OpenShift Pipelines 1.15 presents several new enhancements to Pipelines-as-Code. Below are the key updates.

Much improved GitOps Commands #

These commands allow you to make quick comments on a pull request to restart a PipelineRun through Pipelines-as-Code.

Commonly used commands include /test pipelinerun to rerun a specific pipelinerun, or /retest to rerun all PipelineRuns.

Trigger PipelineRuns Irrespective of Annotations #

Previously, to re-trigger PipelineRuns, they had to match specific annotations such as pipelinesascode.tekton.dev/on-event set to pull_request. Now, this constraint is removed, allowing you to trigger any PipelineRuns with /test regardless of their annotation status. This is particularly useful if you need to run a pipelinerun selectively before merging a PR, without it automatically consuming resources with each update.

Modify Parameters Dynamically via GitOps Commands #

When executing a PipelineRun, several default parameters are provided. The new GitOps commands now support adding arguments in key=value format, allowing you to modify these parameters in real-time. For example:

/test pipelinerun revision=main

This command would test the PipelineRun on the main branch rather than the specific commit of your Pull Request. You can redefine both standard and custom parameters defined in your Repository CR.

Custom GitOps Commands #

With the release of OpenShift Pipelines 1.15, a new annotation pipelinesascode.tekton.dev/on-comment has been introduced. This annotation triggers a PipelineRun when a comment matches a specified regex, allowing you to define custom GitOps commands that initiate PipelineRuns based on specific comment patterns.

Additionally, a new standard parameter {{ trigger_comment }} is available, capturing the entire comment that initiated the PipelineRun.

Automatic Error Clearing Between Retest Attempts #

Previously, unresolvable errors in Pipelines-as-Code remained until the PR was updated with a new SHA. Now, such errors are automatically cleared with each /retest, enhancing the reliability and user experience.

Improved Error Reporting for YAML Issues #

Improper YAML parsing within the .tekton directory previously caused an abrupt termination with a generic error message. Now, the system validates the YAML file beforehand, providing specific validation errors directly through the Git provider interface to aid in troubleshooting.

Global Repository settings support #

A Repository CR can be configured with a variety of settings, which are then automatically applied across all Repository CRs in a cluster.

An administrator can set up a default Repository CR where the controller is installed, typically in the openshift-pipelines namespace, to drive the default behaviours.

The settings from this default Repository CR are applied to all other Repository CRs unless they are explicitly overridden.

For instance, if you wish to standardize the git_provider information and use a common secret with a git token across all repositories in the cluster, you can specify these settings in the global Repository CR. Consequently, these settings will be inherited by all individual Repository CRs that uses a Git provider that needs to reference a token and a URL.

Prow OWNERS_ALIASES support #

Pipelines-as-Code has been supporting the OWNERS file for a while, but we have just added another feature from prow to support the OWNERS_ALIASES file.

This file is used to define aliases for the OWNERS file, so you can define a group of people that are responsible for a specific part of the codebase.