There is an issue regarding CI caching based on a file-based cache key where two CI jobs calculate a different cache key even though the file contents did not change. ### GitLab Version - GitLab CE, self-managed, `v16.11.1` - GitLab Shell `14.35.0` - Pipelines running on GitLab Runners (`16.11.0`) with Docker executors (using mounted `docker.sock`) ### Problem Outline What we see is that a MR pipeline's job tries to access the cache using a different key than was used when pushing the cache from an earlier pipeline even though the file that was used as the cache's key did not change. * The caches between protected and non-protected branches are separated (we don't see any `-protected` or `-non_protected` suffix on the cache key) * The cache from a pipeline that ran on `main` is correctly built and pushed (stored on AWS S3): ``` Creating cache core-84bdac10a1ceb7fc92081d17feada56abc580054... node_modules/: found <X> matching artifact files and directories Uploading cache.zip to <REDACTED> ``` * The pipeline from a feature branch seeks the cache but fails, because the key does not exist: ``` Checking cache for core-0ced49fb798cbcaa7ead3ddbeb691ecfb2e98021... WARNING: file does not exist Failed to extract cache ``` * A `git diff -- yarn.lock` between the two commits in question yields an empty result ### Reproduction (References job names given in `.gitlab-ci.yml` below) 1. No cache available at all, a pipeline on `main` runs; 2. Job `node-install-dependencies` runs, fails to find a cache, runs its script, generates and pushes a cache correctly; 2. Job `lint-all` runs, finds the cache, pulls it, succeeds; 3. Branch off of `main`, put some dummy commit on top, push and create new MR; 4. Pipeline on that MR runs; 5. Job `node-install-dependencies` is being skipped due to `rules: changes: yarn.lock` identifying correctly that the file did not change; 6. Job `lint-all` runs, fails to find the cache, fails overall; ### Expectation I'd expect the cache keys on both `lint-all` jobs to be the exact same, since (a) the `yarn.lock` contents did not change, and (b) the `node-install-dependencies` job was correctly skipped _because `yarn.lock` did not change_. ### Context: `.gitlab-ci.yml` ```yaml variables: GIT_DEPTH: 0 FF_USE_FASTZIP: 'true' ARTIFACT_COMPRESSION_LEVEL: 'fastest' CACHE_COMPRESSION_LEVEL: 'fastest' workflow: rules: - if: $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_ID - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH default: interruptible: true stages: - preflight - test - build - configure - deploy .cache-ref: - &node_cache key: files: - yarn.lock prefix: $CI_PROJECT_NAME paths: - node_modules/ policy: pull node-install-dependencies: stage: preflight rules: - changes: - yarn.lock cache: - <<: *node_cache policy: pull-push - key: ${CI_PROJECT_NAME}-${CI_JOB_NAME} paths: - .yarn-cache/ when: on_success policy: pull-push script: - yarn install --cache-folder .yarn-cache --frozen-lockfile --non-interactive lint-all: stage: test only: - main - merge_requests cache: - <<: *node_cache script: - npx --yes nx run-many --target=lint --all ```