2 Environment variables with same name

GitLab CI/CD
1

I need clarification regarding GitLab environment variables with same name.

There are 4 enviornments - dev, uat, stg and prod.
In Settings → CI/CD → Variables I have defined 2 keys with same name but with different value.
dev, uat and stg has same values. Prod value is different. Example below

key column value column environment column
SOME_SECRET_KEY some value All(default)
SOME_SECRET_KEY some value1 prod

When the application is deployed in prod environment will it take the prod value? I could have easily tested it by deploying to prod but we haven’t got to prod yet so want to make sure before I deploy to prod for the first time.

GitLab Enterprise Edition [v17.5.4-ee]

2

Hi,

I would not advise you to do this, as it’s not even clear from documentation which value will be picked up in this case (at least what I understood from your description). I would instead suggest you to remap the value in the job that deploys to production.

E.g. in the Settings you may have:
SOME_SECRET_KEY and SOME_SECRET_KEY_PROD.

In your job in .gitlab-ci.yml file, you can do something like:

deploy to prod:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - $SOME_SECRET_KEY=$SOME_SECRET_KEY_PROD
    - # run your deployment script
1 Like
3

Thanks for responding with a good solution. Storing secrets in the repo is not allowed in my company. They recommend storing in GitLab UI masked and not visible.

4

Of course. That is not just in your company, that is (or should be) everywhere. Secrets do not belong in git repo.

Good luck!

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