GitLab Generic Packages Repository (FREE)

Introduced in GitLab 13.5.

It's deployed behind a feature flag, enabled by default.

It's enabled on GitLab.com.

It's able to be enabled or disabled per-project.

It's recommended for production use.

For GitLab self-managed instances, GitLab administrators can opt to disable it.

Publish generic files, like release binaries, in your project's Package Registry. Then, install the packages whenever you need to use them as a dependency.

Authenticate to the Package Registry

To authenticate to the Package Registry, you need either a personal access token, CI/CD job token, or deploy token.

In addition to the standard API authentication mechanisms, the generic package API allows authentication with HTTP Basic authentication for use with tools that do not support the other available mechanisms. The user-id is not checked and may be any value, and the password must be either a personal access token, a CI/CD job token, or a deploy token.

Publish a package file

When you publish a package file, if the package does not exist, it is created.

Prerequisites:

You must authenticate with the API. If authenticating with a deploy token, it must be configured with the write_package_registry scope. If authenticating with a personal access token or project access token, it must be configured with the api scope.

PUT /projects/:id/packages/generic/:package_name/:package_version/:file_name?status=:status

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`id`	integer/string	yes	The ID or URL-encoded path of the project.
`package_name`	string	yes	The package name. It can contain only lowercase letters (`a-z`), uppercase letter (`A-Z`), numbers (`0-9`), dots (`.`), hyphens (`-`), or underscores (`_`).
`package_version`	string	yes	The package version. The following regex validates this: `\A(\.?[\w\+-]+\.?)+\z`. You can test your version strings on Rubular.
`file_name`	string	yes	The filename. It can contain only lowercase letters (`a-z`), uppercase letter (`A-Z`), numbers (`0-9`), dots (`.`), hyphens (`-`), or underscores (`_`).
`status`	string	no	The package status. It can be `default` (default) or `hidden`. Hidden packages do not appear in the UI or package API list endpoints.
`select`	string	no	The response payload. By default, the response is empty. Valid values are: `package_file`. `package_file` returns details of the package file record created by this request.

Provide the file context in the request body.

Example request using a personal access token:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
     --upload-file path/to/file.txt \
     "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/24/packages/generic/my_package/0.0.1/file.txt"

Example response without attribute select:

{
  "message":"201 Created"
}

Example response with attribute select = package_file:

{
  "id": 1,
  "package_id": 1,
  "created_at": "2021-10-12T12:05:23.387Z",
  "updated_at": "2021-10-12T12:05:23.387Z",
  "size": 0,
  "file_store": 1,
  "file_md5": null,
  "file_sha1": null,
  "file_name": "file.txt",
  "file": {
    "url": "/6b/86/6b86b273ff34fce19d6b804eff5a3f5747ada4eaa22f1d49c01e52ddb7875b4b/packages/26/files/36/file.txt"
  },
  "file_sha256": "e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855",
  "verification_retry_at": null,
  "verified_at": null,
  "verification_failure": null,
  "verification_retry_count": null,
  "verification_checksum": null,
  "verification_state": 0,
  "verification_started_at": null,
  "new_file_path": null
}

Publishing a package with the same name or version

When you publish a package with the same name and version as an existing package, the new package files are added to the existing package. You can still use the UI or API to access and view the existing package's older files. To delete these older package revisions, consider using the Packages API or the UI.

Do not allow duplicate Generic packages

Introduced in GitLab 13.12.

To prevent users from publishing duplicate generic packages, you can use the GraphQl API or the UI.

In the UI:

For your group, go to Settings > Packages & Registries.
Expand the Package Registry section.
Turn on the Reject duplicates toggle.
Optional. To allow some duplicate packages, in the Exceptions box enter a regex pattern that matches the names and/or versions of packages to allow.

Your changes are automatically saved.

Download package file

Download a package file.

If multiple packages have the same name, version, and filename, then the most recent one is retrieved.

Prerequisites:

You need to authenticate with the API. If authenticating with a deploy token, it must be configured with the read_package_registry and/or write_package_registry scope.

GET /projects/:id/packages/generic/:package_name/:package_version/:file_name

Attribute	Type	Required	Description
`id`	integer/string	yes	The ID or URL-encoded path of the project.
`package_name`	string	yes	The package name.
`package_version`	string	yes	The package version.
`file_name`	string	yes	The filename.

The file context is served in the response body. The response content type is application/octet-stream.

Example request that uses a personal access token:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" \
     "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/24/packages/generic/my_package/0.0.1/file.txt"

Example request that uses HTTP Basic authentication:

curl --user "user:<your_access_token>" \
     "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/24/packages/generic/my_package/0.0.1/file.txt"

Publish a generic package by using CI/CD

To work with generic packages in GitLab CI/CD, you can use CI_JOB_TOKEN in place of the personal access token in your commands.

For example:

image: curlimages/curl:latest

stages:
  - upload
  - download

upload:
  stage: upload
  script:
    - 'curl --header "JOB-TOKEN: $CI_JOB_TOKEN" --upload-file path/to/file.txt "${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/${CI_PROJECT_ID}/packages/generic/my_package/0.0.1/file.txt"'

download:
  stage: download
  script:
    - 'wget --header="JOB-TOKEN: $CI_JOB_TOKEN" ${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/${CI_PROJECT_ID}/packages/generic/my_package/0.0.1/file.txt'

When using a Windows runner with PowerShell, you must use Invoke-WebRequest or Invoke-RestMethod instead of curl in the upload and download stages.

For example:

upload:
  stage: upload
  script:
    - Invoke-RestMethod -Headers @{ "JOB-TOKEN"="$CI_JOB_TOKEN" } -InFile path/to/file.txt -uri "${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/${CI_PROJECT_ID}/packages/generic/my_package/0.0.1/file.txt" -Method put

Enable or disable generic packages in the Package Registry

Support for generic packages is under development but ready for production use. It is deployed behind a feature flag that is enabled by default. GitLab administrators with access to the GitLab Rails console can opt to disable it.

To enable it:

# For the instance
Feature.enable(:generic_packages)
# For a single project
Feature.enable(:generic_packages, Project.find(<project id>))

To disable it:

# For the instance
Feature.disable(:generic_packages)
# For a single project
Feature.disable(:generic_packages, Project.find(<project id>))

Generic package sample project

The Write CI-CD Variables in Pipeline project contains a working example you can use to create, upload, and download generic packages in GitLab CI/CD.

It also demonstrates how to manage a semantic version for the generic package: storing it in a CI/CD variable, retrieving it, incrementing it, and writing it back to the CI/CD variable when tests for the download work correctly.