Available now on GitLab

New features are regularly released to GitLab SaaS (GitLab.com), with a packaged release available for GitLab Self-Managed on the 22nd of every month. Read on to learn more about the new features available on GitLab.com. Note that it may take a few days for a feature to become fully available on GitLab.com, due to deployment schedule and potential feature flags.

Additional information on past releases is available; be sure to check out the release for other features we've launched recently. We also have information about upcoming releases if you're interested in seeing what we are doing next.

Key features released in GitLab Preview

Terraform module registry built into GitLab

SaaS

Self-Managed

Do you manage multiple Terraform modules in GitLab? Now you can use GitLab’s dedicated Terraform module registry to discover Terraform modules with semantic versioning support for upgrades and maintenance.

While following Terraform’s best practices, we recommend developing each Terraform module in a dedicated GitLab project. To simplify the transition to the registry, users can host and publish multiple modules from a single GitLab repository. You can learn more about publishing and consuming a new module in our documentation.

Documentation Issue

Terraform module registry built into GitLab

Other improvements in GitLab Preview

SaaS

Self-Managed

The stages in project-level value stream analytics are now shown in a horizontal layout. This helps visualize the flow of work through the stages of a value stream. It also matches the navigation experience in group-level value stream analytics.

Horizontal navigation for project-level Value Stream Analytics

Documentation Issue

Add ‘~’ to supported characters for CI/CD variable masking

SaaS

Self-Managed

Securely managing secrets stored in CI/CD variables is a must. You can hide variable values in job logs by masking the variables, but GitLab only support certain characters. Now we support masking variables with ‘~’ in the value, which expands the feature to support more secrets generated from other secrets provider platforms. Thank you to dallmair for the community contribution!

Documentation Issue

Improve security of ‘CI_JOB_TOKEN’ with bots and more

SaaS

Self-Managed

The CI_JOB_TOKEN CI/CD variable makes it easy to do API calls within CI/CD jobs, enabling advanced automation. For example, the token can be used with bots, which may run from pipelines in separate projects, to run automated tasks in your project. This token is short-lived, but in an effort to make its usage even more secure we are adding a project setting that lets you list the exact projects that you want to have access to the token. Any other project that tries to use it will be denied access to the API, making your project safer.

This setting is enabled by default for all new projects, and we strongly recommend enabling it in all your existing projects.

Improve security of 'CI_JOB_TOKEN' with bots and more

Documentation Issue

Feature Flags User List is now on its own page

SaaS

Self-Managed

Previously, to access the user lists, you had to navigate to a separate tab under the Feature Flags page. This design obscured the relationship between feature flags and user lists since user lists are a sub-feature of feature flags. In this release, user lists are now under a subpage of Feature Flags, which improves the workflow and makes their relationship more clear.

Feature Flags User List is now on its own page

Documentation Issue

GitLab upgraded to Ruby on Rails 6.1

SaaS

Self-Managed

In this release, we upgraded Ruby on Rails to version 6.1 to take advantage of the latest improvements of the application framework. Please refer to the Ruby on Rails 6.1 release notes for more details.

Documentation Issue Epic

Track usage of Code Owners

SaaS

Self-Managed

Code Owners is an important piece of the code review process in GitLab. When code owners are clearly identified, contributors can see who should review contributions to a file or repository. The Code Owners feature can also be used to establish a merge request approval process. Now, you can track which teams across your organization are using the Code Owners feature in their development workflow. If you would like to drive adoption of Code Owners, sort the DevOps Adoption table by the Code Owners column to find teams that haven’t yet adopted the feature so you can easily identify which teams need help getting started. Alternatively, find teams that have successfully configured Code Owners and get tips and feedback. The DevOps Adoption table is available at the group level and the instance level.

Documentation Issue

GitLab Runner 14.0

SaaS

Self-Managed

We’re also releasing GitLab Runner 14.0 today! GitLab Runner is the lightweight, highly-scalable agent that runs your build jobs and sends the results back to a GitLab instance. GitLab Runner works in conjunction with GitLab CI/CD, the open-source continuous integration service included with GitLab.

What’s new:

Bug Fixes:

The list of all changes is in the GitLab Runner CHANGELOG.

