Gitlab-CI: how to avoid services config duplication between jobs?

Question

I have the following jobs configuration in .gitlab-ci.yml:

job1:
  stage: test
  services:
    - name: mariadb
      alias: mysql
      entrypoint: [""]
      command: [...]

  script:
    - ...

job2:
  stage: test
  services:
    - name: mariadb
      alias: mysql
      entrypoint: [""]
      command: [...]

  script:
    - ...

job3:
  stage: test
  services:
    - name: mariadb
      alias: mysql
      entrypoint: [""]
      command: [...]

  script:
    - ...

services portion is the same for all 3 jobs.

Is it possible to avoid this duplication?

Answer 1

You can also utilize Anchors YAML feature - https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#anchors .

.job_template: &job_definition
  services:
    - name: mariadb
      alias: mysql
      entrypoint: [""]
      command: [...]

job1:
  <<: *job_definition
  stage: test

When the config is common for all jobs, use global service. When you want to avoid duplication among only some jobs, use YAML anchors.

Answer 2

Just define it outside the jobs: https://docs.gitlab.com/ce/ci/docker/using_docker_images.html#define-image-and-services-from-gitlab-ci-yml

services:
    - name: mariadb
      alias: mysql
      entrypoint: [""]
      command: [...]

job1:
  stage: test
  script:
    - ...

job2:
  stage: test
  script:
    - ...

job3:
  stage: test
  script:
    - ...