Run Gitlab CI locally

I use this docker-based approach.

0. Create a git repo to test this

mkdir my-git-project
cd my-git-project
git init
git commit --allow-empty -m"Initialize repo to showcase gitlab-runner locally."

1. Go to your git directory

cd my-git-project

2. Create a .gitlab-ci.yml

Example .gitlab-ci.yml

image: alpine

test:
  script:
    - echo "Hello Gitlab-Runner"

3. Create a docker container with your project dir mounted

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

4. Execute with

docker exec -it -w $PWD gitlab-runner gitlab-runner exec docker test

5. Prints

...
Executing "step_script" stage of the job script
$ echo "Hello Gitlab-Runner"
Hello Gitlab-Runner
Job succeeded
...

Note: The runner will only work on the commited state of your code base. Uncommited changes will be ignored. Exception: The .gitlab-ci.yml itself must not be commited to be taken into account.