This page explains how to create manual triggers to build code in source repositories. Manual triggers can be used to invoke builds manually, with the ability to override defined substitution variable values at invocation time prior to running a build. You can also schedule manual triggers to automatically run at a specific time.
To learn how to start builds manually using the gcloud CLI or the Cloud Build API, see Starting builds manually.
Before you begin
-
Enable the Cloud Build API.
- Have your source code ready.
Manual triggers
Manual triggers enable you to set up builds that are only executed when you invoke your trigger on connected repositories. Let's say you're creating a pipeline for deploying your source code to a staging or production environment. You might want to automate your workflow, but are only looking to execute builds manually. You can define manual triggers to do so.
Manual triggers enable you to manually invoke builds by:
- Fetching source code from a hosted repository with a specified branch or tag.
- Parametizing your build with substitutions that don't need to be passed in manually each time you execute a build.
- Overriding defined substitution variable values at invocation time prior to invoking a build.
If you want to execute builds from your local working directory instead of a hosted repository
or want to submit builds without creating a trigger, you can run the following
gcloud
command in your working directory:
gcloud builds submit --config BUILD_CONFIG SOURCE_CODE
Where:
- BUILD_CONFIG is the path to the build config file.
- SOURCE_CODE is the path or URL source code.
To learn more about how to use the gcloud
command to start builds manually
in your local directory, see Starting builds manually.
Creating manual triggers
Console
To create a manual trigger:
Open the Triggers page:
Select your project from the top of the page and click Open.
Click Create trigger.
Enter the following trigger settings:
- Name: A name for your trigger.
Region: Select the region for your trigger.
- If you select global as the region, Cloud Build uses the default pool to run your build.
- If you select a non-global region and the build config file associated with the trigger specifies a private pool, Cloud Build uses the private pool to run your build. In this case, the region you specify in your trigger must match the region where you created your private pool.
- If you select a non-global region and the build config file associated with the trigger does not specify a private pool, Cloud Build uses the default pool to run your build in the same region as your trigger.
Description (Optional): A description for your trigger.
Event: Select Manual invocation to set up your trigger so that builds only run when the trigger is manually invoked.
Source: Select the repository to build when the manual trigger runs. You can specify 1st generation or 2nd generation as your source.
Revision: Select the branch or tag to build when the manual trigger runs.
Branch: Set a trigger to build on this branch. You must specify a literal value. Regular expressions are not currently supported.
Tag: Set a trigger to build on this tag. You must specify a literal value. Regular expressions are not currently supported.
Configuration: Select the build config file located in your remote repository or create an inline build config file to use for your build.
- Type: Select the type of configuration to use for your build.
- Cloud Build configuration file (yaml or json): Use a build config file for your configuration.
- Dockerfile: Use a
Dockerfile
for your configuration.
Location: Specify the location for your configuration.
- Repository: If your config file is located in your
remote repository, provide the location of your
build config file, the
Dockerfile
directory, or the buildpacks directory. If your build config type is aDockerfile
or a buildpack, you will need to provide a name for the resulting image and optionally, a timeout for your build. When you've provided theDockerfile
or buildpack image name, you'll see a preview of thedocker build
orpack
command that your build will execute. - Inline: If you selected Cloud Build configuration file (yaml or json) as your configuration option, you can specify your build config inline. Click Open Editor to write your build config file in the Google Cloud console using YAML or JSON syntax. Click Done to save your build config.
- Repository: If your config file is located in your
remote repository, provide the location of your
build config file, the
- Type: Select the type of configuration to use for your build.
Click Create to create your manual trigger.
gcloud
For a complete list of flags, see the gcloud
reference for how to create manual triggers.
Running manual triggers
Console
To run a manual trigger using Google Cloud console:
Open the Triggers page in the Google Cloud console.
Locate your trigger in the list.
Click Run trigger.
After clicking Run trigger, you will see the Run trigger window pane on the right side. If you specified fields such as a branch name, tag name, or substitution variables, you will be able to override these fields at invocation time.
If you specified new variable values for your substitution, click Run trigger to execute your build.
To run manual triggers on schedule, see Scheduling builds.
gcloud
To run a manual trigger using the gcloud
command-line tool, run the following
command:
gcloud builds triggers run TRIGGER_NAME \
--region=REGION \
--branch=BRANCH_NAME \
--substitutions=SUBSTITUTION_VAR=SUBSTITUTION_VALUE
Where:
TRIGGER_NAME
is the name of your trigger.REGION
is the region for your trigger.BRANCH_NAME
is the name of your branch. You can also specify a tag using--tag
or a commit ID using--sha
.- [Optional]
SUBSTITUTION_VAR
is the variable name for your substitution value. - [Optional]
SUBSTITUTION_VALUE
is the value associated with your substitution variable.
To run manual triggers on schedule, see Scheduling builds.
Next steps
- Learn how to start builds manually using
gcloud
commands or the Cloud Build API. - Learn how to schedule builds.
- Learn how to create and manage triggers.
- Learn how to view build results.
- Learn how to troubleshoot build errors.