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Maven / GitLab CI Basics Interview Questions

What are the most important predefined CI/CD variables in GitLab?

GitLab automatically sets dozens of predefined variables for every pipeline run. These provide jobs with information about the current commit, branch, pipeline, runner, and environment without any configuration.

Essential predefined variables
VariableValueCommon use
$CI_COMMIT_SHAFull commit SHA (40 chars)Tagging Docker images
$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHAFirst 8 chars of SHAShort image tags, logs
$CI_COMMIT_BRANCHBranch nameConditional logic (if main...)
$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAMEBranch or tag nameGeneric ref reference
$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUGBranch name, URL-safe (/ replaced with -)Docker tags, URLs
$CI_PIPELINE_IDUnique pipeline IDLinking artifacts to pipelines
$CI_JOB_IDUnique job IDUnique artifact names
$CI_PROJECT_NAMERepository nameBuild labels
$CI_PROJECT_PATHnamespace/projectRegistry image paths
$CI_REGISTRYGitLab Container Registry URLDocker login
$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGEFull image path in registrydocker build/push
$GITLAB_USER_LOGINUsername of who triggered pipelineAudit logs
$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCEWhat triggered the pipelineConditional job rules
deploy:
  script:
    - docker build -t $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA .
    - docker push $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA
    - echo "Deployed by $GITLAB_USER_LOGIN from $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH"

What does the predefined variable $CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG contain?
Which predefined variable contains the full path to the project's container image in the GitLab registry?

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