Documentation

Predefined CI/CD variable for environment action

SaaS

Self-Managed

Suppose you want to reuse scripts and configuration between deployment jobs (using the environment: keyword). In that case, it can be difficult to exclude certain behaviors based on the type of action the deployment job is doing. For example, an environment: action of stop might be a job that is stopping a review_app, and you don’t want your deployment scripts to run.

Now, the value of environment: action: is available as the CI_ENVIRONMENT_ACTION predefined CI/CD variable, making it easier than ever to configure one script that can work for all deployment jobs.

Documentation Issue

Database load balancing moved to Free

SaaS

Self-Managed

GitLab’s database load balancer enables the distribution of read-only queries across multiple database servers. For GitLab instances with thousands of users, using the load balancer can reduce the load on the primary database and increase responsiveness, thus resulting in faster page load inside GitLab.

In this release, we moved the load balancer from Premium to Free to allow more users to benefit from this feature.

Documentation Issue

Deprecations

Update CI/CD templates to stop using hardcoded ‘master’

Our CI/CD templates have been updated to no longer use hard-coded references to a master branch. In 14.0, they all use a variable that points to your project’s configured default branch instead. If your CI/CD pipeline relies on our built-in templates, you may want to verify that this change works with your current configuration. For example, if you have a master branch and a different default branch, the updates to the templates may cause changes to your pipeline behavior.

Planned removal date: June 22, 2021

Removals

External Pipeline Validation Service Code Changes

For self-managed instances using the experimental external pipeline validation service, the range of error codes GitLab accepts will be reduced. Currently, pipelines are invalidated when the validation service returns a response code from 400 to 499. In GitLab 14.0 and later, pipelines will be invalidated for the 406: Not Accepted response code only.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

GitLab Runner helper image in GitLab.com Container Registry

In 14.0, we are now pulling the GitLab Runner helper image from the GitLab Container Registry instead of Docker Hub. Refer to issue #27218 for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

GitLab Runner installation to ignore the skel directory

In GitLab Runner 14.0, the installation process will ignore the skel directory by default when creating the user home directory. Refer to issue #4845 for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Make pwsh the default shell for newly-registered Windows Runners

In GitLab Runner 13.2, PowerShell Core support was added to the Shell executor. In 14.0, PowerShell Core, pwsh is now the default shell for newly-registered Windows runners. Windows CMD will still be available as a shell option for Windows runners. Refer to issue #26419 for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Removal of deprecated `trace` parameter from `jobs` API endpoint

GitLab Runner was updated in GitLab 13.4 to internally stop passing the trace parameter to the /api/jobs/:id endpoint. In GitLab 14.0, we will deprecate the trace parameter entirely for all other requests of this endpoint. Make sure your GitLab Runner version matches your GitLab version to ensure consistent behavior.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2020

Removals for License Compliance

In 13.0, we deprecated the License-Management CI template and renamed it License-Scanning. We have been providing backward compatibility by warning users of the old template to switch. Now in 14.0, we are completely removing the License-Management CI template. Read about it in issue #216261 or this blog post.

Removal date: June 22, 2021

Remove /usr/lib/gitlab-runner symlink from package

In GitLab Runner 13.3, a symlink was added from /user/lib/gitlab-runner/gitlab-runner to /usr/bin/gitlab-runner. In 14.0, the symlink has been removed and the runner is now installed in /usr/bin/gitlab-runner. Refer to issue #26651 for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Remove FF_RESET_HELPER_IMAGE_ENTRYPOINT feature flag

In 14.0, we have deactivated the FF_RESET_HELPER_IMAGE_ENTRYPOINT feature flag. Refer to issue #26679 for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Remove FF_SHELL_EXECUTOR_USE_LEGACY_PROCESS_KILL feature flag

In GitLab Runner 13.1, issue #3376, we introduced sigterm and then sigkill to a process in the Shell executor. We also introduced a new feature flag, FF_SHELL_EXECUTOR_USE_LEGACY_PROCESS_KILL, so you can use the previous process termination sequence. In GitLab Runner 14.0, issue #6413, the feature flag has been removed.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Remove FF_USE_GO_CLOUD_WITH_CACHE_ARCHIVER feature flag

