Release Uploader for Gitlab

Creating releases on Gitlab seems to work only via the REST API.

This Python script handles the upload of a release file, the creation of the required release tag in the repository and the creation of the actual release referring to both the tag and the file.

It supports commandline options and an input file, adjusted to be used in Gitlab CI scripts.

Usage

wn@tron:~/workspace-python/gitlabreleaseuploader [master ≡]$ ./gitlabreleaseuploader.py -h
usage: gitlabreleaseuploader.py [-h] --privateToken PRIVATETOKEN --projectId
                                PROJECTID --projectUrl PROJECTURL --file FILE
                                [--releaseName RELEASENAME]
                                [--releaseTag RELEASETAG]
                                [--releaseTagTarget RELEASETAGTARGET]
                                [--createReleaseTag]
                                [--description DESCRIPTION]
                                [--releaseInfoFile RELEASEINFOFILE]
                                [--instanceUrl INSTANCEURL] [--verbose]

Gitlab Release Uploader

optional arguments:
-h, --help            show this help message and exit
--privateToken PRIVATETOKEN, -p PRIVATETOKEN
                        Private token to access Gitlab
--projectId PROJECTID, -i PROJECTID
                        ProjectID of the related project
--projectUrl PROJECTURL, -u PROJECTURL
                        URL of the related project at Gitlab
--file FILE, -f FILE  File to be released
--releaseName RELEASENAME, -n RELEASENAME
                        Name of the release
--releaseTag RELEASETAG, -t RELEASETAG
                        Tag of the release in the repo
--releaseTagTarget RELEASETAGTARGET, -T RELEASETAGTARGET
                        Commit or branch the tag should point to
--createReleaseTag, -c
                        Shall the release be created here
--description DESCRIPTION, -d DESCRIPTION
                        Description of the release
--releaseInfoFile RELEASEINFOFILE, -F RELEASEINFOFILE
                        File containing JSON object with release info (release
                        tag, create release tag, description
--instanceUrl INSTANCEURL, -I INSTANCEURL
                        URL of your gitlab instance
--verbose, -v         verbose output
wn@tron:~/workspace-python/gitlabreleaseuploader [master ≡]$ 

Without release info file:

gitlabreleaseuploader.py -p PRIVATE_TOKEN -i PROJECT_ID -u PROJECT_URL
                         -f FILE_TO_BE_RELEASED -n RELEASE_NAME
                         -t RELEASE_TAG -T RELEASE_TAG_TARGET -c
                         -d RELEASE_DESCRIPTION -I INSTANCE_URL

With release info file:

Release Info File:

{
  "releaseTag": "v1.5",
  "createReleaseTag": "true",
  "releaseName": "Sixth release of the uploader",
  "description": "Now with CI script and automatic release upload (hey, eat your own dogfood)"
}

Command:

gitlabreleaseuploader.py -p PRIVATE_TOKEN -i PROJECT_ID -u PROJECT_URL
                         -f FILE_TO_BE_RELEASED -F RELEASE_INFO_FILE

Use in CI script

The PRIVATE_TOKEN should not be entered directly into the CI script but added as protected a CI variable to you particular project.

Then add the following stage into your CI script:

release:
        stage: release
        image: registry.gitlab.com/wolutator/base-build-env
        only:
                - release
        script:
                - gitlabreleaseuploader.py -p $PRIVATE_TOKEN -i $CI_PROJECT_ID -u $CI_PROJECT_URL
                  -f gitlabreleaseuploader.py -F info.json -T $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME

Note, please: this stage definition is for a docker worker. It uses my base-build-env image, which already contains the uploader script. However, it is no problem to use the uploader script also in different environments. It just depends on the Requests package.

Note too, please: this job is releasing the gitlabreleaseuploader.py script itself, so you see the name of the script twice in the CI script. Don't be confused, the option -f gets the file to be released.

Most information are taken from CI builtin variables, the tag name, release name and release description should be stored in the release info file (here: info.json), which is under version control.

To avoid releasing a file with everything single push to an arbitrary branch, add the only block.