I'm trying to use a couple of built-in variables in my gitlab-ci.yml file, but nothing I've done seems to work. And it seems like it should. I'm trying to use $PWD and $CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA at them moment, but might like to use others in the future. This is a long listing because I've tried a number of different things:
default:
image: csi:0.1
variables:
ONE:
value: $PWD
expand: true
TWO:
value: "hello world"
expand: true
THREE:
value: $TWO
expand: true
FLAGS:
value: '-al'
expand: true
LS_CMD:
value: 'ls "$FLAGS" $$TMP_DIR'
expand: true
.branch-detection:
rules:
- if: ($CI_COMMIT_BRANCH != "main" && $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH != "development")
when: never
stages:
- deploy
build-test-deploy:
variables:
FOUR:
value: $PWD
expand: true
FIVE:
value: "hi"
expand: true
SIX:
value: '$FIVE, there'
expand: true
stage: deploy
extends:
- .branch-detection
script:
- echo $PWD
- echo '$PWD/my/dist/folder'
- echo $ONE
- echo $TWO
- echo $THREE
- echo $FOUR
- echo $FIVE
- echo $SIX
- echo $SEVEN
- echo $EIGHT
- echo $NINE
- echo $FLAGS
- echo $LS_CMD
rules:
- if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "development"
variables:
FIVE: "My value changed in the rules, did SIX?"
SEVEN: $TWO
EIGHT: $FOUR
NINE: 'this is variable six, enclosed in double quotes "$SIX"'
What I get as output vs [what I would expect if different]:
$ echo $PWD
/builds/path/to/my/repo
$ echo '$PWD/my/dist/folder'
$PWD/my/dist/folder [/builds/path/to/my/repo/my/dist/folder]
$ echo $ONE
[/builds/path/to/my/repo]
$ echo $TWO
hello world
$ echo $THREE
hello world
$ echo $FOUR
[/builds/path/to/my/repo]
$ echo $FIVE
My value changed in the rules, did SIX?
$ echo $SIX
My value changed in the rules, did SIX?, there
$ echo $SEVEN
hello world
$ echo $EIGHT
[/builds/path/to/my/repo]
$ echo $NINE
this is variable six, enclosed in double quotes "My value changed in the rules, did SIX?, there"
$ echo $FLAGS
-al
$ echo $LS_CMD
ls "-al" $TMP_DIR
It appears I can't assign $PWD to a variable. Even worse, when I tried - echo '$PWD/my/dist/folder' it didn't even echo an empty line, it just skipped it.
Obviously I'm missing something basic, but I just can't see it. Any help would be appreciated.
tia
You're using single quotes, and as explained in this Stack Overflow post, everything inside single quotes is treated literally without exception.
You can observe the same behavior in a simple shell script:
#!/bin/sh
MY_DIR='some path'
echo "Case 1"
echo '$MY_DIR/my/path'
echo "Case 2"
echo $MY_DIR/my/path
echo "Case 3"
echo "$MY_DIR/my/path"
Execution results:
> sh test.sh
Case 1
$MY_DIR/my/path
Case 2
some path/my/path
Case 3
some path/my/path
To fix the issue, simply remove the single quotes from assignments or echo commands, and everything should work correctly.