How to run a gitlab-ci.yml job only on a tagged branch?

Question

How do I run a .gitlab-ci.yml job only on a tagged Master branch?

job:
  script:
  - echo "Do something"
  only:
  - master
  - tags

The above code will run if either condition exists: a Master branch or a tagged commit.

My goal is to have this run for a production deploy, but it would require that it be on the Master branch and that it be tagged (with a version). Otherwise, I'll have another job that will push to staging if its missing a tag.

Answer 1

This behavior will be introduced in version 12.

Open issue was recently update:

Jason Lenny @jlenny changed title from {-Update .gitlab-ci.yml to support conjunction logic for build conditions-} to Conjunction logic for build conditions MVC · 2 days ago

Jason Lenny @jlenny changed milestone to 12.0 · 2 days ago

(fingers crossed)

A solution is to use the except keyword to exclude all the branches, in conjunction with only to run on tags, in this way you run your pipeline only on tag in master branch:

  only:
    - tags
  except:
    - branches

I'm using version 11.3.4

Answer 2

Thanks to others like Matt Alioto who posted about the open issue (which is labeled Product Vision 2019 so hopefully they knock it out this year).

Specific to Carlson Cole's question, this would work:

job_for_master_no_tags:
  stage: deploy
  script:
  - echo "Release to Staging"
  only:
  - master

job_for_master_tags_only:
  stage: deploy
  script:
  - echo "Release to Production"
  only:
  - tags
  except:
  - /^(?!master).+@/    # Ruby RegEx for anything not starting with 'master'

• To see how this RegEx works check out https://rubular.com/r/1en2eblDzRP5Ha
• I tested this on GitLab version 11.7.0 and it works
  • Note: If you try to use - /^(?!master).+/ (without the @) it doesn't work - learned that the hard way 😕

Answer 3

I made it work with this working code snippet, all others were not working for me

only:
 - tags  # please mention the 's' compared to Sergio Tomasello's solution
except:
 - branches

I use 11.4.3

Answer 4

I had the same problem. I wanted to trigger a deploy to our staging-environment on a push or merge, and only when applying a tag deploy it our production-environment.

We need 2 variables for this: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH and $CI_COMMIT_TAG. With these variables we could deduct if the pipeline was triggered by a commit or a tag. Unfortunately the first variable is only set when committing on a branch, while the second variable only is set on applying a Tag. So this was no solution...

So I went for the next-best setup by only do a production-release when a tag is set by specified conventions and by a manual trigger. This is my .gitlab-ci.yml file:

stages:
  - deploy:staging
  - deploy:prod

deploy-to-staging:
  stage: deploy:staging
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == 'master'
  script:
    - echo "Deploying to Staging..."

deploy-to-production:
  stage: deploy:prod
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /^v(?:\d+.){2}(?:\d+)$/
      when: manual
  script:
    - echo "Deploying to Production..."

If you really want to automate this, you have to do a little scripting to find out if the applied tag actually belongs to a commit that is on the master-branch. Check this comment on the GitLab issuetracker for more information: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/issues/31305#note_28580169