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DevOps / GitLab CI Basics Interview Questions

What is the 'allow_failure' keyword and how does it affect pipeline status?

The allow_failure keyword controls whether a failing job causes the pipeline to fail. When set to true, the job can fail without marking the overall pipeline as failed - GitLab shows a warning icon on the job instead of a failure.

# allow_failure: true - job failure does not fail the pipeline
linting:
  stage: test
  script:
    - eslint src/ --max-warnings 0
  allow_failure: true          # linting warnings won't block deployment

# allow_failure with rules (preferred modern approach)
code-quality:
  stage: test
  script:
    - run-quality-check.sh
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH
      allow_failure: true
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
      allow_failure: false     # strict on releases

# allow_failure with exit codes
# Only allow specific non-zero exit codes:
flaky-test:
  script:
    - run-flaky-tests.sh
  allow_failure:
    exit_codes: 137            # allow OOM kills (exit code 137)

# allow_failure: true with manual jobs
# makes the manual job non-blocking
optional-deploy:
  when: manual
  allow_failure: true          # pipeline passes without triggering this job

allow_failure effect on pipeline
allow_failureJob failsPipeline result
false (default)YesPipeline fails
trueYesPipeline passes with warning icon
exit_codes: [N]Exit code NPipeline passes; other codes still fail pipeline
What does setting 'allow_failure: true' on a job do?
How does allow_failure: exit_codes differ from allow_failure: true?

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