CI/CD using GITLAB

CI/CD is a continuous method of software development, where you continuously build, test, deploy, and monitor iterative code changes. This iterative process helps reduce the chance that you develop new code based on buggy or failed previous versions. GitLab CI/CD can catch bugs early in the development cycle, and help ensure that the code deployed to production complies with your established code standards.

1. Create a .gitlab-ci.yml file at the root of the project solution folder

   .gitlab-ci.yml

   # https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/main/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/dotNET-Core.gitlab-ci.yml
   image: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:7.0
   
   variables:
     OBJECTS_DIRECTORY: "obj"
     NUGET_PACKAGES_DIRECTORY: ".nuget"
     SOURCE_CODE_PATH: "*/*/"
   
   cache:
     key: "$CI_JOB_STAGE-$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG"
     paths:
       - "$SOURCE_CODE_PATH$OBJECTS_DIRECTORY/project.assets.json"
       - "$SOURCE_CODE_PATH$OBJECTS_DIRECTORY/*.csproj.nuget.*"
       - "$NUGET_PACKAGES_DIRECTORY"
     policy: pull-push
   
   before_script:
     - "dotnet restore --packages $NUGET_PACKAGES_DIRECTORY"
   
   build:
     stage: build
     script:
       - "dotnet build --no-restore"
   
   deploy:
     stage: deploy
     script:
       - dotnet publish Batch.File.Executor /p:Configuration=Release /p:PublishProfile=FolderProfile
     environment: production

2. Install Gitlab Runner

   • Download the setup file from the official Gitlab website. Download link
   • The installation is pretty straight forward. Apply the default settings. Make sure the runner is downloaded to the location C:\gitlab-runner\

3. Configure Gitlab Runner

   • Open the project website in gitlab.

   • Assign a name, description (optional)

   • Setup the runner on the windows pc

     Caution

     Change the pwsh to powershell in the config.toml file.

     config.toml

     concurrent = 1
     check_interval = 0
     shutdown_timeout = 0
     
     [session_server]
       session_timeout = 1800
     
     [[runners]]
       name = "basdemo"
       url = "http://gitlab.example.com:8929"
       id = 1
       token = "" ## gitlab-token-here
       token_obtained_at = 2024-09-08T22:39:26Z
       token_expires_at = 0001-01-01T00:00:00Z
       executor = "shell"
       shell = "powershell"       ## Make sure to change this to `powershell`
       [runners.custom_build_dir]
       [runners.cache]
         MaxUploadedArchiveSize = 0
         [runners.cache.s3]
         [runners.cache.gcs]
         [runners.cache.azure]