Feedback issue - planned removal of `gitlab-runner exec` in 16.0

Overview

This issue is meant as mechanism for the user and customer community to provide comments regarding our intent to remove the gitlab-runner exec feature from the core runner code base in the 16.0 release (April 2023).

Background

The gitlab-runner exec feature was initially developed to provide the ability to validate a GitLab CI pipeline on a local system without needing to commit the updates to a GitLab instance. However, with the continued evolution of GitLab CI, replicating all GitLab CI features into gitlab-runner exec was no longer viable.

With this context, we have determined that it is no longer tenable to continue to incur the technical debt of this legacy feature. As a result, we plan to include a new deprecation notice in the 15.8 release post and fully remove gitlab-runner exec from the runner code base in the 16.0 release.

Please add feedback to the comment threads below. 👇🏾