Run a pre job before GitLab pipeline

Question

I want to run a job each time a new pipeline gets triggered. It's a kind of preparation job which should always be executed before every other job defined inside the .gitlab-ci.yml

For Example

stages:
  - build
  - test

my-prep-job:
  stage: .pre
  script:
    # this is the job I want to run every time a pipeline gets triggered before other jobs
    # also it will have an artifact that I want to use in rest of the job
  ...
  artifacts:
    ...

Build:
  stage: build
  ...

Test:
  stage: test
  ....

Please, let me know if this is possible or if there is other way around.

Thanks in Advance...

Edit

I did try adding .pre under stages. Thing is I had to rewrite the rules and add it to my-prep-job stages as well.

stages:
  - .pre # I did add it over here
  - build
  - test

Also I had to add the rules to this stage as well so that it would not run on it's own on just a normal commit/push.

Is there any possibility to extend ".pre" stage of GitLab pipeline?

Newmown

You're setting a .pre stage on your job, but you also need to define that stage in your stages list before any other stages – Epicurus

I have. But it made me do add a lot of stuff. I was thinking if we could somehow extends the ".pre" stage of GitLab. Is that even possible/ – Newmown

.pre is an implied stage. You can use it for any job and it does not need to be defined explicitly in stages:. Also if pipeline rules reult in jobs only in the .pre or .post stages, the pipeline will not run by defualt. See the stages documention for reference. – Dalia

Answer 1

You could use !reference tags to include certain keyword sections. For example:

.pre
  script:
    - echo from pre

example:
  stage: test
  script:
    - !reference [.pre, script]
    - ...

Will include the script part of .pre into the example job.

You can use !reference for most of the job keywords like artifacts or rules

Meaganmeager

But as you can see, when you reference it, you basically just adding script to the example stage. I am not sure the artifacts would work, as I have tried it. And for it to be available to other jobs, it first needs to be executed, right!!!. – Newmown

Answer 2

I think this would work

.job_template: &job_configuration
  before_script:
    "your script here"

YourStage:
  <<: *job_configuration

Overturn