An important element of Pipelines is the build definition file. The build definition file is a YAML format file (named acquia-pipelines.yaml) you create in your workspace. The build definition file contains all of the required information to perform the build, including any variables that are required and the instructions used to perform the build. The components of the build process can be broken into individual steps in the build definition file, and each step will be executed in order. Each step corresponds to the keys at the top level in the steps section of the build definition file.

Pipeline builds will time out after 60 minutes. Unless all steps and processes used during the build are closed before the timeout, the build job will fail.

You must name the build definition file acquia-pipelines.yaml or acquia-pipelines.yml, and the file must exist in the root directory in the branch you want to build.

For the sake of consistency, documentation will refer to the file as acquia-pipelines.yaml, though both .yml and .yaml are valid extensions.

The file will have the following key/value structure. Click a key for more information:

You can use Pipelines environment variables and Pipelines commands in your build steps.

You can also use the pipelines_metadata command in any of sections mentioned earlier of your build definition file to send build or container information back for use in other steps.

version:

The version key is a required key which must have a value of at least 1.0.0 for use with Pipelines. The following version keys enable more features:

variables:

The variables key of the build definition file provides a means of setting environment variables you need for your build. The environment variables are defined for all commands run during the job.

Here is an example of the variables key:

variables:
  global:
    ADMIN_USERNAME: admin
    ADMIN_PASSWORD:
      secure: 2aciWcRBNXrG/KcWG1bb0uSRTOVoiDl+h+QRi$. . .

For details about including secure (encrypted) variables in the variables key, see Encrypting keys and variables.

For information about the default environment variables provided by Pipelines, see Default environment variables in Pipelines.

cde-databases:

Cloud Platform CD environments support at most three databases. If your multisite application has more than three databases, you must use the cde-databases key, available to version 1.2.0 and higher, to specify which databases the Cloud Platform CD environment will support.

Single-site installations must also define cde-databases to copy content from another environment into the Cloud Platform CD environment.

cde-databases:
  - my-first-database
  - my-second-database

The cde-databases key has one of the following results, depending on its presence and value:

services:

With the services key you can enable one or more services to be available during the execution of your Pipelines job, including:

• MySQL
• PHP 7 and 8
• Memcached
• Composer

services: mysql

If your build process requires the use of MySQL, be sure to include the services: mysql key in your build definition file.

The mysql service starts a MySQL database infrastructure on 127.0.0.1``with port: ``3306 during the job. The database is configured with one user configured, which has the username root and the password root.

services: php

If your build process requires PHP 7 or 8, set your version key to 1.1.0 and include the services: php key in your build definition file. For a services: php example, see the following:

services:
  - php:
      version: 8.2

services: memcached

If your build process requires memcached, ensure you set your version key to at least 1.3.0 and include the services: memcached key in your build definition file, as in the following example:

version: 1.3.0
services:
  - memcached

It will start the Memcached service on 127.0.0.1 port 11211 for the duration of the job, but doesn’t support sudo memcached commands.

services: composer

The services: composer key, which is available in version 1.3.0, allows you to choose between Composer 1 and 2. Note that the container has both the versions. You can use the services: composer key to specify the default version.

version: 1.3.0
services:
  - composer:
      version: 2

events:

The required events key is the parent of the following keys:

Each of these keys can contain a steps:.

build:

The build key is required in the events top-level key. The build event is triggered by the pipelines start command. The contents of the build key describe how the workspace is to be built. The build key must have a single steps:, with values describing the actual process of the build.

fail-on-build:

The fail-on-build key is optional in the events top-level key, and will execute if the build event fails. The fail-on-build must have a single steps:, which may have several values. For example:

fail-on-build:
    steps:
      - runonfailure:
          type: script
          script:
            - "echo 'This is simple echo from fail-on-build event'"

post-deploy:

pr-merged:

The pr-merged key is triggered when a GitHub pull request is merged to its base branch. The pr-merged key must contain a single steps:, with a value describing the actual process.

pr-closed:

The pr-closed key is triggered when a GitHub pull request is closed without being merged to its base branch. The

The post-deploy key is optional in the events top-level key, and executes after the build event. The post-deploy key must contain a single steps:, with a value describing the actual process.

