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

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

---

Caveat: the "Pass dotenv variables created in a job" documentation mentions:

You can pass variables to a downstream job with dotenv variable inheritance and needs:project.
These variables are only available in the script of the job and can’t be used to configure it, for example, with rules or artifact:paths.

Except needs:project is marked as a feature for GitLab Premium only.
See issue 14311:

Because multi-project pipelines is a GitLab Premium feature (https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/multi_project_pipelines.html) this feature should be as well.
For those who may be disappointed, I apologize.

There was a proposal to move multi-project-pipeline to the Community Edition: denied.

Answer 2

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...

Answer 3

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 4

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..