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Job artifacts

  • Introduced in GitLab 8.2 and GitLab Runner 0.7.0.
  • Starting with GitLab 8.4 and GitLab Runner 1.0, the artifacts archive format changed to ZIP, and it's now possible to browse its contents, with the added ability of downloading the files separately.
  • In GitLab 8.17, builds were renamed to jobs.
  • The artifacts browser is available only for new artifacts that are sent to GitLab using GitLab Runner version 1.0 and up. You cannot browse old artifacts already uploaded to GitLab.

Job artifacts are a list of files and directories created by a job once it finishes. This feature is enabled by default in all GitLab installations.

Job artifacts created by GitLab Runner are uploaded to GitLab and are downloadable as a single archive using the GitLab UI or the GitLab API.

For an overview, watch the video GitLab CI Pipeline, Artifacts, and Environments. Watch also GitLab CI pipeline tutorial for beginners.

Defining artifacts in .gitlab-ci.yml

A simple example of using the artifacts definition in .gitlab-ci.yml would be the following:

pdf:
  script: xelatex mycv.tex
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - mycv.pdf
    expire_in: 1 week

A job named pdf calls the xelatex command to build a PDF file from the latex source file mycv.tex. We then define the artifacts paths which in turn are defined with the paths keyword. All paths to files and directories are relative to the repository that was cloned during the build.

By default, the artifacts upload when the job succeeds. You can also set artifacts to upload when the job fails, or always, by using artifacts:when keyword. GitLab keeps these uploaded artifacts for 1 week, as defined by the expire_in definition. You can keep the artifacts from expiring via the web interface. If the expiry time is not defined, it defaults to the instance wide setting.

For more examples on artifacts, follow the artifacts reference in .gitlab-ci.yml.

artifacts:reports

  • Introduced in GitLab 11.2.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.2 and above.

The artifacts:reports keyword is used for collecting test reports, code quality reports, and security reports from jobs. It also exposes these reports in GitLab's UI (merge requests, pipeline views, and security dashboards).

The test reports are collected regardless of the job results (success or failure). You can use artifacts:expire_in to set up an expiration date for their artifacts.

If you also want the ability to browse the report output files, include the artifacts:paths keyword.

artifacts:reports:junit

  • Introduced in GitLab 11.2.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.2 and above.

The junit report collects JUnit report format XML files as artifacts. Although JUnit was originally developed in Java, there are many third party ports for other languages like JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and so on.

See Unit test reports for more details and examples. Below is an example of collecting a JUnit report format XML file from Ruby's RSpec test tool:

rspec:
  stage: test
  script:
    - bundle install
    - rspec --format RspecJunitFormatter --out rspec.xml
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit: rspec.xml

The collected Unit test reports upload to GitLab as an artifact and display in merge requests.

If the JUnit tool you use exports to multiple XML files, specify multiple test report paths within a single job to concatenate them into a single file. Use a filename pattern (junit: rspec-*.xml), an array of filenames (junit: [rspec-1.xml, rspec-2.xml, rspec-3.xml]), or a combination thereof (junit: [rspec.xml, test-results/TEST-*.xml]).

artifacts:reports:dotenv

  • Introduced in GitLab 12.9.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and later.

The dotenv report collects a set of environment variables as artifacts.

The collected variables are registered as runtime-created variables of the job, which is useful to set dynamic environment URLs after a job finishes.

There are a couple of exceptions to the original dotenv rules:

  • The variable key can contain only letters, digits, and underscores (_).
  • The maximum size of the .env file is 5 KB.
  • In GitLab 13.5 and older, the maximum number of inherited variables is 10.
  • In GitLab 13.6 and later, the maximum number of inherited variables is 20.
  • Variable substitution in the .env file is not supported.
  • The .env file can't have empty lines or comments (starting with #).
  • Key values in the env file cannot have spaces or newline characters (\n), including when using single or double quotes.
  • Quote escaping during parsing (key = 'value' -> {key: "value"}) is not supported.

artifacts:reports:cobertura

The cobertura report collects Cobertura coverage XML files. The collected Cobertura coverage reports upload to GitLab as an artifact and display in merge requests.

