Local backend

danger

The local backend will execute the pipelines on the local system without any isolation of any kind.

note

Currently we do not support services for this backend. Read more here.

Since the code runs directly in the same context as the agent (same user, same filesystem), a malicious pipeline could be used to access the agent configuration especially the WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET variable.

It is recommended to use this backend only for private setup where the code and pipeline can be trusted. You shouldn't use it for a public facing CI where anyone can submit code or add new repositories. You shouldn't execute the agent as a privileged user (root).

The local backend will use a random directory in $TMPDIR to store the cloned code and execute commands.

In order to use this backend, you need to download (or build) the binary of the agent, configure it and run it on the host machine.

Usage

To enable the local backend, add this to your configuration:

WOODPECKER_BACKEND=local

Shell

The image entry is used to specify the shell, such as Bash or Fish, that is used to run the commands.

.woodpecker.yaml

steps:
  - name: build
    image: bash
    commands: [...]

Plugins

Plugins are just executable binaries:

steps:
  - name: build
    image: /usr/bin/tree

If no commands are provided, we treat them as plugins in the usual manner. In the context of the local backend, plugins are simply executable binaries, which can be located using their name if they are listed in $PATH, or through an absolute path.

Options

WOODPECKER_BACKEND_LOCAL_TEMP_DIR

Default: default temp directory

Directory to create folders for workflows.