Passing through non-defined CI variables assigns them a literal value instead of remaining empty

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Summary

GitLab CI Variable with the same key and value is retained, so URL: $URL will have the value of $URL instead of it being empty.

Steps to reproduce

stages:
  - test

test-with-vars:
  stage: test
  variables:
    URL: $URL #same output
    NOTHING_TO_EXPAND: $VARIABLE_DOES_NOT_EXIST
  script:
    - echo $URL
    - echo $NOTHING_TO_EXPAND

Example Project

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-gold/faleksic-tests/public-group/ci-testing/-/tree/gitlab-ci-variable-issue

Pipeline output: - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-gold/faleksic-tests/public-group/ci-testing/-/jobs/1997281173

What is the current bug behavior?

Instead of the value being empty because $URL is empty, the value of URL becomes $URL.

What is the expected correct behavior?

If key and value name are the same and the value is empty it should remain empty.

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

Output of checks

This bug happens on GitLab.com

Results of GitLab environment info

Expand for output related to GitLab environment info

(For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of:
`sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info`)

(For installations from source run and paste the output of:
`sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production`)

Results of GitLab application Check

Expand for output related to the GitLab application check

(For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of:
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true)
(For installations from source run and paste the output of:
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production SANITIZE=true)
(we will only investigate if the tests are passing)

Possible fixes