README.rst
1Cirrus CI integration
2=====================
3
4GitLab CI shared runners only provide a docker environment running on Linux.
5While it is possible to provide private runners for non-Linux platforms this
6is not something most contributors/maintainers will wish to do.
7
8To work around this limitation, we take advantage of `Cirrus CI`_'s free
9offering: more specifically, we use the `cirrus-run`_ script to trigger Cirrus
10CI jobs from GitLab CI jobs so that Cirrus CI job output is integrated into
11the main GitLab CI pipeline dashboard.
12
13There is, however, some one-time setup required. If you want FreeBSD and macOS
14builds to happen when you push to your GitLab repository, you need to
15
16* set up a GitHub repository for the project, eg. ``yourusername/qemu``.
17 This repository needs to exist for cirrus-run to work, but it doesn't need to
18 be kept up to date, so you can create it and then forget about it;
19
20* enable the `Cirrus CI GitHub app`_ for your GitHub account;
21
22* sign up for Cirrus CI. It's enough to log into the website using your GitHub
23 account;
24
25* grab an API token from the `Cirrus CI settings`_ page;
26
27* it may be necessary to push an empty ``.cirrus.yml`` file to your github fork
28 for Cirrus CI to properly recognize the project. You can check whether
29 Cirrus CI knows about your project by navigating to:
30
31 ``https://cirrus-ci.com/yourusername/qemu``
32
33* in the *CI/CD / Variables* section of the settings page for your GitLab
34 repository, create two new variables:
35
36 * ``CIRRUS_GITHUB_REPO``, containing the name of the GitHub repository
37 created earlier, eg. ``yourusername/qemu``;
38
39 * ``CIRRUS_API_TOKEN``, containing the Cirrus CI API token generated earlier.
40 This variable **must** be marked as *Masked*, because anyone with knowledge
41 of it can impersonate you as far as Cirrus CI is concerned.
42
43 Neither of these variables should be marked as *Protected*, because in
44 general you'll want to be able to trigger Cirrus CI builds from non-protected
45 branches.
46
47Once this one-time setup is complete, you can just keep pushing to your GitLab
48repository as usual and you'll automatically get the additional CI coverage.
49
50
51.. _Cirrus CI GitHub app: https://github.com/marketplace/cirrus-ci
52.. _Cirrus CI settings: https://cirrus-ci.com/settings/profile/
53.. _Cirrus CI: https://cirrus-ci.com/
54.. _cirrus-run: https://github.com/sio/cirrus-run/
55