Using glab in a CI pipeline with Gitlab self-hosted¶
Overview¶
The glab tool is Gitlab's new (ish) command-line tool for interfacing with the Gitlab API. This article describes how to use glab in a Gitlab CI/CD pipeline--particularly if using a self-hosted Gitlab instance.
Running glab¶
Configuration¶
Configurations for the glab CLI can be stored in ~/.gitlab/glab-cli/config.yml, or an alternate directory defined by $GLAB_CONFIG_DIR1. Alternatively, many of these configurations can be set as environment variables2. The main configurations we'll need to set for a self-hosted Gitlab instance are:
| Configuration | Variable | Description |
|---|---|---|
hosts.<hostname>.api_host |
GITLAB_API_HOST |
Specify the host where the API endpoint is found. Useful when there are separate (sub)domains or hosts for Git and the API endpoint. |
host |
GITLAB_HOST |
Alias of GITLAB_URI. |
GITLAB_REPO |
Default GitLab repository used for commands accepting the --repo option. Only used if no --repo option is given. | |
hosts.<hostname>.token |
GITLAB_TOKEN |
an authentication token for API requests. Setting this avoids being prompted to authenticate and overrides any previously stored credentials. Can be set in the config with glab config set token xxxxxx. |
GITLAB_URI |
Alias of GITLAB_HOST. |