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podman-gitlab-runner

★ 93 Open GitHub ↗

Use Podman as a custom executor for your Gitlab CI

// repository documentation

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# Using Podman to power your Gitlab CI pipeline

**⚠️ NOTE ⚠️**: New deployments should avoid using code from this repository. Instead the official Podman support should be used <https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/docker.html#use-podman-to-run-docker-commands>.
Old deployments should consider migrating if possible.

1. [Installation and Setup](#installation-and-setup)
    1. [Set up rootless Podman for the gitlab-runner user](#set-up-rootless-podman-for-the-gitlab-runner-user)
    2. [Installing the gitlab-runner](#installing-the-gitlab-runner)
    3. [Setting up a Runner Instance](#setting-up-a-runner-instance)
2. [Tweaking the Installation](#tweaking-the-installation)
    1. [Private Registries](#private-registries)
3. [License](#license)
4. [Links](#links)

## Installation and Setup

The install instructions are for a Fedora 31+ installation.
Most of the instructions should transfer to other distributions.
gitlab-runner needs to be installed in version 12.6 or higher, because we rely on the `image` tag being exposed from the `.gitlab-ci.yml` file.

### Set up rootless Podman for the gitlab-runner user

Make sure you have added entries in `/etc/subuid` and `/etc/subgid` for the gitlab-runner user.
Enable lingering for the gitlab-runner user with `sudo loginctl enable-linger gitlab-runner`.
Run `sudo -iu gitlab-runner podman system migrate` to set correct cgroups behavior and silence a warning during job execution.

### Installing the gitlab-runner

First, you need to install the [gitlab-runner][gitlab-runner-install] using the instructions listed on the website.
You can silence the SELinux warnings, by labelling the binary with the proper `bin_t` type like:

```bash
sudo chcon -t bin_t /usr/bin/gitlab-runner
```

Ensure that the gitlab-runner service runs with the appropirate permissions.
Since we are using Podman in a rootless setup, we can run the service with user privileges instead of root permissions.
Add a systemd dropin (`/etc/systemd/system/gitlab-runner.service.d/rootless.conf`):

```ini
[Service]
User=gitlab-runner
Group=gitlab-runner
```

### Setting up a Runner Instance

As the gitlab-runner user change into the home directory (`/home/gitlab-runner`) and clone this repository.

```bash
git clone https://github.com/jonasbb/podman-gitlab-runner
```

Then follow the [instructions][gitlab-runner-register] to set up a new runner instance:

```bash
sudo -u gitlab-runner gitlab-runner register \
    --url https://my.gitlab.instance/ \
    --registration-token $GITLAB_REGISTRATION_TOKEN \
    --name "Podman Runner" \
    --executor custom \
    --builds-dir /home/user \
    --cache-dir /home/user/cache \
    --custom-prepare-exec "/home/gitlab-runner/podman-gitlab-runner/prepare.sh" \
    --custom-run-exec "/home/gitlab-runner/podman-gitlab-runner/run.sh" \
    --custom-cleanup-exec "/home/gitlab-runner/podman-gitlab-runner/cleanup.sh"
```

## Tweaking the Installation

Currently, the scripts do not provide much customization.
However, you can adapt the functions `start_container` and `install_dependencies` to specify how Podman should spawn the containers and how to install the dependencies.

Some behaviour can be tweaked by tweaked by setting the correct environment variables.
Rename the `custom_base.template.sh` file into `custom_base.sh` to make use of the customization.
The following variables are supported right now:

* `PODMAN_RUN_ARGS`: Customize how Podman spawns the containers.

### Private Registries

Podman supports access to private registries.
You can set the `DOCKER_AUTH_CONFIG` variable under **Settings → CI / CD** and provide the credentials for accessing the private registry.
Details how the variable has to look can be found under [using statically defined credentials][gitlab-static-credentials] in the Gitlab documentation.

Additionally, there are multiple ways to authenticate against Gitlab Registries.
The script uses a configured deploy token (via `$CI_DEPLOY_PASSWORD`) to login.
Alternatively, the CI job also provides access to the registry for the duraion of a single job.
The scipt uses variables `$CI_JOB_TOKEN` and `$CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD`, if available, to log into the registry.

The four methods are tried in order until one succeeds:

1. `DOCKER_AUTH_CONFIG`
2. `CI_DEPLOY_PASSWORD`
3. `CI_JOB_TOKEN`
4. `CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD`

More details about different authentication variants in the official documentation: <https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/packages/container_registry/index.html#authenticate-by-using-gitlab-cicd>

## Using Podman in Podman containers

Executing Podman inside is useful to test containers or build new images inside the CI.
By default the nesting fails, since access to the overlayfs is not possible.

RedHat has a guide how to run Podman inside of Podman containers in both rootful and rootless scenarios:
<https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/podman-inside-container>

## License

Licensed under the [MIT license].

## Links

* <https://tech.immerda.ch/2019/10/gitlab-ci-with-podman/>  
    First source describing how to set up Podman and gitlab-runner and the source for these scripts.
* <https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/custom.html>  
    Official documentation about the custom executor feature for Gitlab CI.
* <https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/custom_examples/>  
    Official examples how to use the custom executor feature.
* <https://gitlab.com/theodore.goetz/gitlab-executor-podman>
    Alternative implementation of a Podman executor.

[gitlab-runner-install]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/linux-repository.html
[gitlab-runner-register]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/register/
[gitlab-static-credentials]: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/docker/using_docker_images.html#using-statically-defined-credentials
[MIT license]: LICENSE

podman-gitlab-runner

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