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stage | group | info | type | last_update |
---|---|---|---|---|
Verify | Continuous Integration | To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#designated-technical-writers | reference, index | 2019-07-03 |
Pipelines for Merge Requests
Introduced in GitLab 11.6.
In a basic configuration, GitLab runs a pipeline each time changes are pushed to a branch.
If you want the pipeline to run jobs only on commits to a branch that is associated with a merge request, you can use pipelines for merge requests.
In the UI, these pipelines are labeled as detached
. Otherwise, these pipelines appear the same
as other pipelines.
Any user who has developer permissions can run a pipeline for merge requests.
NOTE: Note: If you use this feature with merge when pipeline succeeds, pipelines for merge requests take precedence over the other regular pipelines.
Prerequisites
To enable pipelines for merge requests:
- Your repository must be a GitLab repository, not an external repository.
- In GitLab 11.10 and later, you must be using GitLab Runner 11.9.
Configuring pipelines for merge requests
To configure pipelines for merge requests you need to configure your CI/CD configuration file. There are a few different ways to do this:
Use rules
to run pipelines for merge requests
When using rules
, which is the preferred method, we recommend starting with one
of the workflow:rules
templates to ensure
your basic configuration is correct. Instructions on how to do this, as well as how
to customize, are available at that link.
Use only
or except
to run pipelines for merge requests
If you want to continue using only/except
, this is possible but please review the drawbacks
below.
When you use this method, you have to specify only: - merge_requests
for each job. In this
example, the pipeline contains a test
job that is configured to run on merge requests.
The build
and deploy
jobs don't have the only: - merge_requests
parameter,
so they will not run on merge requests.
build:
stage: build
script: ./build
only:
- master
test:
stage: test
script: ./test
only:
- merge_requests
deploy:
stage: deploy
script: ./deploy
only:
- master
Excluding certain jobs
The behavior of the only: [merge_requests]
parameter is such that only jobs with
that parameter are run in the context of a merge request; no other jobs will be run.
However, you can invert this behavior and have all of your jobs run except for one or two.
Consider the following pipeline, with jobs A
, B
, and C
. Imagine you want:
- All pipelines to always run
A
andB
. C
to run only for merge requests.
To achieve this, you can configure your .gitlab-ci.yml
file as follows:
.only-default: &only-default
only:
- master
- merge_requests
- tags
A:
<<: *only-default
script:
- ...
B:
<<: *only-default
script:
- ...
C:
script:
- ...
only:
- merge_requests
Therefore:
- Since
A
andB
are getting theonly:
rule to execute in all cases, they will always run. - Since
C
specifies that it should only run for merge requests, it will not run for any pipeline except a merge request pipeline.
This helps you avoid having to add the only:
rule to all of your jobs
in order to make them always run. You can use this format to set up a Review App, helping to save resources.
Excluding certain branches
Pipelines for merge requests require special treatment when
using only
/except
. Unlike ordinary
branch refs (for example refs/heads/my-feature-branch
), merge request refs
use a special Git reference that looks like refs/merge-requests/:iid/head
. Because
of this, the following configuration will not work as expected:
# Does not exclude a branch named "docs-my-fix"!
test:
only: [merge_requests]
except: [/^docs-/]
Instead, you can use the
$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME
predefined environment
variable in
combination with
only:variables
to
accomplish this behavior:
test:
only: [merge_requests]
except:
variables:
- $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ /^docs-/
Pipelines for Merged Results (PREMIUM)
Read the documentation on Pipelines for Merged Results.
Merge Trains (PREMIUM)
Read the documentation on Merge Trains.
Run pipelines in the parent project for merge requests from a forked project (STARTER)
Introduced in GitLab 13.3.
By default, external contributors working from forks can't create pipelines in the parent project. When a pipeline for merge requests is triggered by a merge request coming from a fork:
- It's created and runs in the fork (source) project, not the parent (target) project.
- It uses the fork project's CI/CD configuration and resources.
Sometimes parent project members want the pipeline to run in the parent project. This could be to ensure that the post-merge pipeline passes in the parent project. For example, a fork project could try to use a corrupted runner that doesn't execute test scripts properly, but reports a passed pipeline. Reviewers in the parent project could mistakenly trust the merge request because it passed a faked pipeline.
Parent project members with at least Developer permissions can create pipelines in the parent project for merge requests from a forked project. In the merge request, go to the Pipelines and click Run Pipeline button.
CAUTION: Caution: Fork merge requests could contain malicious code that tries to steal secrets in the parent project when the pipeline runs, even before merge. Reviewers must carefully check the changes in the merge request before triggering the pipeline. GitLab shows a warning that must be accepted before the pipeline can be triggered.
Additional predefined variables
By using pipelines for merge requests, GitLab exposes additional predefined variables to the pipeline jobs. Those variables contain information of the associated merge request, so that it's useful to integrate your job with GitLab Merge Request API.
You can find the list of available variables in the reference sheet.
The variable names begin with the CI_MERGE_REQUEST_
prefix.
Troubleshooting
Two pipelines created when pushing to a merge request
If you are experiencing duplicated pipelines when using rules
, take a look at
the important differences between rules
and only
/except
,
which will help you get your starting configuration correct.
If you are seeing two pipelines when using only/except
, please see the caveats
related to using only/except
above (or, consider moving to rules
).
It is not possible to run a job for branch pipelines first, then only for merge request pipelines after the merge request is created (skipping the duplicate branch pipeline). See the related issue for more details.
Two pipelines created when pushing an invalid CI configuration file
Pushing to a branch with an invalid CI configuration file can trigger the creation of two types of failed pipelines. One pipeline is a failed merge request pipeline, and the other is a failed branch pipeline, but both are caused by the same invalid configuration.