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Caching#

Semaphore cache tool helps optimize CI/CD runtime by reusing files that your project depends on but are not part of version control. You should typically use caching to:

Reuse your project's dependencies, so that Semaphore fetches and installs them only when the dependency list changes.
Propagate a file from one block to the next.

The cache is created on a per-project basis and available in every pipeline job. All cache keys are scoped per-project. The total cache size is 9.6GB.

The cache tool uses key-path pairs for managing cached archives. An archive can be a single file or a directory. Each archive automatically expires in 30 days.

Basic usage#

Semaphore caching script will try to recognize your project structure and automatically store or restore dependencies in to or from default paths. Semaphore cache works for the following languages and dependency managers:

Ruby (bundler) - default cache path: vendor/bundle, requires Gemfile.lock to be present in the repository.
Node.js (npm, yarn) - default cache path: node_modules if package-lock.json is present or node_modules and /$HOME/.cache/yarn if yarn.lock exists in the repository.
Python (pip) - default cache path: .pip_cache if requirements.txt is present.
PHP (composer) - default cache path: vendor, requires composer.lock to be present in the repository.
Elixir (mix) - default cache path: deps and _build if mix.lock is present.
Java (maven) - default cache path: .m2 and target if pom.xml is present.
nvm default cache path: $HOME/.nvm if .nvmrc is present in the repository.
golang default cache path: $HOME/go/pkg/mod if go.sum is present in the repository.

cache store#

The cache store command that has zero arguments will lookup default paths used to store dependencies and cache them.

Example YAML:

blocks:
  prologue:
    commands:
      - cache restore

  epilogue:
    commands:
      - cache store

  jobs:
    - name: Bundle Install
       commands:
         - bundle install --path vendor/bundle

The output of cache store in a project that has a Gemfile.lock and packages-lock.json will look like this:

$ cache store
==> Detecting project structure and storing it into the cache.

* Detected Gemfile.lock.
* Using default cache path 'vendor/bundle'.
Uploading 'vendor/bundle' with cache key 'gems-your-branch-33a6002a37f59b6f1841636085a22fbc'...
Upload complete.

* Detected package-lock.json.
* Using default cache path 'node_modules'.
Uploading 'node_modules' with cache key 'node-modules-your-branch-d17b3d82f1356d0c91469804e2fc320a'...
Upload complete.

cache restore#

The cache restore command that has zero arguments would lookup cachable elements and try to fetch them from the repository.

Example output:

$ cache restore
==> Detecting project structure and storing it into the cache.

* Detected Gemfile.lock.
* Fetching 'vendor/bundle' directory with cache keys 'gems-your-branch-33a6002a37f59b6f1841636085a22fbc,gems-master-,gems-your-branch-'.
HIT: gems-your-branch-d17b3d82f1356d0c91469804e2fc320a, using key gems-your-branch-33a6002a37f59b6f1841636085a22fbc
Restored: vendor/bundle

* Detected package-lock.json.
* Fetching 'node_modules' directory with cache keys 'node-modules-your-branch-d17b3d82f1356d0c91469804e2fc320a,node-mdoules-master-,node-mdoules-your-branch-'.
HIT: node-mdoules-your-branch-d17b3d82f1356d0c91469804e2fc320a, using key node-mdoules-your-branch-d17b3d82f1356d0c91469804e2fc320a
Restored: node_modules/

Advanced Usage#

If a third party project, such as Bundler, changes the location where they store dependencies or your project the dependence location is different the default specified in Basic Usage, you might need to specify the key's path manually instead of using a caching shortcut.

cache store key path#

Examples:

cache store our-gems vendor/bundle
cache store gems-$SEMAPHORE_GIT_BRANCH vendor/bundle
cache store gems-$SEMAPHORE_GIT_BRANCH-revision-$(checksum Gemfile.lock) vendor/bundle

The cache store command archives a file or directory specified by path and associates it with a given key.

As cache store uses tar, it automatically removes any leading / from the given path value. Any further changes of path after the store command completes will not be automatically propagated to the cache. The command always passes, i.e. exits with return code 0.

In case of insufficient disk space, cache store frees disk space by deleting the oldest keys.

