GitLab CI builds remains pending

Question

We recently started to use GitLab-CI on the gitlab.com free service. At first everything went fine, but now, seems like we can't build our project anymore. The builds are shown as pending and doesn't do anything.

Here's what we have in our builds list:

And if we check the details of a build:

As you might notice, in the list, each build is assigned to a runner id, but in the details page, the runner section is blank.

At first, we thought it was just latency caused by gitlab.com ingrastructure, but it's really just stuck there...

EDIT

It's more than 1 year ago but I keep having notifications about this question. If I recall properly, the problem was due to GitLab itself. Follow the GitLab docs and make sure your setup is valid, and hope for the best !

Cabriolet

would github.com/gitlabhq/gitlab-ci/issues/64#issuecomment-75379083 help? – Hemeralopia

We don't use a self-hosted gitlab, we're using the one provided by gitlab.com – Cabriolet

@PascalBoutin I think it's important you update your question to add that extra bit of info from your comment – Lydia

Answer 1

If you are working with local gitlab-runner, like macOS or custom runner that you have been made, you should start running jobs manually.

Based on this topic on gitlab documentation you should start manually in user-mode or system-mode based on where you executing this command

Run in terminal

If you did not started gitlab-runner yet

gitlab-runner start 

system-mode execution

sudo gitlab-runner run 

user-mode execution

gitlab-runner run 

Metsky

Thank you! I have my own gitlab-runner on a Linux server and I didnt understand why my jobs were stuck on pending. Starting the runner and actually RUNNING the jobs on the server was my solution. Now to find a way to make it run any job automatically :) – Emperor

as soon as your gitlab-runner become started jobs runs automatically. – Metsky

Thank you!, I was stuck to this on mac, sudo gitlab-runner run worked for me – Swoon

Answer 2

My problem was solved after doing the following steps:

1. Go to your project repository, click on CI/CD and then select pipelines. Try removing the runner cache by clicking on clear runner caches.

2. Verify, start and run your local runners by the doing the following steps on the server you have registered your runners:

   sudo gitlab-runner verify
   sudo gitlab-runner start
   sudo gitlab-runner run
   

Pullen

Answer 3

I was stuck into same issue on my windows machine. I went to event viewer to get some logs of the service and found the error "listen_address not defined".

I followed below steps to fix it.

1. Go to gitlab repository and edit the runner settings.
2. You will find checkbox named "Indicates whether this runner can pick jobs without tags"
3. Make sure the option is checked.

It works for me now.

Innominate

Answer 4

GitLab maxed out their shared runners but they have just finished adding more of them. Now GitLab has 12 shared runners. Take a look at this issue: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/issues/5543#note_3130561

Update

GitLab has moved to auto scaling Runners. If you're still hitting any issues it might be due to a different cause.

Loutitia

FYI We currently have 18 shared runners. – Loutitia

@JoseTorres do you work for GitLab? otherwise your answer is confusing; would be great if you could clarify that – Lydia

@Lydia yes, good point. I've edited the answer so it can stand on it's own. – Loutitia

Answer 5

Try to clear the Runner cache if you have set it up.

Goto CI/CD>>Pipelines>>on top side >> clear Runner Caches

Tradeswoman

Answer 6

For me, this workaround worked: Pausing and unpausing the runner triggers the pending job to run.

Reference: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/23401

Copeck

Answer 7

Nothing worked for me other than restarting the Runner:

Linux:

sudo systemctl restart gitlab-runner

Windows:

sc stop "GitLab Runner"
sc start "GitLab Runner"

MacOS:

sudo gitlab-runner restart

BUT if you get the error:

FATAL: Failed to start gitlab-runner: "launchctl" failed with stderr: Load failed: 5: Input/output error

You can refer to this answer to re-install the Runner completely (or any other answer in that SO link that suits you):

gitlab-runner uninstall
gitlab-runner install
gitlab-runner start

Baptist

Answer 8

I had the same issue because there were no active runners.

Go to settings > CI CD > Enable shared runners for this project

Diaghilev