Install GitLab Runner on macOS

GitLab Runner can be installed and updated on macOS.

Installing

There are two methods for installing GitLab Runner on macOS:

Manual installation (official)

note
For documentation on GitLab Runner 9 and earlier, visit this documentation.

  1. Download the binary for your system: 

    # macOS amd64
sudo curl --output /usr/local/bin/gitlab-runner "https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/latest/binaries/gitlab-runner-darwin-amd64"

# macOS Apple Silicon/arm64
sudo curl --output /usr/local/bin/gitlab-runner "https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/latest/binaries/gitlab-runner-darwin-arm64"

    You can download a binary for every available version as described in Bleeding Edge - download any other tagged release.

  2. Give it permissions to execute: 

    sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gitlab-runner

The rest of the commands should execute as the user who will run the runners.

  1. Register a runner

    note
    When you build iOS or macOS applications on macOS, use the shell executor. The build and tests run as the identity of the logged-in user, directly on the build host. It does not run in a container. This is less secure than using container executors. For more information, see the security implications documentation for additional detail on what to keep in mind in this scenario.

  2. Open a terminal and switch to the current user. 

    su - <username>

  3. Install GitLab Runner as a service and start it: 

    cd ~
gitlab-runner install
gitlab-runner start

GitLab Runner is installed and will be run after a system reboot.

If you followed these instructions, the GitLab Runner configuration file (config.toml) is in /Users/gitlab-runner/.gitlab-runner/. Learn more about configuring runners.

Homebrew installation (alternative)

A Homebrew formula is available to install GitLab.

caution
GitLab does not maintain the Homebrew formula.

To install GitLab Runner using Homebrew:

  1. Install GitLab Runner. 

    brew install gitlab-runner

  2. Install GitLab Runner as a service and start it. 

    brew services start gitlab-runner

GitLab Runner is installed and running.

Limitations on macOS

note
The service needs to be installed from a Terminal window logged in as your current user. Only then will you be able to manage the service.

To sign in as your current user, run the command su - <username> in the terminal. You can obtain your username by running the command ls /users.

Currently, the only proven way for it to work in macOS is by running the service in user-mode.

Since the service will be running only when the user is logged in, you should enable auto-login on your macOS machine.

The service will be launched as a LaunchAgent. By using LaunchAgents, the builds will be able to perform UI interactions, making it possible to run and test in the iOS simulator.

It’s worth noting that macOS also has LaunchDaemons, services running completely in background. LaunchDaemons are run on system startup, but they don’t have the same access to UI interactions as LaunchAgents. You can try to run the Runner’s service as a LaunchDaemon, but this mode of operation is not currently supported.

You can verify that GitLab Runner created the service configuration file after executing the install command, by checking the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/gitlab-runner.plist file.

If Homebrew was used to install git, it may have added a /usr/local/etc/gitconfig file containing: 

[credential]
        helper = osxkeychain

This tells Git to cache user credentials in the keychain, which may not be what you want and can cause fetches to hang. You can remove the line from the system gitconfig with: 

git config --system --unset credential.helper

Alternatively, you can just disable credential.helper for the GitLab user: 

git config --global --add credential.helper ''

You can check the status of the credential.helper with: 

git config credential.helper

Manual update

  1. Stop the service: 

    gitlab-runner stop

  2. Download the binary to replace the GitLab Runner executable: 

    sudo curl -o /usr/local/bin/gitlab-runner "https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/latest/binaries/gitlab-runner-darwin-amd64"

    You can download a binary for every available version as described in Bleeding Edge - download any other tagged release.

  3. Give it permissions to execute: 

    sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gitlab-runner

  4. Start the service: 

    gitlab-runner start

Make sure that you read the FAQ section which describes some of the most common problems with GitLab Runner.

Upgrade the service file

In order to upgrade the LaunchAgent configuration, you need to uninstall and install the service: 

gitlab-runner uninstall
gitlab-runner install
gitlab-runner start

Using codesign with the GitLab Runner Service

If you installed gitlab-runner on macOS with homebrew and your build calls codesign, you may need to set <key>SessionCreate</key><true/> to have access to the user keychains. In the following example we run the builds as the gitlab user and want access to the signing certificates installed by that user for codesigning: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>SessionCreate</key><true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <dict>
      <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
      <false/>
    </dict>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key><true/>
    <key>Disabled</key><false/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.gitlab.gitlab-runner</string>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>gitlab</string>
    <key>GroupName</key>
    <string>staff</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/opt/gitlab-runner/bin/gitlab-runner</string>
      <string>run</string>
      <string>--working-directory</string>
      <string>/Users/gitlab/gitlab-runner</string>
      <string>--config</string>
      <string>/Users/gitlab/gitlab-runner/config.toml</string>
      <string>--service</string>
      <string>gitlab-runner</string>
      <string>--syslog</string>
    </array>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
      <key>PATH</key>
      <string>/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin</string>
    </dict>
  </dict>
</plist>

macOS troubleshooting

The following relate to troubleshooting on macOS.

"launchctl" failed: exit status 112, Could not find domain for

This message may occur when you try to install GitLab Runner on macOS. Make sure that you manage GitLab Runner service from the GUI Terminal application, not the SSH connection.

Failed to authorize rights (0x1) with status: -60007.

If GitLab Runner is stuck on the above message when using macOS, there are two causes to why this happens:

  1. Make sure that your user can perform UI interactions: 

    DevToolsSecurity -enable
sudo security authorizationdb remove system.privilege.taskport is-developer

    The first command enables access to developer tools for your user. The second command allows the user who is member of the developer group to do UI interactions, e.g., run the iOS simulator.

  2. Make sure that your GitLab Runner service doesn’t use SessionCreate = true. Previously, when running GitLab Runner as a service, we were creating LaunchAgents with SessionCreate. At that point (Mavericks), this was the only solution to make Code Signing work. That changed recently with OS X El Capitan which introduced a lot of new security features that altered this behavior. Since GitLab Runner 1.1, when creating a LaunchAgent, we don’t set SessionCreate. However, in order to upgrade, you need to manually reinstall the LaunchAgent script: 

    gitlab-runner uninstall
gitlab-runner install
gitlab-runner start

    Then you can verify that ~/Library/LaunchAgents/gitlab-runner.plist has SessionCreate set to false.

fatal: unable to access 'https://path:3000/user/repo.git/': Failed to connect to path port 3000: Operation timed out error in the job

If one of the jobs fails with this error, make sure the runner can connect to your GitLab instance. The connection could be blocked by things like:

  • firewalls
  • proxies
  • permissions
  • routing configurations