Trigger cross-project-pipelines for tags and manual jobs

Question

Gitlab's cross-project-pipeline allows me to specify a branch to run a pipeline for. I didn't find any such option to do the same with a tag?

Since my cross-project-pipeline is also being run deliberately, is it also possible to run all manual jobs in a downstream pipeline?

Answer 1

This should be possible with Triggering pipelines through the API.

You just need to add the following to your CI script:

- curl --request POST --form "token=$CI_JOB_TOKEN" --form ref=master https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/<project-id>/trigger/pipeline

and update the ref to be the tag you require, and <project-id> with the project you are triggering.

---

In terms of the cross-project pipeline being run deliberately and having manual jobs you want to run when being triggered, you'd probably need to re-write the downstream CI file to allow for that, eg:

Upstream CI file:

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - echo "Do some building..."
    # Trigger downstream project (tag v1.0.0), with a random variable
    - curl --request POST --form "token=$CI_JOB_TOKEN" \
        --form "variables[RANDOM_VARIABLE]=FOO" \
        --form ref=v1.0.0 https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/<project_id>/trigger/pipeline

Downstream CI file:

.test:template:
  stage: test
  script:
    - echo "Running some test"

test:manual:
  extends:
    - .test:template
  when: manual
  except:
    - triggers

test:triggered:
  extends:
    - .test:template
  only:
    - triggers

So when a triggered job is run, the test:triggered should be the only test job you see in the pipeline.

See only/except documents for more information.