BUG: issues with CI caching

Bug

Error description

It seems that old pages have been lost somewhere:

Error message

First guess on error origin

Looking at different jobs on different branches shows that the pages caching name is mutable.

lukas_issue387_bug_transformation-for-climate-and-fir-clim-mix -> Creating cache old-pages-3-non_protected... master -> Creating cache old-pages-3-protected...

But these names do not match. Therefore, the master branchs cannot be used in the other branches and the other way around. Running CI on a non-protected branch will move the master badges to a hidden space.

Error origin

There is already a discussion ongoing here: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-runner/-/issues/29033#note_930759146

Maybe a solution could be to apply the following workaround / hack:

my-cool-job:
  ...
  variables:
    CACHE_FALLBACK_KEY: "node-modules-${CI_ENVIRONMENT_NAME}"
 ...
  cache:
    # this is a workaround of https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/86107/diffs#fa6cef4c2c6f398d87d46ae6584eaec407365c19_450_468
    key: "$EMPTY_NOT_EXISTING_VARIABLE_THAT_WILL_BE_EMPTY_FOR_SURE"
    paths:
      - node-modules/

Solution

SOLVED: GitLab version was updated. With current version the naming behaviour for (un)protected branches can be disabled in the options. No need for adjustments in the code or the gitlab runner.