Allow `needs: []` to specify a job that can always be started immediately, regardless of stage
Problem to solve
For the MVC of the directed acyclic graph, we're lacking support for defining an empty needs: array to specify that something has no predecessor. If we supported this, users could mark a job in a second or beyond stage as eligible to start immediately.
Intended users
Individual contributor automation engineers
Further details
Consider the following yaml which has a build, setup_test_env, and test job:
build:
stage: build
script: echo Hello World
setup_test_env:
stage: test
test:
stage: test
needs: [build, setup_test_env]With this new keyword, we could allow setup_test_env as follows to allow it to run as soon as the pipeline starts, but still appear in the test stage where it makes more logical sense:
setup_test_env:
stage: test
needs: []Proposal
Allow for needs: [] which will indicate to GitLab that a job, regardless of what stage it's in, can always start immediately.
Permissions and Security
N/A
Documentation
-
We may need to remove: It is impossible for now to have needs: [] (empty needs), the job always needs to depend on something, unless this is the job in the first stage. However, support for an empty needs array is planned.