From 1c9e7c77c5f17c6f15bc6b0f705b551ac5b70e2b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: technofab <admin@technofab.de>
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2025 15:09:27 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] chore: add test and docs for handling nix store paths in
 global variables

---
 docs/index.md        | 11 +++++++++++
 tests/cilib_test.nix | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 33 insertions(+)

diff --git a/docs/index.md b/docs/index.md
index 214fbf3..14f7da3 100644
--- a/docs/index.md
+++ b/docs/index.md
@@ -9,3 +9,14 @@ This project provides a Nix flake module that allows you to generate your `.gitl
 - **Modularity:** Define and manage your CI configurations in a structured and modular way using Nix modules, making it easier to share and reuse CI logic across multiple projects.
 
 This documentation will guide you through setting up and using Nix GitLab CI for your projects.
+
+## Warnings
+
+To save you from frantically searching these docs if something doesn't work as expected, here are the most important warnings ;)
+
+!!! warning
+
+    Do not put Nix store paths into global/pipeline variables. They will simply be passed through,
+    resulting in bad portability (if two runners have different archs for example, one cannot find the path).
+    If you need any Nix store path in env variables, always do it on the job level, there
+    it will automatically be computed at runtime, thus will always work no matter which runner it runs on.
diff --git a/tests/cilib_test.nix b/tests/cilib_test.nix
index b53308c..2322906 100644
--- a/tests/cilib_test.nix
+++ b/tests/cilib_test.nix
@@ -163,6 +163,28 @@
             };
           }).finalConfig;
       }
+      {
+        # it doesn't make much sense to have any nix store path in variables, but we ignore it for global variables
+        name = "ignore store paths in global variables";
+        expected = {
+          variables = {
+            HELLO = "world";
+            CURL = toString pkgs.curl;
+          };
+        };
+        actual =
+          (mkPipeline {
+            name = "test";
+            nixConfig.enable = true;
+            pipeline = {
+              variables = {
+                HELLO = "world";
+                CURL = toString pkgs.curl;
+              };
+              jobs = {};
+            };
+          }).finalConfig;
+      }
     ];
   };
 }