GitLab only builds for specific tag names

Question

Is there a way to instruct the pipeline to only do a step for certain tags that matches a regular expression?

I would like it to do a deploy when I push a tag on the format 1.2.3 (for example). Is there a way to do this?

Jonas Geiregat · Answer 1 · 2018-09-18T06:15:35.673

56

This should only be run for refs that are not branches named matching the given regex.

   job:
      only:
        - /^(\d+\.)?(\d+\.)?(\*|\d+)$/
      except:
        - branches

edited Sep 18 '18 at 06:15

answered Jul 26 '18 at 09:16

Jonas Geiregat

1

Thanks for your suggestion with except. Unfortunately you missed the mandatory slashed at start and end of your regex. @see https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#only-and-except-simplified – JaXt0r Sep 05 '18 at 10:52
This part of the regex is odd: `(\*|\d+)`. Putting literal asterisks in a git tag would be unconventional, at best. – Joe Atzberger Oct 23 '20 at 19:34

score 31 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 19 '21 at 15:51

31

Yes, you can do this with the only option:

job:
  # Use regexp
  only:
    - /^issue-.*$/


job:
  # Use special keywords
  only:
    - tags
    - triggers
    - schedules

edited Mar 19 '21 at 15:51

Peter Mortensen

answered Jul 05 '17 at 10:20

Rufinus

14

As i just researched some CD/CI Features of gitlab i came acress this. Beware of one "feature": only is not capable of combining regex and special words, so only: - /^issue-.*$/ - tags will trigger on any tag _and_ any tags, branches,... starting with "issue-". As i understand this, there is no way to limit the regex to be used on only tags or only branches (correct me if I'm wrong - I really hope someone does!). – FastJack Jun 29 '18 at 06:53
not quite sure.. what about combining it with `except: [tags]` – Rufinus Jun 29 '18 at 10:59
10

you probably mean - combine it with `except: -branches` – Chris Oct 23 '18 at 12:51

ricekot · Answer 3 · 2021-07-24T14:58:35.913

16

You can also make use of rules:

job:
  script: echo "Hello, World!"
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /^\d+\.\d+\.\d+$/'

edited Jul 24 '21 at 14:58

answered May 27 '21 at 05:38

ricekot

4

As `only and except are not being actively developed. rules is the preferred keyword to control when to add jobs to pipelines.` ([source](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#only--except)) it appears [rules](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#rules) is now the way to go. – pxul Aug 20 '21 at 09:18

3 Answers3