gitlab-org--gitlab-foss/doc/ci/pipeline_schedules.md

# Pipeline Schedules

> **Note**:
- This feature was introduced in 9.1 as [Trigger Schedule][ce-105533]
- In 9.2, the feature was [renamed to Pipeline Schedule][ce-10853]

Pipeline schedules can be used to run pipelines only once, or for example every
month on the 22nd for a certain branch.

## Using Pipeline Schedules

In order to schedule pipelines, navigate to your their pages **Pipelines ➔ Schedules**
and click the **New Schedule** button.

![New Schedule Form](img/pipeline_schedules_new_form.png)

After entering the form, hit **Save Schedule** for the changes to have effect.
You can check a next execution date of the scheduled trigger, which is automatically calculated by a server.

## Taking ownership

![Schedules list](img/pipeline_schedules_list.png)

Pipelines are executed as a user, which owns a schedule. This influences what
projects and other resources the pipeline has access to. If a user does not own
a pipeline, you can take ownership by clicking the **Take ownership** button.
The next time a pipeline is scheduled, your credentials will be used.

> **Notes**:
- Those pipelines won't be executed precicely. Because schedules are handled by
Sidekiq, which runs according to its interval. For exmaple, if you set a schedule to
create a pipeline every minute (`* * * * *`) and the Sidekiq worker performs 00:00
and 12:00 o'clock every day (`0 */12 * * *`), only 2 pipelines will be created per day.
To change the Sidekiq worker's frequency, you have to edit the `trigger_schedule_worker_cron`
value in your `gitlab.rb` and restart GitLab. The Sidekiq worker's configuration
on GiLab.com is able to be looked up at [here](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/config/gitlab.yml.example#L185).
- Cron notation is parsed by [Rufus-Scheduler](https://github.com/jmettraux/rufus-scheduler).
- When the owner of the schedule does not have the ability to create pipelines
anymore, due to e.g. being blocked or removed from the project, the schedule is
deactivated. Another user can take ownership and activate it, so the schedule is
run again.

[ce-10533]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/10533
[ce-10853]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/10853