String manipulation in .gitlab-ci variables - gitlab-ci

Question

I'm trying to set up my ci file with some variables. I'm able to generate a variable like so;
...
variables:
TARGET_PROJECT_DIR: "${CI_PROJECT_NAME}.git"
However, I don't seem to be able to do this;
...
variables:
PROJECT_PROTOCOL_RELATIVE_URL: "${CI_PROJECT_URL//https:\/\/}.git"
If I run that in bash, I get the expected output which is gitlab.com/my/repo/url.git with the 'https://' removed and the '.git' appended.
My workaround has just been to export it in the 'script' section, but it feels a lot neater to add this to the variables section, since this is part of a template that is being inherited by the actual jobs. Is it possible?

Answer 1

There are several more useful variables defined in the GitLab CI environment.
CI_PROJECT_PATH gives you the <namespace>/<project name> (or just <project name> if you have no extra namespace) string and
CI_SERVER_HOST gives you the server name, so you could do
variables:
PROJECT_PROTOCOL_RELATIVE_URL: ${CI_SERVER_HOST}/${CI_PROJECT_PATH}.git
I have similar setups (also without quotes).
I'm not sure if that will work for you, since my runners and my server are under my control and I don't run pipelines with external projects.
But you can get all available variables displayed in the job log by running a job like this:
stages:
- env
show-env:
stage: env
script:
- env
Also always helpful is https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/predefined_variables.html

Answer 2

After looking around for similar challenges I found your not answered question. Here are my suggestions:
stages:
- todo
todo-job:
stage: todo
only:
- master
script:
#your question / example
- echo ${CI_PROJECT_URL}
- echo ${CI_PROJECT_URL:8:100}.git
#Because you have the word manipulation in the title, I have some more examples:
#Return substring between the two '_'
- INPUT="someletters_12345_moreleters.ext"
- SUBSTRING=`expr match "$INPUT" '.*_\([[:digit:]]*\)_.*' `
- echo $SUBSTRING
#Store a substring in a new variable and create an output
- b=${INPUT:12:5}
- echo $b
#Substring using grep with regex (more readable)
- your_number=$(echo "someletters_12345_moreleters.ext" | grep -E -o '[0-9]{5}')
- echo $your_number
#Substring using variable and 'grep' with regex (more readable)
- your_number=$(echo "$INPUT" | grep -E -o '[0-9]{5}')
- echo $your_number
#split a string and return a part using 'cut'
- your_id=$(echo "Release V14_TEST-42" | cut -d "_" -f2 )
- echo $your_id
#split the string of a variable and return a part using 'cut'
- VAR="Release V14_TEST-42"
- your_number=$(echo "$VAR" | cut -d "_" -f2 )
- echo $your_number
Gitlab output looks like:
$ echo ${CI_PROJECT_URL}
https://gitlab.com/XXXXXXXXXX/gitlab_related_projects/test
$ echo ${CI_PROJECT_URL:8:100}.git
gitlab.com/XXXXXXXXXX/gitlab_related_projects/test.git
$ INPUT="someletters_12345_moreleters.ext"
$ SUBSTRING=`expr match "$INPUT" '.*_\([[:digit:]]*\)_.*' `
$ echo $SUBSTRING
12345
$ b=${INPUT:12:5}
$ echo $b
12345
$ your_number=$(echo "someletters_12345_moreleters.ext" | grep -E -o '[0-9]{5}')
$ echo $your_number
12345
$ your_number=$(echo "$INPUT" | grep -E -o '[0-9]{5}')
$ echo $your_number
12345
$ your_number=$(echo "Release V14_TEST-42" | cut -d "_" -f2 )
$ echo $your_number
TEST-42
$ VAR="Release V14_TEST-42"
$ your_number=$(echo "$VAR" | cut -d "_" -f2 )
$ echo $your_number
TEST-42
Cleaning up project directory and file based variables
00:01
Job succeeded