# Conditional step based on environment variable **URL:** \ **Category:** Build Environment\ **Created:** [March 2, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/conditional-step-based-on-environment-variable/39275 "2021-03-02T16:30:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nikoladsp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/circleci/user_avatar/discuss.circleci.com/nikoladsp/32/26828_2.png) [@nikoladsp](https://discuss.circleci.com/u/nikoladsp)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/conditional-step-based-on-environment-variable/39275/1 "2021-03-02T16:30:10Z")
Hi, company I work for decided to give a try to CircleCI. What I have tried for past 2 days either seems impossible or I am missing something obvious. I downloaded client **0.1.15044+ec2b22a (release)** and tried to locally checkout repository using following config.yml: ``` version: 2.1 jobs: build-mylib: docker: - image: cimg/python:3.7.10 steps: - checkout workflows: main: jobs: - build-mylib ``` And run following commands: ``` circleci config validate circleci config process .circleci/config.yml > process.yml circleci local execute --job build-mylib ``` But got following output: ``` ====>> Preparing environment variables Using build environment variables: BASH_ENV=/tmp/.bash_env-localbuild-1614702436 CI=true CIRCLECI=true CIRCLE_BRANCH= CIRCLE_BUILD_NUM= CIRCLE_JOB=build-mylib CIRCLE_NODE_INDEX=0 CIRCLE_NODE_TOTAL=1 CIRCLE_REPOSITORY_URL= CIRCLE_SHA1= CIRCLE_SHELL_ENV=/tmp/.bash_env-localbuild-1614702436 CIRCLE_WORKING_DIRECTORY=~/project Using environment variables from project settings and/or contexts: REPO_URL= **REDACTED** The redacted variables listed above will be masked in run step output.====>> Checkout code Making checkout directory "/home/circleci/project" Copying files from "/tmp/_circleci_local_build_repo" to "/home/circleci/project" Error: cp: cannot open '/tmp/_circleci_local_build_repo/.git/smartgit/logcache/nodes2' for reading: Permission denied cp: cannot open '/tmp/_circleci_local_build_repo/.git/smartgit/logcache/subtree-origins' for reading: Permission denied Error: failed to copy files: exit status 1 Step failed Error: runner failed (exited with 101) Task failed Error: task failed ``` Tried many things, but did not figure out. Is it possible to have step that depends on passed environment variable? So when running build locally, I can skip checkout and make git clone as part of the run command. I have found couple of similar issues and starting to wonder is the aim of the CircleCI **not** to be able to run builds locally on purpose? I can create my own command, pass the private key, add it to the ssh-agent and do clone, but this somehow defeats the purpose of the product and also would failed on server. Thank you in advance. Kindest regards ---
**Author:** ![simon-swanson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/circleci/user_avatar/discuss.circleci.com/simon-swanson/32/24635_2.png) [@simon-swanson](https://discuss.circleci.com/u/simon-swanson)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/conditional-step-based-on-environment-variable/39275/2 "2021-03-04T23:23:52Z")
Hi @nikoladsp. I’ve tried to reproduce but have been able to run your example `config.yml` with no issues. On my machine: ```bash mkdir testing cd testing git init mkdir .circleci pbpaste > .circleci/config.yml # I copied the contents of your config.yml before running this circleci config validate circleci config process .circleci/config.yml > process.yml # this command doesn't do anything useful for you circleci local execute --job build-mylib ``` The output of the last command indicates success checking out the codebase: ```auto ✓ circleci local execute --job build-mylib Docker image digest: sha256:8c0ed662ac11644f59ffec588750c4f8ab92d006805e1587151217d2145597ad ====>> Spin Up Environment Build-agent version () Docker Engine Version: 19.03.12 Kernel Version: Linux a1955447d2ae 4.19.76-linuxkit #1 SMP Tue May 26 11:42:35 UTC 2020 x86_64 Linux Starting container cimg/python:3.7.10 image is cached as cimg/python:3.7.10, but refreshing... 3.7.10: Pulling from cimg/python Digest: sha256:b0e51c41efcfb8706febd60fbf690913970c448a2e9e0cff9f07016495eba113 Status: Image is up to date for cimg/python:3.7.10 pull stats: N/A time to create container: 50ms using image cimg/python@sha256:b0e51c41efcfb8706febd60fbf690913970c448a2e9e0cff9f07016495eba113 Time to upload agent and config: 583.1513ms Time to start containers: 281.1075ms ====>> Preparing Environment Variables Using build environment variables: BASH_ENV=/tmp/.bash_env-localbuild-1614899208 CI=true CIRCLECI=true CIRCLE_BRANCH= CIRCLE_BUILD_NUM= CIRCLE_JOB=build-mylib CIRCLE_NODE_INDEX=0 CIRCLE_NODE_TOTAL=1 CIRCLE_REPOSITORY_URL= CIRCLE_SHA1= CIRCLE_SHELL_ENV=/tmp/.bash_env-localbuild-1614899208 CIRCLE_WORKING_DIRECTORY=~/project The redacted variables listed above will be masked in run step output.====>> Checkout code #!/bin/bash -eo pipefail mkdir -p /home/circleci/project && cd /tmp/_circleci_local_build_repo && git ls-files | tar -T - -c | tar -x -C /home/circleci/project && cp -a /tmp/_circleci_local_build_repo/.git /home/circleci/project Success! ``` * * * My recommendation is to run the job with debug logging on (`circleci local execute --job build-mylib --debug`) to see if that shows you anything useful. You can also add a step to your job to show all the shell commands that get run (make this the first step in the job): ```auto - run: command: echo "set -x" | tee -a "$BASH_ENV" ``` If this isn’t enough to help you figure things out, we will need to see a more complete example to be able to help you. * * * More broadly: Circle can run _some_ jobs locally, but not all. Things like caches don’t work locally, and a job that requires information from other jobs will similarly fail. Also, you can do whatever you like with environment variables in `run` steps just like you would in a shell, but you can’t use [job conditionals](https://support.circleci.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043638052-Conditional-steps-in-jobs-and-conditional-workflows) with them. Your problem seems unrelated to that though (at least with the information given).