How to create an array variable used as script argument in Gitlab CI yaml file?

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to declare a variable that is an array and use it as arguments passed to a shell script. Or find out how to be a bit more DRY by learning how to

Here's what I have tried that causes /bin/sh: eval: line X: syntax error: bad substitution:

variables:
  EXTRA_ARGS: (. "${CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA} pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID} latest" "pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID}" $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME $CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG)

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - path/to/script.sh uniqueParam1 uniqueParam2 ${EXTRA_ARGS[@]}
    - path/to/script.sh uniqueParam3 uniqueParam4 ${EXTRA_ARGS[@]}
    - path/to/script.sh uniqueParam5 uniqueParam6 ${EXTRA_ARGS[@]}

And the follow runs fine, but as you can tell, I'm repeating the extra arguments:

build:
  stage: build
  script:
    - path/to/script.sh uniqueParam1 uniqueParam2 . "${CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA} pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID} latest" "pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID}" $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME $CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG
    - path/to/script.sh uniqueParam3 uniqueParam4 . "${CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA} pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID} latest" "pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID}" $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME $CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG
    - path/to/script.sh uniqueParam5 uniqueParam6 . "${CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA} pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID} latest" "pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID}" $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME $CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG

I've also tried to remove the . dot, as an argument, but the error persists.

For my sake of mind I tried to run the concept in bash, and ran with success as follows:

#!/bin/bash

TEST1="Hello"
TEST2="human!"

ARGS=(. $TEST1 $TEST2 "${TEST2} ${TEST1}" "param1" "param2")

echo "${ARGS[*]}"

Outputs:

. Hello human! human! Hello param1 param2

Also tried to put it in the scripts as:

script:
  - EXTRA_ARGS=(. "${CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA} pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID} latest" "pipeline-${CI_PIPELINE_ID}" $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME $CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG)

And also doesn't work:

/bin/sh: eval: line 92: syntax error: unexpected "("

Also tried to escape \( but did not work.

/bin/sh (most probably) is not bash. Your docker inside gitlab is not running bash. — KamilCuk
– KamilCuk, Commented Sep 27, 2019 at 23:18
You're absolutely right @KamilCuk I'll see if I can change the runner to bash as unix shell does not support array I think — punkbit
– punkbit, Commented Sep 28, 2019 at 0:54

punkbit · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-28 01:05:20Z

1

As pointed out by the first comment, the issue is related to the Docker image that is based in Alpine that has bourne shell and not bash by default.

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-runner/issues/1758

answered Sep 28, 2019 at 1:05

punkbit

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Comments

Bassem Ramzy · Accepted Answer · 2023-01-01 16:06:50Z

The following works with me for the same case, with a minor difference that I define the array as a variable instead of sending it as an argument.

In .getlab-ci.yml, I export a "string" variable that has the elements concatenated and delimited by ';' (with single quotes, escaping ;):

build:
  stage: build 
  variables:
    ELMNT1: Value Has Spaces
    ELMNT2: Another Value Has Spaces
  script: 
    - export MY_ARR_STR=${ELMNT1}';'${ELMNT2}
    - shell my_script.sh

In the script, I convert the string to an array:

my_script.sh

ORIG_IFS="$IFS"
IFS=";" read -a MY_ARR <<< $MY_ARR_STR
IFS="$ORIG_IFS"
for index in "${!MY_ARR[@]}";
do
    echo "Array Element at index '$index' is '${MY_ARR[$index]}'"
done

With output as

Array Element at index '0' is 'Value Has Spaces'
Array Element at index '1' is 'Another Value Has Spaces'

Eligio Mariño · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-23 08:45:31Z

In sh, you can also create an array variable from a string, as shown in https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/569471/shell-convert-string-to-array

Here is how I use it in Gitlab CI to build Docker images from the kaniko container that has sh shell:

.build-kaniko:
  image:
    name: gcr.io/kaniko-project/executor:debug
    entrypoint: ['']
  variables:
    CONTEXT_DIR: ''
    IMAGE_DESTINATION_URI: ''
    KANIKO_EXTRA_ARGS: '--target prod --build-arg foo=bar'
  script:
    # Convert KANIKO_EXTRA_ARGS to shell array variable
    # https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/569471/shell-convert-string-to-array
    - set -o noglob
    - IFS=' '
    - 'set -- "$KANIKO_EXTRA_ARGS"'
    - 'echo "KANIKO_EXTRA_ARGS: " "$@"'

    # Run kaniko command
    - /kaniko/executor
      --context "$CONTEXT_DIR"
      --destination "$IMAGE_DESTINATION_URI"
      --skip-unused-stages=true
      $@

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