Can't share global variable value between jobs in gitlab ci yaml file - yaml

Question

I'm trying to build an application using GitLab CI.
The name of the generated file is depending on the time, in this format
DEV_APP_yyyyMMddhhmm
(example: DEV_APP_201810221340, corresponding to the date of today 2018/10/22 13h40).
How can I store this name in a global variable inside the .gitlab-ci.yml file?
Here is my .gitlab-ci.yml file:
image: docker:latest
image: docker:latest
services:
- docker:dind
variables:
DOCKER_DRIVER: overlay
SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE: gitlab-ci
# TIME: ""
# BRANCH: ""
# REC_BUILD_NAME: ""
TIME: "timex"
BRANCH: "branchx"
DEV_BUILD_NAME: "DEV_APP_x"
stages:
- preparation
- build
- package
- deploy
- manual_rec_build
- manual_rec_package
job_preparation:
stage: preparation
script:
- echo ${TIME}
- export TIME=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M)
- "BRANCH=$(echo $CI_BUILD_REF_SLUG | sed 's/[^[[:alnum:]]/_/g')"
- "DEV_BUILD_NAME=DEV_APP_${BRANCH}_${TIME}"
- echo ${TIME}
maven-build:
image: maven:3-jdk-8
stage: build
script:
- echo ${TIME}
- "mvn package -B"
artifacts:
paths:
- target/*.jar
only:
- merge-requests
- /^feature\/sprint.*$/
- /^DEV_.*$/
# when: manual
docker-build:
stage: package
script:
- echo ${TIME}
- docker build -t registry.gitlab.com/mourad.sellam/actuator-simple .
- docker login -u gitlab-ci-token -p $CI_BUILD_TOKEN registry.gitlab.com
- docker push registry.gitlab.com/mourad.sellam/actuator-simple
only:
- merge-requests
- /^feature\/sprint.*$/
- /^DEV_.*$/
when: manual
k8s-deploy-production:
image: google/cloud-sdk
stage: deploy
script:
- echo ${TIME}
- echo "$GOOGLE_KEY" > key.json
- gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file key.json
- gcloud config set compute/zone europe-west1-c
- gcloud config set project actuator-sample
- gcloud config set container/use_client_certificate True
- gcloud container clusters get-credentials actuator-example
- kubectl delete secret registry.gitlab.com
- kubectl create secret docker-registry registry.gitlab.com --docker-server=https://registry.gitlab.com --docker-username=myUserName--docker-password=$REGISTRY_PASSWD --docker-email=myEmail#gmail.com
- kubectl apply -f deployment.yml --namespace=production
environment:
name: production
url: https://example.production.com
when: manual
job_manual_rec_build:
image: maven:3-jdk-8
stage: manual_rec_build
script:
- echo ${TIME}
- "mvn package -B"
artifacts:
paths:
- target/*.jar
when: manual
# allow_failure: false
job_manual_rec_package:
stage: manual_rec_package
variables:
script:
- echo ${TIME}
- echo ${DEV_BUILD_NAME}
- docker build -t registry.gitlab.com/mourad.sellam/actuator-simple:${DEV_BUILD_NAME} .
- docker login -u gitlab-ci-token -p $CI_BUILD_TOKEN registry.gitlab.com
- docker push registry.gitlab.com/mourad.sellam/actuator-simple
artifacts:
paths:
- target/*.jar
when: on_success
#test 1
When I call
echo ${TIME}
It displays "timex".
echo faild
Could you tell me how to store a global variable and set it in each job?

Answer 1

Check if GitLab 13.0 (May 2020) could help in your case:
Inherit environment variables from other jobs
Passing environment variables (or other data) between CI jobs is now possible.
By using the dependencies keyword (or needs keyword for DAG pipelines), a job can inherit variables from other jobs if they are sourced with dotenv report artifacts.
This offers a more graceful approach for updating variables between jobs compared to artifacts or passing files.
See documentation and issue.
You can inherit environment variables from dependent jobs.
This feature makes use of the artifacts:reports:dotenv report feature.
Example with dependencies keyword.
build:
stage: build
script:
- echo "BUILD_VERSION=hello" >> build.env
artifacts:
reports:
dotenv: build.env
deploy:
stage: deploy
script:
- echo $BUILD_VERSION # => hello
dependencies:
- build
Example with the needs keyword:
build:
stage: build
script:
- echo "BUILD_VERSION=hello" >> build.env
artifacts:
reports:
dotenv: build.env
deploy:
stage: deploy
script:
- echo $BUILD_VERSION # => hello
needs:
- job: build
artifacts: true

Answer 2

You can use artifacts for passing data between jobs. Here's example from Flant to check previous pipeline manual decision:
approve:
script:
- mkdir -p .ci_status
- echo $(date +%s) > .ci_status/approved
artifacts:
paths:
- .ci_status/
NOT approve:
script:
- mkdir -p .ci_status
- echo $(date +%s) > .ci_status/not_approved
artifacts:
paths:
- .ci_status/
deploy to production:
script:
- if [[ $(cat .ci_status/not_approved) > $(cat .ci_status/approved) ]]; then echo "Need approve from release engineer!"; exit 1; fi
- echo "deploy to production!"

Answer 3

There's an open issue 47517 'Pass variables between jobs' on Gitlab CE..
CI/CD often needs to pass information from one job to another and
artifacts can be used for this, although it's a heavy solution with
unintended side effects. Workspaces is another proposal for passing
files between jobs. But sometimes you don't want to pass files at all,
just a small bit of data.
I have faced the same issue, and workaround this by storing DATA in file, then access to it in other Jobs..

Answer 4

You kind of can....The way I went about it:
You can send a POST request to the project to save a variable:
export VARIABLE=secret
curl --request POST --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: $CI_ACCESS_TOKEN" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/$CI_PROJECT_ID/variables/" --form "key=VARIABLE" --form "value=$VARIABLE"
and cleanup after the work/trigger is finished
curl --request DELETE --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: $CI_ACCESS_TOKEN" "https://gitlab.seznam.net/api/v4/projects/$CI_PROJECT_ID/variables/VARIABLE"
I'm not sure it suppose to be used this way, but it does the trick. You have the variable accessible for all the following jobs (specially when you use trigger and script in that job is not an option.)
Just please make sure, you run the cleanup job even if previous once fail...