Developing GitLab on Gitpod Classic

GDK can be used with Gitpod using the GitLab Gitpod integration.

The main advantage of running the GDK in Gitpod is that you don’t have to worry about your local environment, installing dependencies, and keeping them up to date. With Gitpod, you can run a pre-configured GDK instance in the cloud, which also makes it possible to contribute, no matter how powerful your machine is. You could even just use an iPad!

• How to get started
• How to update the Gitpod GDK Docker image

How to get started

If you are a GitLab team member, either:

• Open this link.
• Click the Gitpod button in the GitLab repository. This might require you to enable the Gitpod integration in your user settings.

If you are a community contributor:

1. Fork the GitLab repository,
2. Click the Gitpod button in the repository view of your fork.

Hint: If you don’t see a “Gitpod” button, open the dropdown of the “Web IDE” split button.

If you have never used Gitpod before, you must:

1. Create a new Gitpod account.
2. Connect the Gitpod account to your GitLab account.

After that is done, you just wait 7-8 minutes for the entire setup to finish, and you’ll see a notification on the bottom right corner to open the GDK UI, Open the port in browser.

Sign in to GitLab using the default username root and password 5iveL!fe. You must immediately change that password after you log in the first time. Every new Gitpod workspace requires you to change the password again. Now you are ready to make or review changes.

If you have questions about the UI or if you are curious have a look at:

• Gitpod documentation.
• GDK commands documentation.

View the GitLab instance

After you have started a Gitpod session, to view your running GitLab instance:

1. Select the PORTS tab.
2. Select URL in the Address column for port 3000.

Make the Rails web server publicly accessible

By default, only your web browser can access your GitLab instance. Other services can’t access your GitLab instance until you open port 3000. You can open port 3000, either:

• By using the Gitpod UI:

  1. Select the PORTS tab.
  2. Select the lock icon next to port 3000 and it will appear as an unlocked lock.

• By using the Gitpod CLI:

  1. Select the TERMINAL tab.
  2. Run gp ports visibility 3000:public.

How to use GDK with Gitpod

The following are common tasks for using GDK in Gitpod.

Check out branches

The easiest way to switch to another branch is to use the UI functionality:

1. Click on the current branch name in the blue bottom bar.

   

2. A context menu appears with a list of other branches where you can type in the name of the branch you want to switch to and select it as soon as it appears in the list.

   

Alternatively, you can also use the terminal to check out a branch:

cd /workspace/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab git fetch origin && git checkout -b "BRANCH_NAME" "origin/BRANCH_NAME"

Often your branch is behind the Ruby gems and JavaScript libraries of the master branch, so after switching branches, make sure they are installed.

On the Gitpod console:

cd /workspace/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab bundle && yarn

Finally, you should restart GDK after switching branches, because changes on the branch (for example, workers) mean a restart is required to have the feature work:

cd /workspace/gitlab-development-kit gdk restart

Start a Rails console

To run the Rails console:

1. Select the TERMINAL tab.

2. Run the following command:

   cd /workspace/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab && ./bin/rails console

View logs

To switch to the directory with Rails logs:

1. Select the TERMINAL tab.

2. Change into the GitLab log directory:

   cd /workspace/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab/log

You can also tail logs from GDK services:

1. Select the TERMINAL tab.

2. Run the following command:

   cd /workspace/gitlab-development-kit && gdk tail

Commit and push changes

If you have made changes to any of the files and want to push and commit them:

1. Navigate to the Source Control: Git tab in the left sidebar. There you also see all files that have been changed.

   

2. In this view, you can then decide which changes you want to add to the commit. Usually that would be all files, so you can just stage all changes by clicking on the “Plus” icon that appears on hover next to the Changes section.

3. When that’s done and you have also entered a commit message in the text area above, you can commit by clicking the checkmark icon at the top of the Source Control section.

   

4. Push your changes by using the Synchronize changes action in the bottom blue toolbar. If the Gitpod UI asks you which way you want to synchronize your changes, you can just choose Push and pull.

   

Configure additional features

With Gitpod, the default configuration of the GDK is ready for you in just a couple of minutes, and we are actively working on making sure that as many features work out of the box. However, right now you still have to complete a couple of steps to enable advanced features.

Enable runners

You can create a runner with a Docker executor or a shell executor. You can also create multiple runners with different executors.

Ensure that you’re using the 3000 port and that it’s set to public. To change the port from private to public:

• In the GitPod UI:
  1. On the Remote Explorer tab, find the port name.
  2. Select the lock icon.
• In the GitPod VSCode UI:
  1. Select the Ports tab. The tab is usually at the bottom of the window.
  2. Find port 3000.
  3. Right-click open (private) and select Make public.