In GitLab Runner 14.0, the FF_USE_GO_CLOUD_WITH_CACHE_ARCHIVER feature flag has been removed. Refer to issue #27175 for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Remove Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) package

Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) reached end of life on Friday, July 17, 2020. In GitLab Runner 14.0, Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) is no longer available from our package distribution. Refer to issue #26036 for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Remove off peak time mode configuration for Docker Machine autoscaling

In GitLab Runner 13.0, issue #5069, we introduced new timing options for the GitLab Docker Machine executor. In GitLab Runner 14.0, we have removed the old configuration option, off peak time mode.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Remove success and failure for finished build metric conversion

In GitLab Runner 13.5, we introduced failed and success states for a job. To support Prometheus rules, we chose to convert success/failure to finished for the metric. In 14.0, the conversion has now been removed. Refer to [issue #26900](Remove success/failure to “finished” build metric conversion) for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Remove support for Windows Server 1903 image

In 14.0, we have removed Windows Server 1903. Microsoft ended support for this version on 2020-08-12. Refer to issue #27551 for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Remove support for Windows Server 1909 image

In 14.0, we have removed Windows Server 1909. Microsoft ended support for this version on 2021-05-11. Refer to issue #27899 for details.

Removal date: Jun 22, 2021

Changelog

Please check out the changelog to see all the named changes:

Installing

If you are setting up a new GitLab installation please see the download GitLab page.

Updating

Check out our update page.

GitLab Subscription Plans

GitLab is available in self-managed and cloud SaaS options.

Self-managed: Deploy on-premises or on your favorite cloud platform.

Core: For small teams, personal projects, or GitLab trials with unlimited time.
Starter: For co-located teams with few projects who need professional support.
Premium: For distributed teams who need advanced features, high availability, and 24/7 support.
Ultimate: For enterprises that want to align strategy and execution with enhanced security and compliance.

Cloud SaaS - GitLab.com: hosted, managed, and administered by GitLab with free and paid subscriptions for individuals and teams.

Free: Unlimited private repositories and unlimited collaborators on a project. Private projects get access to Free features, public projects gets access to Gold features.
Bronze: For teams that need access to more advanced workflow features.
Silver: For teams that need more robust DevOps capabilities, compliance and faster support.
Gold: Great with many CI/CD jobs. Every public project get the features of Gold for free irrespective of their plan.

Try all GitLab features - free for 30 days

GitLab is more than just source code management or CI/CD. It is a full software development lifecycle & DevOps tool in a single application.

Try GitLab Free

Key features released in GitLab Preview

Terraform module registry built into GitLab

Other improvements in GitLab Preview

Horizontal navigation for project-level Value Stream Analytics

Add ‘~’ to supported characters for CI/CD variable masking

Improve security of ‘CI_JOB_TOKEN’ with bots and more

Feature Flags User List is now on its own page

GitLab upgraded to Ruby on Rails 6.1

Track usage of Code Owners

GitLab Runner 14.0

What’s new:

Bug Fixes:

Predefined CI/CD variable for environment action

Database load balancing moved to Free

Deprecations

Update CI/CD templates to stop using hardcoded ‘master’

Removals

External Pipeline Validation Service Code Changes

GitLab Runner helper image in GitLab.com Container Registry

GitLab Runner installation to ignore the skel directory

Make pwsh the default shell for newly-registered Windows Runners

Removal of deprecated trace parameter from jobs API endpoint

Removals for License Compliance

Remove /usr/lib/gitlab-runner symlink from package

Remove FF_RESET_HELPER_IMAGE_ENTRYPOINT feature flag

Remove FF_SHELL_EXECUTOR_USE_LEGACY_PROCESS_KILL feature flag

Remove FF_USE_GO_CLOUD_WITH_CACHE_ARCHIVER feature flag

Remove Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) package

Remove off peak time mode configuration for Docker Machine autoscaling

Remove success and failure for finished build metric conversion

Remove support for Windows Server 1903 image

Remove support for Windows Server 1909 image

Changelog

Installing

Updating

GitLab Subscription Plans

Try all GitLab features - free for 30 days

Removal of deprecated `trace` parameter from `jobs` API endpoint