For an example of copying files to an on-demand environment as part of a Pipelines job, see Copying files to an on-demand environment.

steps:

The steps key describes the steps to carry out the build. Each step will be executed in the order the step appears in the steps key of the build definition file.

Each steps key has a type property that indicates how the step will be executed.

type: script

Steps of type: script let you specify arbitrary shell commands to be executed by Bash. Each type: script step must include a script key whose value is a list of shell commands, each listed on a separate line starting with a dash (-). When the script step runs, the lines are all combined into a single Bash script and executed.

By default, Pipelines prepends scripts with set -e, which causes the script to exit immediately if any command has a non-zero exit code. You can override the behavior by including set +e in your build script. Be aware that if you use set +e, the script doesn’t fail when a command fails, and so it’s the responsibility of the script to manage its own exit strategy and exit codes.

If a script step runs a program in the background (such as an HTTP infrastructure), the background program is terminated at the end of the step the program began running in. A background program which started in one script step won’t be present and available in later steps.

ssh-keys:

The ssh-keys key enables you to add SSH keys that may be required to access private resources. These keys are encrypted and can be generated using the pipelines encrypt command. Here is an example ssh-keys key:

Any number of keys can be added in the ssh-keys key. The value of the ssh-keys key (mykey in this example) is the name of the key. When Pipelines reads the build definition file, Pipelines attempts to decrypt the SSH keys. If the decryption is successful for one or more keys, Cloud Platform writes those keys into the ~/.ssh directory, making them available for use when accessing private resources from the build script.

Linking to specific SSH keys with a variable

To specify which SSH key will be used in a script, set the PIPELINE_SSH_KEY environment variable with the correct key, as in the following example:

When a specified SSH key is no longer required in a step, use unset PIPELINES_SSH_KEY to switch back to the default key.

Creating and managing your build definition file

variables:
  global:
    ADMIN_USERNAME: admin
    ADMIN_PASSWORD:
      secure: 2aciWcRBNXrG/KcWG1bb0uSRTOVoiDl+h+QRi$. . .

cde-databases:
  - my-first-database
  - my-second-database

services:
  - php:
      version: 8.2

version: 1.3.0
services:
  - memcached

version: 1.3.0
services:
  - composer:
      version: 2

fail-on-build:
    steps:
      - runonfailure:
          type: script
          script:
            - "echo 'This is simple echo from fail-on-build event'"

The post-deploy key is optional in the events top-level key, and executes after the build event. The post-deploy key must contain a single steps:, with a value describing the actual process.

For an example of copying files to an on-demand environment as part of a Pipelines job, see Copying files to an on-demand environment.

steps:

The steps key describes the steps to carry out the build. Each step will be executed in the order the step appears in the steps key of the build definition file.

Each steps key has a type property that indicates how the step will be executed.

type: script

Steps of type: script let you specify arbitrary shell commands to be executed by Bash. Each type: script step must include a script key whose value is a list of shell commands, each listed on a separate line starting with a dash (-). When the script step runs, the lines are all combined into a single Bash script and executed.

By default, Pipelines prepends scripts with set -e, which causes the script to exit immediately if any command has a non-zero exit code. You can override the behavior by including set +e in your build script. Be aware that if you use set +e, the script doesn’t fail when a command fails, and so it’s the responsibility of the script to manage its own exit strategy and exit codes.

If a script step runs a program in the background (such as an HTTP infrastructure), the background program is terminated at the end of the step the program began running in. A background program which started in one script step won’t be present and available in later steps.

ssh-keys:

The ssh-keys key enables you to add SSH keys that may be required to access private resources. These keys are encrypted and can be generated using the pipelines encrypt command. Here is an example ssh-keys key:

Any number of keys can be added in the ssh-keys key. The value of the ssh-keys key (mykey in this example) is the name of the key. When Pipelines reads the build definition file, Pipelines attempts to decrypt the SSH keys. If the decryption is successful for one or more keys, Cloud Platform writes those keys into the ~/.ssh directory, making them available for use when accessing private resources from the build script.

Linking to specific SSH keys with a variable

To specify which SSH key will be used in a script, set the PIPELINE_SSH_KEY environment variable with the correct key, as in the following example:

When a specified SSH key is no longer required in a step, use unset PIPELINES_SSH_KEY to switch back to the default key.