Option 1: Docker executor

1. Create a Personal Access Token in Gitpod with owner access and api scope and copy it.

2. Add the PAT you created to this command in place of $GITLAB_TOKEN and then run it in your terminal. This command starts Runner in a Docker container and uses the Gitpod IP address, a default image, and a PAT access token to register the new runner ( learn more about why a PAT is needed):

   docker run --rm -it -v gitlab-runner-config:/etc/gitlab-runner gitlab/gitlab-runner:latest register \  --non-interactive \  --url "http://10.0.5.2:3000/" \  --token "$(curl -sX POST "http://10.0.5.2:3000/api/v4/user/runners" -H "private-token: $GITLAB_TOKEN" --data runner_type=instance_type --data description=docker-runner | jq -r '.token')" \  --executor "docker" \  --docker-image alpine:latest \  --description "docker-runner"

3. Start the runner container using the Docker volume as documented.

   docker run -d --name gitlab-runner --restart always \  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \  -v gitlab-runner-config:/etc/gitlab-runner \  gitlab/gitlab-runner:latest

Option 2: Shell executor

1. On the left sidebar, expand the top-most chevron ({chevron-down}).
2. Select Admin Area.
3. On the left sidebar, select CI/CD > Runners.
4. Select New instance runner and be sure to check Run untagged jobs if you don’t specify a tag list. Optionally fill out the rest of the form.
5. In the next screen, copy the command.
6. In the terminal, switch to the GDK directory cd /workspace/gitlab-development-kit.
7. Run the copied command with the following added to the end --config /workspace/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab-runner-config.toml --non-interactive --executor shell.
8. Run gitlab-runner run --config /workspace/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab-runner-config.toml.

You should receive a confirmation message on the screen that your runner is ready to pick up jobs. If you create a new project, the Pages/Plain HTML template contains a super simple and tiny pipeline that’s great to use to verify whether the runner is actually working.

Enable feature flags

To enable feature flags:

1. Start a Rails console in Gitpod.
2. Wait about 1 minute until you see the message that the development environment has been loaded.
3. Run Feature.enable(:feature_flag), replacing feature_flag with the name of the feature flag you want to enable.
4. Leave the console by typing exit and hitting Enter.

Enable the billing page

1. Open a Rails console.
2. Run ApplicationSetting.first.update(check_namespace_plan: true).
3. Run gdk restart to apply the changes.

The billing page is now accessible at Group > Settings > Billing.

Connect the Customer app to your Gitpod instance

Use the instructions in the customers-gitlab-com project.

Use Advanced Search

To use Advanced Search, you must:

• Have a premium or higher license registered in the GDK.
• Enable Elasticsearch.

To enable Elasticsearch:

1. From the command line, navigate to /workspace/gitlab-development-kit and open gdk.yml for editing by using cd /workspace/gitlab-development-kit && gp open gdk.yml. The file might be empty.

2. Add the following lines and save the file:

   elasticsearch:  enabled: true

3. Run gdk reconfigure.

4. Run gdk start elasticsearch.

How to test features only available in higher GitLab tiers

For information on enabling higher GitLab tiers in GDK to test out features, learn more about how to activate GitLab EE with a license file or key.

How to test features only available on SaaS (GitLab.com)

By default GDK runs as self-managed, but can be switched to run as the SaaS version. For more information, see Simulate a SaaS instance.

How to update the Gitpod GDK Docker image

There are two Gitpod GDK Docker images that can be built:

• registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/gitpod-workspace:main
• registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/gitpod-workspace:stable

main tag

We automatically build a new Gitpod GDK Docker image every day that’s tagged as registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/gitpod-workspace:main. The main tag is used because that’s the name of the default Git branch for the GDK.

stable tag

When running Gitpod for GitLab, it uses the registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/gitpod-workspace:stable Docker image which uses the stable tag.

Promote main tag to stable

1. Visit GDK’s scheduled CI pipelines and locate the last successful pipeline ID for the Rebuild Gitpod workspace image pipeline.
2. Use the pipeline ID to check if the GDK Gitpod main image was created.
3. Check the verify-gitpod-docker-image job succeeded to ensure GDK started successfully in GDK Gitpod main image.
4. Using the pipeline located in step 1, promote the GDK Gitpod main image to stable by selecting Run on the manual deploy-gitpod-workspace-image job once it is available.