GitLab Runner Installation, Registration, and Common Commands Tutorial

GitLab Runner is an open‑source project that executes your jobs and sends the results back to GitLab, working together with GitLab CI, the built‑in continuous integration service.

It is written in Go and distributed as a binary, requiring no language‑specific dependencies and running on GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD. When using Docker, a minimum version of v1.13.0 is required, and the Runner version should match the GitLab version.

Installation methods include:

CentOS: curl -LJO https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/latest/rpm/gitlab-runner_ .rpm rpm -i gitlab-runner_ .rpm rpm -Uvh gitlab-runner_ .rpm

macOS: sudo curl --output /usr/local/bin/gitlab-runner https://gitlab-runner-downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/v12.6/binaries/gitlab-runner-darwin-amd64 sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gitlab-runner gitlab-runner install gitlab-runner start

Docker: mkdir ~/data/gitlab-runner/config docker run --rm -t -id -v ~/data/gitlab-runner/config:/etc/gitlab-runner gitlab/gitlab-runner:v12.9.0

Runner registration supports three types:

shared : runs jobs for the whole platform.

group : runs jobs for all projects under a specific group.

specific : runs jobs for a single project.

Runners can also be locked or paused . Tokens for each type are obtained via the GitLab UI (screenshots omitted). Example interactive registration command:

docker run --rm -t -i -v ~/data/gitlab-runner/config:/etc/gitlab-runner gitlab/gitlab-runner:v12.6.0 register
Runtime platform                                    arch=amd64 os=linux pid=6 revision=ac8e767a version=12.6.0
Running in system-mode.
Please enter the gitlab-ci coordinator URL (e.g. https://gitlab.com/):
http://192.168.1.105
Please enter the gitlab-ci token for this runner:
4tutaeWWL3srNEcmHs1s
Please enter the gitlab-ci description for this runner:
[00e4f023b5ae]: devops-service-runner
Please enter the gitlab-ci tags for this runner (comma separated):
build
Registering runner... succeeded                     runner=4tutaeWW
Please enter the executor: ...
shell
Runner registered successfully.

Non‑interactive registration example:

docker run -itd --rm -v ~/data/gitlab-runner/config:/etc/gitlab-runner \
  gitlab/gitlab-runner:v12.6.0 register \
  --non-interactive \
  --executor "shell" \
  --url "http://192.168.1.200:30088/" \
  --registration-token "JRzzw2j1Ji6aBjwvkxAv" \
  --description "devops-runner" \
  --tag-list "build,deploy" \
  --run-untagged="true" \
  --locked="false" \
  --access-level="not_protected"

Common commands for managing runners include:

gitlab-runner --debug
# debug mode
gitlab-runner
--help           # help information
gitlab-runner run                        # run in user mode (config at ~/.gitlab-runner/config.toml)
sudo gitlab-runner run                   # run in root mode (config at /etc/gitlab-runner/config.toml)

gitlab-runner register                  # interactive registration
gitlab-runner list                       # list registered runners
gitlab-runner verify                     # verify connectivity
gitlab-runner unregister                 # unregister a runner (by token or name)

gitlab-runner install --user=gitlab-runner --working-directory=/home/gitlab-runner
gitlab-runner uninstall
gitlab-runner start
gitlab-runner stop
gitlab-runner restart
gitlab-runner status

An example .gitlab-ci.yml pipeline:

stages:
  - build
  - deploy

build:
  stage: build
  tags:
    - build
  only:
    - master
  script:
    - echo "mvn clean"
    - echo "mvn install"

deploy:
  stage: deploy
  tags:
    - deploy
  only:
    - master
  script:
    - echo "hello deploy"

The article notes that GitLab CI is convenient for DevOps engineers who often combine development and operations, while Jenkins CI suits larger teams with distinct roles, richer plugins, and separate configuration code.

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