gitlab-ci: remote shell execution with variable expansion

Question

Within a gitlab-ci job, I want to create a directory (on a remote server) with the job id and perform some actions more or less as follows:

- ssh user@server mkdir -p /user/$CI_JOB_ID
- ssh user@server <perform_some_action_that_creates_several_zip_files>
- LAST_MODIFIED_FILE=$(ssh user@server bash -c 'find /user/$CI_JOB_ID -iname "*.zip" | tail -n 1 | xargs readlink -f')

The directory does get created and the action that creates several zips works out.

However, the last command that I use for getting the last modified/created .zip does not work, because $CI_JOB_ID does not seem to get expanded.

Any suggestions?

no, but this works: ssh user@server mkdir -p /tmp/$CI_JOB_ID — pkaramol
– pkaramol, Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 12:18
try using double quotation instead : "find /user/$CI_JOB_ID -iname '*.zip' | tail -n 1 | xargs readlink -f". Here, the single quotes may prevent variable expansion for $CI_JOB_ID — Aserre
– Aserre, Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 12:49
I have tried it ... does not work either ... I have also made a local copy of a variables file holding entries such as export CI_JOB_ID=$CI_JOB_ID, copying it to the remote server and sourcing it ... no luck either ... — pkaramol
– pkaramol, Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 12:56
come to think of it, it makes sense that (when sourcing the variables file) the variable is not available... these are distinct ssh sessions — pkaramol
– pkaramol, Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 13:00

Aserre · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-15 14:59:23Z

This issue is due to your ssh call. The way you do it now, you are mixing contexts :

ssh user@server bash -c 'find /user/$CI_JOB_ID -iname "*.zip" | tail -n 1 | xargs readlink -f'

bash -c 'my_commands' : you use simple quotes, so ssh will execute exactly the instruction my_commands. In your case, it will try to find the remote value for $CI_JOB_ID, instead of using the local one.
ssh user@server bash -c "my_commands" : withssh, the commands to execute on the remote shell are sent as a single string. Thus, if you were to run ssh with this quotation, it would try to run "bash -c find ... | tail ... | xargs ...". Here, only find is run through bash -c.

In your case, simply writing directly the following statement should do the trick :

ssh user@server "find /user/$CI_JOB_ID -iname '*.zip' | tail -n 1 | xargs readlink -f"

Otherwise, if you want to keep using the bash -c syntax, you'd have to escape the quotation so that it is propagated to the remote machine :

ssh user@server bash -c \"find /user/$CI_JOB_ID -iname '*.zip' | tail -n 1 | xargs readlink -f\"

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