CIRCLE_BUILD_URL environment variable changing for projects that use GitHub App & GitLab

Build Environment
1

For projects that use our GitLab or GitHub App integration, The CIRCLE_BUILD_URL environment variable currently resolves to a URL in this format:

“https://circleci.com/circleci/orgID/projectID/jobNumber”

This URL returns a 404.

On or after Dec 5, 2023, the CIRCLE_BUILD_URL environment variable will resolve to a URL in this format:

“https://app.circleci.com/pipelines/circleci/orgID/projectID/pipelineNumber/workflows/workflowID/jobNumber”

This will no longer return a 404 and link to the relevant job.

1 Like
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This has now changed as of today

3

Something must be off because we are still seeing (see https://app.circleci.com/pipelines/github/s2technologies/testspace.test.ci/8947/workflows/248f0d2a-83bb-4e2d-96e4-597551c8fb9a/jobs/7176/parallel-runs/0/steps/0-102)

CIRCLE_BUILD_URL=https://circleci.com/gh/s2technologies/testspace.test.ci/7176

Besides that, shouldn’t the correct/expected URL be formatted as:

https://app.circleci.com/pipelines/github/orgID/projectID/pipelineNumber/workflows/workflowID/jobs/jobNumber
4

@ivailop The change is only applicable to organizations that are integrated with CircleCI’s GitHub App.

From the link you sent, that organization is integrated with CircleCI’s OAuth App (you can tell by the “/github” in the URL).

Are there issues that you’re having with the environment variable’s value that you posted?

5

I guess, I expected the format of the URL to be the same (just github or circleci be different).

That inconsistency and others (as mentioned in CIRCLE_PROJECT_USERNAME & CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME environment variables changing for projects that use GitHub App & GitLab) makes things very confusing. As a user I should not be knowing the type of integration (GH App, GH OAuth, GL, or BB) when using any of the environment variables!?!

For example, how should I obtain (consistently) the:

  • Workflow URL - currently there is no env-var for that! How to construct it without know the “integration” type?
  • Job URL - currently the misnamed CIRCLE_BUILD_URL exists, but is non-consistently formatted!
  • VCS user/org-name - is the current CIRCLE_PROJECT_USERNAME good for that?
  • VCS repo-name - is the current CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME good for that?
6

@sebastian-lerner any comment to the above?

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Sorry for the delay:

  • Unfortunately there is no way to get the workflow URL in a way that’s agnostic to the integration type. The only option would be to manipulate the current string from CIRCLE_BUILD_URL. You could also construct it with CIRCLE_PIPELINE_ID and CIRCLE_WORKFLOW_ID but it will differ a bit between the integrations. ie. GitHub OAuth App will be “app.circleci.com/pipelines/github/org-name/project-name/pipelineID/workflows/workflowID” whereas a project using the GitHub App integration will be “app.circleci.com/pipelines/circleci/orgID/projectID/pipelineID/workflows/workflowID”

  • I’m still a little confused why you believe that CIRCLE_BUILD_URL is misnamed? In this case we are using “build” and “job” interchangeably. And for all integration types, while the formatting is inconsistent, the result should be a URL to a specific job

  • VCS org name: yes you can use CIRCLE_PROJECT_USERNAME

  • VCS repo name: yes you can use CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME

we have a goal to enable a way to get these types of values in an “integration-agnostic” way, but we don’t have that yet unfortunately. When we make progress on that, I’ll be sure to update this thread.