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Variables

When receiving a build from GitLab CI, the runner prepares the build environment. It starts by setting a list of predefined variables (Environment Variables) and a list of user-defined variables

The variables can be overwritten. They take precedence over each other in this order:

  1. Trigger variables
  2. Secure variables
  3. YAML-defined job-level variables
  4. YAML-defined global variables
  5. Predefined variables

For example, if you define:

  1. API_TOKEN=SECURE as Secure Variable
  2. API_TOKEN=YAML as YAML-defined variable

The API_TOKEN will take the Secure Variable value: SECURE.

Predefined variables (Environment Variables)

Variable GitLab Runner Description
CI all 0.4 Mark that build is executed in CI environment
GITLAB_CI all all Mark that build is executed in GitLab CI environment
CI_SERVER all all Mark that build is executed in CI environment
CI_SERVER_NAME all all The name of CI server that is used to coordinate builds
CI_SERVER_VERSION all all GitLab version that is used to schedule builds
CI_SERVER_REVISION all all GitLab revision that is used to schedule builds
CI_BUILD_ID all all The unique id of the current build that GitLab CI uses internally
CI_BUILD_REF all all The commit revision for which project is built
CI_BUILD_TAG all 0.5 The commit tag name. Present only when building tags.
CI_BUILD_NAME all 0.5 The name of the build as defined in .gitlab-ci.yml
CI_BUILD_STAGE all 0.5 The name of the stage as defined in .gitlab-ci.yml
CI_BUILD_REF_NAME all all The branch or tag name for which project is built
CI_BUILD_REPO all all The URL to clone the Git repository
CI_BUILD_TRIGGERED all 0.5 The flag to indicate that build was triggered
CI_BUILD_MANUAL 8.12 all The flag to indicate that build was manually started
CI_BUILD_TOKEN all 1.2 Token used for authenticating with the GitLab Container Registry
CI_PIPELINE_ID 8.10 0.5 The unique id of the current pipeline that GitLab CI uses internally
CI_PROJECT_ID all all The unique id of the current project that GitLab CI uses internally
CI_PROJECT_NAME 8.10 0.5 The project name that is currently being built
CI_PROJECT_NAMESPACE 8.10 0.5 The project namespace (username or groupname) that is currently being built
CI_PROJECT_PATH 8.10 0.5 The namespace with project name
CI_PROJECT_URL 8.10 0.5 The HTTP address to access project
CI_PROJECT_DIR all all The full path where the repository is cloned and where the build is run
CI_REGISTRY 8.10 0.5 If the Container Registry is enabled it returns the address of GitLab's Container Registry
CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE 8.10 0.5 If the Container Registry is enabled for the project it returns the address of the registry tied to the specific project
CI_RUNNER_ID 8.10 0.5 The unique id of runner being used
CI_RUNNER_DESCRIPTION 8.10 0.5 The description of the runner as saved in GitLab
CI_RUNNER_TAGS 8.10 0.5 The defined runner tags
CI_DEBUG_TRACE all 1.7 Whether debug tracing is enabled
GITLAB_USER_ID 8.12 all The id of the user who started the build
GITLAB_USER_EMAIL 8.12 all The email of the user who started the build

Some of the variables are only available when using runner with at least defined version.

Example values:

export CI_BUILD_ID="50"
export CI_BUILD_REF="1ecfd275763eff1d6b4844ea3168962458c9f27a"
export CI_BUILD_REF_NAME="master"
export CI_BUILD_REPO="https://gitab-ci-token:abcde-1234ABCD5678ef@gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce.git"
export CI_BUILD_TAG="1.0.0"
export CI_BUILD_NAME="spec:other"
export CI_BUILD_STAGE="test"
export CI_BUILD_MANUAL="true"
export CI_BUILD_TRIGGERED="true"
export CI_BUILD_TOKEN="abcde-1234ABCD5678ef"
export CI_PIPELINE_ID="1000"
export CI_PROJECT_ID="34"
export CI_PROJECT_DIR="/builds/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce"
export CI_PROJECT_NAME="gitlab-ce"
export CI_PROJECT_NAMESPACE="gitlab-org"
export CI_PROJECT_PATH="gitlab-org/gitlab-ce"
export CI_PROJECT_URL="https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce"
export CI_REGISTRY="registry.gitlab.com"
export CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE="registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce"
export CI_RUNNER_ID="10"
export CI_RUNNER_DESCRIPTION="my runner"
export CI_RUNNER_TAGS="docker, linux"
export CI_SERVER="yes"
export CI_SERVER_NAME="GitLab"
export CI_SERVER_REVISION="70606bf"
export CI_SERVER_VERSION="8.9.0"
export GITLAB_USER_ID="42"
export GITLAB_USER_EMAIL="alexzander@sporer.com"

YAML-defined variables

*This feature requires GitLab Runner 0.5.0 or higher and GitLab CI 7.14 or higher *

GitLab CI allows you to add to .gitlab-ci.yml variables that are set in build environment. The variables are stored in repository and are meant to store non-sensitive project configuration, ie. RAILS_ENV or DATABASE_URL.

variables:
  DATABASE_URL: "postgres://postgres@postgres/my_database"

These variables can be later used in all executed commands and scripts.

The YAML-defined variables are also set to all created service containers, thus allowing to fine tune them.

Variables can be defined at a global level, but also at a job level.

More information about Docker integration can be found in Using Docker Images.

Debug tracing

WARNING: Enabling debug tracing can have severe security implications. The output will contain the content of all your secure variables and any other secrets! The output will be uploaded to the GitLab server and made visible in build traces!

By default, GitLab Runner hides most of the details of what it is doing when processing a job. This behaviour keeps build traces short, and prevents secrets from being leaked into the trace unless your script writes them to the screen.

If a job isn't working as expected, this can make the problem difficult to investigate; in these cases, you can enable debug tracing in .gitlab-ci.yml. Available on GitLab Runner v1.7+, this feature enables the shell's execution trace, resulting in a verbose build trace listing all commands that were run, variables that were set, etc.

Before enabling this, you should ensure builds are visible to team members only. You should also erase all generated build traces before making them visible again.

To enable debug traces, set the CI_DEBUG_TRACE variable to true:

job1:
  variables:
    CI_DEBUG_TRACE: "true"

The example project demonstrates a working configuration, including build trace examples.

User-defined variables (Secure Variables)

This feature requires GitLab Runner 0.4.0 or higher

GitLab CI allows you to define per-project Secure Variables that are set in the build environment. The secure variables are stored out of the repository (the .gitlab-ci.yml). The variables are securely passed to GitLab Runner and are available in the build environment. It's desired method to use them for storing passwords, secret keys or whatever you want.

The value of the variable can be shown in build log if explicitly asked to do so. If your project is public or internal you can make the builds private.

Secure Variables can added by going to Project > Variables > Add Variable.

They will be available for all subsequent builds.

Use variables

The variables are set as environment variables in build environment and are accessible with normal methods that are used to access such variables. In most cases the bash is used to execute build script. To access variables (predefined and user-defined) in bash environment, prefix the variable name with $:

job_name:
  script:
    - echo $CI_BUILD_ID

You can also list all environment variables with export command, but be aware that this will also expose value of all Secure Variables in build log:

job_name:
  script:
    - export