Using !reference in rules

GitLab CI/CD
,
1

I am testing with using !reference in rules.

https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/README.html#reference-tags

source:
  rules:
    - if: '$GITLAB_CI == "true"'
  script:  
    - echo hi

test:
  rules:
    - !reference [source, rules]
  script:  
    - echo hi

With the above config I get the following error.

This GitLab CI configuration is invalid: jobs:test rules should be an array of hashes.

I’m not sure if this is a bug in the docs (it doesn’t say where !reference can/can’t be used) or a bug in the !reference for rules itself.

Rules are one of the places I find a lot of duplication, but always with some variation.
This means the !reference option is of great value.

1 Like
2

I have mentioned this topic in this issue: CI rules parameter hard to generalize across jobs (#35093) · Issues · GitLab.org / GitLab · GitLab

Feel free to leave a comment in the issues if you think its related and would help you.

3

This forum doesn’t seem active. It’s worth ceasing coming here…

Since April noone has answer a thing.

Man, you should have used:

...
rules: !reference [source, rules]`

syntax instead.

Don’t ask me why, there is no logic, as exactly this syntax works perfectly for another arrays - scripts.
E.g:

...
scripts:
      - !reference [scripts1, scripts] 
      - !reference [scripts2, scripts]

I’m gonna ask on SO only from now on.

4

Thank you! This was driving me crazy. This is 100% the solution.