Denomas CI/CD Hands-On Guide: Lab 5

This Hands-On Guide walks you through the lab exercises in the Denomas CI/CD course.

Denomas CI/CD Hands-On Guide: Lab 5

LAB 5: VARIABLE HIERARCHY

Add custom variables

  1. Go to the snippets page of the CI-CD Hands On Demo project.

  2. Open the ci-variables snippet and click the Copy file contents icon in the upper right corner of the file.

  3. Open your CICD Demo project from previous labs.

  4. Select your .gitlab-ci.yml file to view its contents. Select the dropdown next to Edit, then select Edit this file only.

  5. Select Edit. Paste the snippet at the end of the file, with an empty line between the file’s previous content and the snippet’s content.

  6. Near the top of your .gitlab-ci.yml, in a new line below the entire stages section, paste the following:

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    variables:
  INLINE_GLOBAL_VARIABLE: "I'm an inline variable set at the global level of the CI/CD configuration file"

  7. Inside the environment variables job, just below that job’s stage: build line (but before the script line), paste the following. The variables keyword should be at the same indendation as that job’s stage amd script keywords.

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    variables:
  INLINE_LOCAL_VARIABLE: "I'm an inline variable set at the job level of the CI/CD configuration file"

    When defining variables, watch your indentation. Global variables must be indented by 2 spaces, and must be immediately under a flush-left variables keyword that is outside any job definition. Local variables must be indented 4 spaces, and must be immediately under a variables keyword that is indented 2 spaces and is within a job definition. Here’s a reference example of how to define global and local variables:

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    # NOTE: this code demonstrates how to define global and local variables.
# Do NOT copy and paste this code into your .gitlab-ci.yml file.

variables:
  GLOBAL_SCOPE_VAR: "value1"

job-a:
  variables:
    LOCAL_SCOPE_VAR: "value2"
  script:
    - echo $LOCAL_SCOPE_VAR
    - echo $GLOBAL_SCOPE_VAR

  8. In the Commit message field, type Add custom variables, ensure the Target Branch set to main, and click Commit changes.

Add group- and project-level variables

  1. Navigate to your My Test Group group by selecting it from the breadcrumbs at the top of the page.
  2. In the left-hand navigation pane, select Settings > CI/CD
  3. In the Variables section, select the Expand button.
  4. Select Add Variable. Enter group_level_variable in the Key dialog box. Hint: watch your spelling, capitalization, and underscores! This variable will be visible within all subgroups and projects that live in this group.
  5. Type I'm a variable set at the group level in the Value dialog box.
  6. Leave all other options at their defaults and select Add variable.
  7. Navigate to your project by clicking My Test Group - <USERNAME> in the breadcrumbs at the top of the page, and then clicking on your project.
  8. Repeat steps 2 to 6, entering project_level_variable in the Key field and I'm a variable set at the project level in the Value field.
  9. Setting variables does not trigger a pipeline run, so click CI/CD > Pipelines in the left navigation pane, click the Run Pipeline button, and click the second Run Pipeline button.
  10. Select on the widget for the environment variables job from your running pipeline and verify the variables and their values are correctly displayed in the job output.

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Last modified November 29, 2023: big update (17188382)
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