In Gitlab CI, how do you trigger a build only if changes happen on particular set of files?
Is there a way to either include or exclude certain files from triggering a build? For eg: updating README.md, .gitignore files should not cause a build to trigger.
UPDATE 2
Only/except seem to be an unstable feature. The doc recommends using rules:changes instead:
job:
script:
- build # replace with your build command
rules:
- changes:
- /*.{java, py} # ... or whatever your file extension is
- dockerfiles/**/* # all files under folder 'dockerfiles'
UPDATE 1:
Like Gajus mentioned in the comments, it is now possible!
Merge Request: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/21981
Documentation: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#onlyexcept-basic (Thanks to Connor Shea for the tip in the comments)
Original post:
No, it is not possible – not now!
I think this is the issue you are looking for: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/19232 – It is a very high rated issue (over 100 thumps-up).
The milestone has changed to Next 3-6 months, 4 months ago. (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/19232#note_31943850) I hope we will see this function soon.
Update: This is now possible as of 11.4, see https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#ruleschanges
Original post:
There's not currently any way to trigger a build in GitLab CI conditionally based on which files have been edited.
I've thought about this feature myself before, and I think it could be very useful for a number of different use cases.
The closest issue I could find for this is https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/23010
Anyway, to answer your question:
You can't really do this right now – even manually – since there's no way to determine if a merge request has changed a file or not since CI has no concept of a merge request.
Pipelines "understanding" what Merge Requests are should be added sometime soon.
This works for me when combines with only rule
build-web-dev:
stage: build
script:
- build.sh
only:
- develop
- changes
web/*
Dockerfile.web
I was browsing the Net without any working solution, then I returned back to the official gitlab docu and tried what they write: https://docs.gitlab.com/15.7/ee/ci/jobs/job_control.html#onlychanges--exceptchanges-examples
And it turned out like a working Solution in my case, the magic was just to add:
except rule into all related jobs, like this:
build:
script: npm run build
except:
changes:
- "*.md"
Updating docu (.md), does not trigger the whole pipeline anmore.
Cheers,
That feature has been available since version 11.4.
See docs.