Cobertura was originally developed for Java, but there are many third party ports for other languages like JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and so on.

artifacts:reports:terraform

The terraform report obtains a Terraform tfplan.json file. JQ processing required to remove credentials. The collected Terraform plan report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and displays in merge requests. For more information, see Output terraform plan information into a merge request.

artifacts:reports:codequality

The codequality report collects CodeQuality issues as artifacts.

The collected Code Quality report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and is summarized in merge requests.

artifacts:reports:sast (ULTIMATE)

  • Introduced in GitLab 11.5.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and above.

The sast report collects SAST vulnerabilities as artifacts.

The collected SAST report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and is summarized in merge requests and the pipeline view. It's also used to provide data for security dashboards.

artifacts:reports:secret_detection (ULTIMATE)

  • Introduced in GitLab 13.1.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and above.

The secret-detection report collects detected secrets as artifacts.

The collected Secret Detection report is uploaded to GitLab as an artifact and summarized in the merge requests and pipeline view. It's also used to provide data for security dashboards.

artifacts:reports:dependency_scanning (ULTIMATE)

  • Introduced in GitLab 11.5.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and above.

The dependency_scanning report collects Dependency Scanning vulnerabilities as artifacts.

The collected Dependency Scanning report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and is summarized in merge requests and the pipeline view. It's also used to provide data for security dashboards.

artifacts:reports:container_scanning (ULTIMATE)

  • Introduced in GitLab 11.5.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and above.

The container_scanning report collects Container Scanning vulnerabilities as artifacts.

The collected Container Scanning report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and is summarized in merge requests and the pipeline view. It's also used to provide data for security dashboards.

artifacts:reports:dast (ULTIMATE)

  • Introduced in GitLab 11.5.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and above.

The dast report collects DAST vulnerabilities as artifacts.

The collected DAST report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and is summarized in merge requests and the pipeline view. It's also used to provide data for security dashboards.

artifacts:reports:license_management (ULTIMATE)

  • Introduced in GitLab 11.5.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and above.

CAUTION: Warning: This artifact is still valid but is deprecated in favor of the artifacts:reports:license_scanning introduced in GitLab 12.8.

The license_management report collects Licenses as artifacts.

The collected License Compliance report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and is summarized in merge requests and the pipeline view. It's also used to provide data for security dashboards.

artifacts:reports:license_scanning (ULTIMATE)

  • Introduced in GitLab 12.8.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and above.

The license_scanning report collects Licenses as artifacts.

The License Compliance report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and displays automatically in merge requests and the pipeline view, and provide data for security dashboards.

artifacts:reports:performance (PREMIUM)

  • Introduced in GitLab 11.5.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and above.

The performance report collects Browser Performance Testing metrics as artifacts.

The collected Browser Performance report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and displays in merge requests.

artifacts:reports:load_performance (PREMIUM)

The load_performance report collects Load Performance Testing metrics as artifacts.

The report is uploaded to GitLab as an artifact and is shown in merge requests automatically.

artifacts:reports:metrics (PREMIUM)

Introduced in GitLab 11.10.

The metrics report collects Metrics as artifacts.

The collected Metrics report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and displays in merge requests.

artifacts:reports:requirements (ULTIMATE)

  • Introduced in GitLab 13.1.
  • Requires GitLab Runner 11.5 and above.

The requirements report collects requirements.json files as artifacts.

The collected Requirements report uploads to GitLab as an artifact and existing requirements are marked as Satisfied.

Browsing artifacts

  • From GitLab 9.2, PDFs, images, videos, and other formats can be previewed directly in the job artifacts browser without the need to download them.
  • Introduced in GitLab 10.1, HTML files in a public project can be previewed directly in a new tab without the need to download them when GitLab Pages is enabled. The same applies for textual formats (currently supported extensions: .txt, .json, and .log).
  • Introduced in GitLab 12.4, artifacts in internal and private projects can be previewed when GitLab Pages access control is enabled.