Note: cache store does not overwrite data for an existing key. You need to delete the key first to update the associated information.

cache restore key[,second-key,...]#

Examples:

cache restore our-gems
cache restore gems-$SEMAPHORE_GIT_BRANCH
cache restore gems-$SEMAPHORE_GIT_BRANCH-revision-$(checksum Gemfile.lock),gems-master

Restores an archive which partially matches any given key. In case of a cache hit, the archive is retrieved and available at its original path in the job environment. Each archive is restored in the current path from where the function is called.

In case of a cache miss, the comma-separated fallback takes over and command looks up the next key. If no archives are restored command exits with 0.

cache has_key key#

Example:

cache has_key our-gems
cache has_key gems-$SEMAPHORE_GIT_BRANCH
cache has_key gems-$SEMAPHORE_GIT_BRANCH-revision-$(checksum Gemfile.lock)

Checks if an archive with provided key exists in the cache. Command passes if a key is found in the cache, otherwise, it fails.

cache list#

Example:

cache list

Lists all cache archives for the project.

cache delete key#

Example:

cache delete our-gems
cache delete gems-$SEMAPHORE_GIT_BRANCH
cache delete gems-$SEMAPHORE_GIT_BRANCH-revision-$(checksum Gemfile.lock)

Removes an archive with a given key if it is found in the cache. The command always passes.

cache clear#

Example:

cache clear

Removes all cached archives for the project. The command always passes.

Note that in all commands of cache, only cache has_key command can fail (exit with non-zero status).

checksum#

The libchecksum scripts provide the checksum command. checksum is useful for tagging artifacts or generating cache keys. It takes a single argument, a file path, and outputs an md5 hash value.

Examples:

$ checksum package.json 3dc6f33834092c93d26b71f9a35e4bb3

Requirements#

The cache tool depends on the following environment variables which are automatically set in every job environment:

SEMAPHORE_CACHE_URL: stores the IP address and the port number of the cache server (x.y.z.w:29920).
SEMAPHORE_CACHE_USERNAME: stores the username that will be used for connecting to the cache server (5b956eef90cb4c91ab14bd2726bf261b).
SEMAPHORE_CACHE_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH: stores the path to the SSH key that will be used for connecting to the cache server (/home/semaphore/.ssh/semaphore_cache_key).

Additionally, cache uses tar to archive the specified directory or file.

Troubleshooting#

`cache restore` restores an archive with the corrupted archive message#

If the cache restore output log includes lines similar to the following:

$ cache restore gems-$SEMAPHORE_GIT_SHA
==> HIT: gems-c964fbeac09ef1fad45c2b10c849a4e6b23763b4, using key gems-c964fbeac09ef1fad45c2b10c849a4e6b23763b4
gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file
tar: Unexpected EOF in archive
tar: Unexpected EOF in archive
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
Restored: vendor/bundle

You can make sure that only one job is creating an archive under the specific cache key.

Cache archives usually get corrupted when cache store is added to the prologue command sequence, resulting with its execution for all jobs in the related block.

To address the issue, structure Semaphore yml so that cache store for an archive is executed in one job and cache restore in the succeeding jobs.

Example YML:

blocks:
  - name: Cache dependencies
    task:
      jobs:
        - name: Cache gems
          commands:
            - checkout
            - cache restore bundle-gems-$(checksum Gemfile.lock)
            - bundle install --deployment --path vendor/bundle
            - cache store bundle-gems-$(checksum Gemfile.lock) vendor/bundle

  - name: Tests
    task:
      prologue:
        commands:
          - checkout
          - cache restore bundle-gems-$(checksum Gemfile.lock)
          - bundle install --deployment --path vendor/bundle
      jobs:
        - name: RSpec 0
          commands:
        - name: RSpec 1
          commands:
        - name: RSpec 1
          commands:

Note: Launch a debugging session to clear corrupted archives for your project by executing cache clear or cache delete <key>.

Caching#

Basic usage#

cache store#

cache restore#

Advanced Usage#

cache store key path#

cache restore key[,second-key,...]#

cache has_key key#

cache list#

cache delete key#

cache clear#

checksum#

Requirements#

Troubleshooting#

cache restore restores an archive with the corrupted archive message#

`cache restore` restores an archive with the corrupted archive message#