What is a pipeline, exactly?

[wsw70]

I am new to Woodpecker and when digging through the documentation and examples I feel a bit lost in the general "pipeline" definition. I also apologize for the emotional rollercoaster below.

When I look at the tutorial, I see that a pipeline is

steps:
  - name: build
    image: debian
    commands:
      - echo "This is the build step"
  - name: a-test-step
    image: debian
    commands:
      - echo "Testing.."

So there is a section steps and then a list of steps with commands running in containers. perfect.

A bit down I see that the steps can also be plugins:

steps:
  deploy-to-k8s:
    image: laszlocloud/my-k8s-plugin
    settings:
      template: config/k8s/service.yaml

Hey, where is the list of steps gone? Now instead of a list I have a hash/dict/object... Hmmm, would that mean that I can either use a list or a dictionary? OK.

I then jump into deep water by running a workflow for a project of mine where I need to build an image from a Dockerfile and push the image to my registry on Gitea:

steps:
  build:
    name: build docker image
    image: woodpeckerci/plugin-docker-buildx
    privileged: true
    settings:
      tag: gitea.XXX.YY/wojtek/dash:latest
  push:
    name: push to gitea
    image: woodpeckerci/plugin-docker-buildx
    privileged: true
    settings:
      username: wojtek
      password: 
         from_secret: gitea-password

I try this and, crap, there is an error:

[generic]           pipeline definition not found

WTF? (this was supposed to be humor but it may not be relayed correctly via writing :)) What definition? Of course I ask my friend Google for that and I get one answer where the participants discuss about the format of the file - and this terifies me because we are talking about the core of the functionality. This ultimately points to #2312 which is a different error 🥸

So back to the docs where I see that both a list and a dict are fine. OK this is cleared at least.

But I still do no understand the error above so here I am, asking for help 🙂

One last thing: I REALLY like Woodpecker because it exactly fits the CI/CD I am looking for: simple, straightforward and with a lot of potential (as opposed to the crappy Github Actions or slightly better Gitlab I forgot what they are called). So I want to know!!

[qwerty287]

Hey, where is the list of steps gone? Now instead of a list I have a hash/dict/object... Hmmm, would that mean that I can either use a list or a dictionary? OK.

Yes, read more at the first paragraph of https://woodpecker-ci.org/docs/usage/workflow-syntax

WTF? What definition?

The pipeline definition means the YAML file.
How is your file named in the repo? And what's set as config path in settings?

In general, a pipeline is a collection of workflows, and every workflow is defined using a YAML file. You can also take a look at https://woodpecker-ci.org/docs/usage/terminiology

[wsw70]

Thanks (and I updated the WFT in my question because ut sounded humourous in my head and now it look like I am complaining :))

Yes, I read all of this, and cannot match the error with the "lack of pipeline". From your answer I wonder if this does not mean that there is no pipeline at all - which is surprising because

• I have a .woodpecker.yaml file in the root of my repository
• the state shown in the badge is
  
  and not
  
• and there were errors before that suggested that the file is read correctly (warnings such as "bad habit")

[wsw70]

And since @qwerty287 you are the maintainer I would like to come back to the WTF - I just wanted to make sure that this not sound like complaining or anything, it is just a WTF is this error I do not understand while I have the file here arrrghhhhh comeeee on work please pretty please pffff I will ask a question because otherwise I will be stuck for eternity
A French WTF of sorts (I am French)

Woodpecker looks amazing, I feel that I am that close 👉🏼👈🏼to get it right!

[qwerty287]

I just wanted to make sure that this not sound like complaining or anything

Totally fine ;)

If @zc-devs's ideas of just trying again or looking at older GH issues, can you look at the woodpecker (and maybe also gitea) logs for any errors?

[zc-devs]

I can either use a list or a dictionary?

#2475

I ask my friend Google

Better ask GitHub directly, next time.
It may be flaky issue. 1496 I've faced personally. And yesterday I pushed (not forced) to pretty old repositories - the same. Just restarted manually. Followed pushes worked as intended.

[wsw70]

Well, I tried again now and it worked 😐
This is rather unsettling but I will keep on trying then and hope for the best.
Thanks for the suggestion.