Sync build html documentation to obswww.unige.ch/~user

Summary: Create artifacts with every push on gitlab using the continuous integration, during which the html documents are built as a test. The arefacts contain the html pages. Make them publicly downloadable, and use a cron job on obswww.unige to sync the newest html version daily/weekly. Artifacts are created only for a successful build, and kept on gitlab.com indefinitely.

Step-by-step:

  • in your .gitlab-ci.yml file, define a job jobname_1 that builds the documentation, e.g.

jobname_1:
    stage: build
    script:
    - make html
    - mkdir -p public
    - mv build/html/* public/
    artifacts:
        paths:
        - public
    only:
    - pushes

  • the artifact should now be downloadable via the following link: https://gitlab.com/USERNAME/PROJECTNAME/-/jobs/artifacts/master/download?job=jobname_1. Note that you’ll have to insert your own USERNAME and PROJECTNAME. Also note that jobname_1 has to correspond to the job name you defined in your .gitlab-ci.yml file. (If you want to have a look at your artifacts in your browser instead of downloading them, replace download with raw in the link. By default, artifacts on gitlab.com are stored indefinitely.) master refers to the branch, so you can access the artifact from other branches by replacing master with the corresponding branch name.

  • you can write a bash script to download the file and move them to your /www/ directory:

wd=`pwd`
cd /tmp
rm artifacts.zip # in case there is already artifacts.zip here, curl will fail
curl -O -J -L https://gitlab.com/USERNAME/PROJECTNAME/-/jobs/artifacts/master/download?job=JOBNAME
unzip artifacts.zip
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]; then continue; fi;
cp -r public/$page/* /www/people/USERNAME/public/WHEREVER_YOU_WANT_IT
rm -r public/
cd $wd

  • Make a cron job on the Geneva server to run your script once a day/week.

Other options:

  • store your ssh password for unige as a secret variable on gitlab, and use sshpass in the .gitlab-ci.yml file to scp the new html version after every build. Detailed instruction here

  • Clone the repo at the unige server, and use a cronjob to build the docs and move them to the right directory.

  • gitlab pages , however that doesn’t work for me (29.11.2018) even with their own examples.

Page last edited 2018-12-06