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GitLab CI/CD Integration — LabVIEW Docker Containers

Run LabVIEWCLI operations (MassCompile, VI Analyzer, RunVI) in GitLab CI/CD pipelines using LabVIEW Docker containers for LabVIEW CICD automation.

This guide shows how to use the LabVIEW container images in GitLab CI/CD pipelines. The example YAML definitions mirror the GitHub Actions workflows shipped with this repository.

Quick Start

  1. Copy the example pipeline file for your platform into the root of your GitLab repository and rename it to .gitlab-ci.yml:

  2. Push the change — GitLab will pick up the pipeline automatically on the next merge request.

Tip: If you need both Linux and Windows jobs in a single pipeline, merge both YAML files into one .gitlab-ci.yml.

Example Run

See a live pipeline run here: Linux pipeline on GitLab

Prerequisites

Requirement Details
GitLab Runner (Linux) A runner with the Docker executor — the standard shared runners on GitLab.com work.
GitLab Runner (Windows) A self-hosted runner on a Windows host with Docker configured for Windows containers. Tag it with windows and docker so the job can target it.
Docker Hub access The examples pull from nationalinstruments/labview on Docker Hub. If your runner is behind a proxy or uses a mirror, adjust the LABVIEW_IMAGE variable.

Pipeline Overview

Each example pipeline runs on merge request events and performs two steps:

  1. MassCompile — compiles the LabVIEW Arrays examples that ship inside the container image.
  2. CI integration script — mounts the repository into the container and runs the provided helper script (run-vi-analyzer.sh on Linux, run-vi-analyzer.ps1 on Windows) which performs VI Analyzer on the Test-VIs bundled in this repo.

Linux Pipeline

# .gitlab-ci.yml (Linux)
stages:
  - test

run-labview-cli-linux:
  stage: test
  image: docker:24
  services:
    - docker:24-dind
  variables:
    DOCKER_TLS_CERTDIR: "/certs"
    LABVIEW_IMAGE: "nationalinstruments/labview:2026q1-linux"
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
  before_script:
    - docker pull "$LABVIEW_IMAGE"
  script:
    - >
      docker run --rm "$LABVIEW_IMAGE"
      bash -c "LabVIEWCLI -OperationName MassCompile
      -DirectoryToCompile /usr/local/natinst/LabVIEW-2026-64/examples/Arrays
      -LabVIEWPath /usr/local/natinst/LabVIEW-2026-64/labview -Headless"
    - >
      docker run --rm -v "$CI_PROJECT_DIR:/workspace" "$LABVIEW_IMAGE"
      bash -c "cd /workspace/examples/cicd-examples/helper-scripts/run-vi-analyzer && chmod +x run-vi-analyzer.sh && ./run-vi-analyzer.sh"

Windows Pipeline

# .gitlab-ci.yml (Windows)
stages:
  - test

run-labview-cli-windows:
  stage: test
  tags:
    - windows
    - docker
  variables:
    LABVIEW_IMAGE: "nationalinstruments/labview:2026q1-windows"
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
  before_script:
    - docker pull "$LABVIEW_IMAGE"
  script:
    - >
      docker run --rm "$LABVIEW_IMAGE"
      LabVIEWCLI -OperationName MassCompile
      -DirectoryToCompile "C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2026\examples\Arrays" -Headless
    - >
      docker run --rm -v "${CI_PROJECT_DIR}:C:\workspace" "$LABVIEW_IMAGE"
      powershell -File "C:\workspace\examples\cicd-examples\helper-scripts\run-vi-analyzer\run-vi-analyzer.ps1" -WorkspaceRoot "C:\workspace"

Key Differences from GitHub Actions

Concept GitHub Actions GitLab CI/CD
Trigger on: pull_request rules: - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
Checkout actions/checkout@v3 Automatic — GitLab clones the repo before before_script
Workspace path ${{ github.workspace }} $CI_PROJECT_DIR
Runner selection runs-on: ubuntu-latest / windows-latest image: docker:24 (Linux) or tags: [windows, docker] (Windows)
Docker-in-Docker Built-in on GitHub-hosted runners Requires services: [docker:24-dind] on Linux

Customisation Tips

  • Change the LabVIEW version — edit the LABVIEW_IMAGE variable.
  • Add more LabVIEWCLI operations — append additional docker run commands in the script section.
  • Use a private registry — replace nationalinstruments/labview with your registry URL and add credentials via GitLab CI/CD variables (Settings > CI/CD > Variables).
  • Artifacts — to save reports (e.g., VI Analyzer results), add an artifacts block pointing to the mounted output path.

Further Reading