gitlab-ci.yml

The purpose of a gitlab-ci.yml file is to define and configure the GitLab CI/CD pipeline for automating tasks such as building, testing, and deploying your code. It is the core configuration file that GitLab uses to orchestrate and execute CI/CD workflows in a repository.

Key Purposes:

1. Automation of Workflows:
   • Automates repetitive tasks like running tests, building applications, linting code, and deploying updates.
2. Pipeline Definition:
   • Specifies the stages (e.g., build, test, deploy) and their sequence.
   • Defines the jobs within each stage and their respective commands.
3. Consistency and Reliability:
   • Ensures consistent execution of tasks across environments, reducing errors caused by manual intervention.
4. Integration with GitLab:
   • Automatically triggers pipelines in response to events such as code pushes, merge requests, or scheduled runs.
5. Environment Management:
   • Manages deployments to various environments (e.g., development, staging, production) with variables, conditions, and manual approvals.
6. Feedback and Reporting:
   • Provides immediate feedback on the status of tasks (e.g., whether tests passed) directly in the GitLab interface.
   • Supports artifact generation and uploads (e.g., logs, reports, or compiled binaries).

Benefits:

• Improves development velocity by automating workflows.
• Increases code quality through consistent testing and linting.
• Simplifies deployments to various environments.
• Enables team collaboration with clear and visible pipeline progress.

Example

# Define the stages of the pipeline in the order they will be executed
stages:
  - build    # The stage where the application is built
  - test     # The stage where tests are executed
  - deploy   # The stage where the application is deployed
 
# Job to build the project
build_job:
  stage: build           # Assign this job to the 'build' stage
  script:                # Commands to execute during this job
    - echo "Building the project" # Example build command (replace with actual build steps)
  artifacts:             # Files or directories to save for use in subsequent jobs
    paths:
      - build/           # Save the 'build' directory as an artifact for later stages
 
# Job to test the project
test_job:
  stage: test            # Assign this job to the 'test' stage
  script:                # Commands to execute during this job
    - echo "Running tests" # Example test command (replace with actual test steps)
 
# Job to deploy the project
deploy_job:
  stage: deploy          # Assign this job to the 'deploy' stage
  script:                # Commands to execute during this job
    - echo "Deploying the application" # Example deployment command (replace with actual deployment steps)
  only:                  # Specify when this job should run
    - main               # Only run this job for commits to the 'main' branch