Is there any way to dynamically edit a variable in one job and then pass it to a trigger/bridge job in Gitlab CI? - gitlab

Question

I need to pass a file path to a trigger job where the file path is found within a specified json file in a separate job. Something along the lines of this...
stages:
- run_downstream_pipeline
variables:
- FILE_NAME: default_file.json
.get_path:
stage: run_downstream_pipeline
needs: []
only:
- schedules
- triggers
- web
script:
- apt-get install jq
- FILE_PATH=$(jq '.file_path' $FILE_NAME)
run_pipeline:
extends: .get_path
variables:
PATH: $FILE_PATH
trigger:
project: my/project
branch: staging
strategy: depend
I can't seem to find any workaround to do this, as using extends won't work since Gitlab wont allow for a script section in a trigger job.
I thought about trying to use the Gitlab API trigger method, but I want the status of the downstream pipeline to actually show up in the pipeline UI and I want the upstream pipeline to depend on the status of the downstream pipeline, which from my understanding is not possible when triggering via the API.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use artifacts:reports:dotenv for setting variables dynamically for subsequent jobs.
stages:
- one
- two
my_job:
stage: "one"
script:
- FILE_PATH=$(jq '.file_path' $FILE_NAME) # In script, get the environment URL.
- echo "FILE_PATH=${FILE_PATH}" >> variables.env # Add the value to a dotenv file.
artifacts:
reports:
dotenv: "variables.env"
example:
stage: two
script: "echo $FILE_PATH"
another_job:
stage: two
trigger:
project: my/project
branch: staging
strategy: depend
Variables in the dotenv file will automatically be present for jobs in subsequent stages (or that declare needs: for the job).
You can also pull artifacts into child pipelines, in general.
But be warned you probably don't want to override the PATH variable, since that's a special variable used to help you find builtin binaries.