CI: self-defined env-vars for artifacts

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Description

gitlab-ci exports the CI_BUILD_REF environment variable, which is the full hash of the last commit. sometimes this is a bit too verbose, and one would like to use something shorter (the abbreviated hash; or the output of a command like git describe --tag).

This can actually be done (though it is undocumented!) , e.g. like in the following .gitlab-ci.yml:

build:
  script:
     - declare -x MYVAR=$(git describe --tags)
     - make VERSION="${MYVAR}"

unfortunately the so-defined variables are not exported for building artifacts.

E.g. the following will create an artifact named myproject-.zip (note the missing version)

  artifacts:
    name: myproject-${MYVAR}

Here's another use-case, that uses make install to create artifacts, in a way that prevents any name-clashes:

build:
  stage: build
    - declare -x TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d -p.)
    - make install DESTDIR=${TMPDIR}
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - ${TMPDIR}

Proposal

Provide a way to create dynamic variables that can be used in all stages of the CI-process.