How to Run Gitlab runners locally

Summary

1. Install Docker.
2. Setup Gitlab repository and install gitlab-runner.
3. Prepare or get the .gitlab-ci.yml to test.
4. Execute a runner on the desired job.

Docker

Install docker

https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/

Don't forget the post-setup steps.

https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/linux-postinstall/

Setup repository and install gitlab-runner

https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/linux-repository.html#installing-the-runner

Prepare or get gitlab-ci.yml

Supposing the following script:

image: "ruby:2.5"

before_script:

  - apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y -qq sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev nodejs

  - ruby -v

  - which ruby

  - gem install bundler --no-document

  - bundle install --jobs $(nproc)  "${FLAGS[@]}"

rspec:

  script:

    - bundle exec rspec

rubocop:

  script:

    - bundle exec rubocop

there are two jobs defined

• rspec
• rubocop

Execute the runner on a job

in a terminal execute:

gitlab-runner execute docker rspec

this will execute the script in a clean docker the job rspec.

to define a timeout use

--timeout TIME

to pass env variables

--env VAR=VALUE