After a job finishes, if you visit the job's specific page, there are three buttons. You can download the artifacts archive or browse its contents, whereas the Keep button appears only if you've set an expiry date to the artifacts in case you changed your mind and want to keep them.

Job artifacts browser button

The archive browser shows the name and the actual file size of each file in the archive. If your artifacts contained directories, then you're also able to browse inside them.

Below you can see what browsing looks like. In this case we have browsed inside the archive and at this point there is one directory, a couple files, and one HTML file that you can view directly online when GitLab Pages is enabled (opens in a new tab). Select artifacts in internal and private projects can only be previewed when GitLab Pages access control is enabled.

Job artifacts browser

Downloading artifacts

If you need to download an artifact or the whole archive, there are buttons in various places in the GitLab UI to do this:

  1. While on the pipelines page, you can see the download icon for each job's artifacts and archive in the right corner:

    Job artifacts in Pipelines page

  2. While on the Jobs page, you can see the download icon for each job's artifacts and archive in the right corner:

    Job artifacts in Builds page

  3. While inside a specific job, you're presented with a download button along with the one that browses the archive:

    Job artifacts browser button

  4. And finally, when browsing an archive you can see the download button at the top right corner:

    Job artifacts browser

Downloading the latest artifacts

It's possible to download the latest artifacts of a job via a well known URL so you can use it for scripting purposes.

NOTE: Note: The latest artifacts are created by jobs in the most recent successful pipeline for the specific ref. If you run two types of pipelines for the same ref, timing determines the latest artifact. For example, if a merge request creates a branch pipeline at the same time as a scheduled pipeline, the pipeline that completed most recently creates the latest artifact.

In GitLab 13.5 and later, artifacts for parent and child pipelines are searched in hierarchical order from parent to child. For example, if both parent and child pipelines have a job with the same name, the artifact from the parent pipeline is returned.

Artifacts for other pipelines can be accessed with direct access to them.

The structure of the URL to download the whole artifacts archive is the following:

https://example.com/<namespace>/<project>/-/jobs/artifacts/<ref>/download?job=<job_name>

To download a single file from the artifacts use the following URL:

https://example.com/<namespace>/<project>/-/jobs/artifacts/<ref>/raw/<path_to_file>?job=<job_name>

For example, to download the latest artifacts of the job named coverage of the master branch of the gitlab project that belongs to the gitlab-org namespace, the URL would be:

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/jobs/artifacts/master/download?job=coverage

To download the file coverage/index.html from the same artifacts use the following URL:

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/jobs/artifacts/master/raw/coverage/index.html?job=coverage

There is also a URL to browse the latest job artifacts:

https://example.com/<namespace>/<project>/-/jobs/artifacts/<ref>/browse?job=<job_name>

For example:

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/jobs/artifacts/master/browse?job=coverage

There is also a URL to specific files, including HTML files that are shown in GitLab Pages:

https://example.com/<namespace>/<project>/-/jobs/artifacts/<ref>/file/<path>?job=<job_name>

For example, when a job coverage creates the artifact htmlcov/index.html, you can access it at:

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/jobs/artifacts/master/file/htmlcov/index.html?job=coverage

The latest builds are also exposed in the UI in various places. Specifically, look for the download button in:

  • The main project's page
  • The branches page
  • The tags page

If the latest job has failed to upload the artifacts, you can see that information in the UI.

Latest artifacts button

Erasing artifacts

DANGER: Warning: This is a destructive action that leads to data loss. Use with caution.

You can erase a single job via the UI, which also removes the job's artifacts and trace, if you are:

  • The owner of the job.
  • A Maintainer of the project.

To erase a job:

  1. Navigate to a job's page.
  2. Click the trash icon at the top right of the job's trace.
  3. Confirm the deletion.

Retrieve artifacts of private projects when using GitLab CI

To retrieve a job artifact from a different project, you might need to use a private token to authenticate and download the artifact.

Troubleshooting

Error message No files to upload

This is often preceded by other errors or warnings that specify the filename and why it wasn't generated in the first place. Please check the entire job log for such messages.

If you find no helpful messages, please retry the failed job after activating CI debug logging. This provides useful information to investigate further.