- yarn install --cache-folder .yarn
test:
stage: test
image: node:14
script:
- yarn install
- yarn test
pages:
stage: staging
image: alekzonder/puppeteer
except:
- master
script:
- yarn install
- yarn compile
- yarn build
publish:
stage: publish
image: alekzonder/puppeteer
when: manual
script:
- yarn install
- yarn compile
- yarn build
artifacts:
paths:
- dist
deploy:
image: google/cloud-sdk:latest
stage: deploy
needs:
- publish
script:
- gcloud auth activate-service-account --account ${GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT} --key-file ${GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS}
- gsutil -u test rsync -r -d dist/ gs://test.ca
I was wondering why it always fails to upload, and thereby fails to extract the cache. Any tips or corrections welcome. Here is a screenshot of where it fails:

Answer 1

You have the following set:
cache:
key: ${CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG}
paths:
- .yarn
- node_modules/
policy: pull
Which sets a pipeline-global precedent that you only want to (policy: pull) pull from the cache.
You'll want to read https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#cachepolicy
If you omit the policy: piece, the default is to pull-push (which will get your cache uploading).
I tend to have my pipelines structured a little different than yours, though. I typically have a "prep" step that I define, and then run the yarn install once there:
"Installing Dependencies":
image: node:lts
stage: Prep
cache:
paths:
- .yarn
- node_modules/
policy: pull-push
script:
yarn install
...
Note: Then you can leave your global policy of 'pull', since this one job will have an override to pull-push.
Then, you can remove the yarn install on all other tasks, as the cache will be restored.