CI rule - combine only/changes with variables

GitLab CI/CD
1

I need a build job to run if there was a change in certain directories OR if a variable is set to true.

The following does not work

  
only:
    changes:
      - some/dir/**/*
      - another/dir/**/*
    variables:
      - $NIGHTLY_JOB == "true"

The above will run the job when NIGHTLY_JOB variable is true. The job does not run when there is code change in specified directories.

How to OR these two conditions in GitLab rules?

2

you need to get rid off the obsolete only and use rules instead:

rules:
  - if: $NIGHTLY_JOB == "true"
  - changes:
      - some/dir/**/*
      - another/dir/**/*
3

Sorry, forgot to mention, I cannot use ‘rules:’ because elsewhere in our massive build script we use ‘except’

When I used ‘rules’, I got an error stating it cannot go with ‘except’

4

What you want cannot be achieved by only or except. If you want more advanced logic in selecting when a job runs, you need to move to rules which is replacing only and except.

5

Understood. Thanks for the solution.