rules

rules:if

Use rules:if clauses to specify when to add a job to a pipeline:

    If an if statement is true, add the job to the pipeline.
    If an if statement is true, but it’s combined with when: never, do not add the job to the pipeline.
    If no if statements are true, do not add the job to the pipeline. 

rules:changes

build:
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
      variables:
        CCACHE_DISABLE: 1
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
      variables:
        CCACHE_DISABLE: 1

• Use a variable to control a job’s cache policy
• Support `cache` policies for job `rules`

workflow:
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
      variables:
        CCACHE_DISABLE: 1
        CACHE_CCACHE_POLICY: pull
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
      variables:
        CCACHE_DISABLE: 1
        CACHE_CCACHE_POLICY: pull
    - when: always

.ccache: &cache-ccache
  key: cache-ccache
  paths:
    - .ccache
  policy: ${CACHE_CCACHE_POLICY}
 

.build-target:
  cache:
    - <<: *cache-ccache

How to negate rules:changes pattern?

Not possible. rules:changes takes glob patterns and they are inclusive only. You have to specify all paths/patterns to match one by one.

BUT:

Glob patterns are interpreted with Ruby’s File.fnmatch with the flags File::FNM_PATHNAME | File::FNM_DOTMATCH | File::FNM_EXTGLOB.

Ruby's fnmatch is used to handle patterns. It doesn't support ! character.

To write rule to do not match changes in

src/**/*

directory but matches s, sr, src2:

rules:
  - changes:
    - "{[^s]*,s,s[^r]*,sr,sr[^c]*,src?*}/**/*"
    - "*"

Note: second pattern * is for match any file (but not directory!) More, to exclude src/ and doc/:

  rules:
    - changes:
        - "{[^s^d]*,s,d,s[^r]*,d[^o],sr,do,sr[^c]*,do[^c]*,src?*,doc?*}/**/*"
        - "*"

More about:

• Is there a way to write a glob pattern that matches all files except those in a folder?
• gitlab CI/CD rules:changes negate glob