GitLab CI template job with different names - docker

Question

Is there a way in GitLab CI to use a generic job template and run multiple instances of that job with different names?
Below I have a generic job definition in build.yml that specifies that the job will run in stage build and it will run docker build with the given Dockerfile.
I want to be able to run several builds (in parallel, but I excluded that for now to keep the configuration as clean as possible) with different names that are based on this build template. Example in build_a.yml and build_b.yml where I set a specific variable for the job that specifies which Dockerfile to use.
And in the main file gitlab-ci.yml i want to include these specific jobs (build_a and build_b).
common.yml
image:
name: docker:dind
services:
- docker:dind
stages:
- build
build.yml
build:
stage: build
script:
- docker build -f $DOCKER_FILE
build_a.yml
include: 'build.yml'
build:
variables:
DOCKER_FILE: DockerfileA
build_b.yml
include: 'build.yml'
build:
variables:
DOCKER_FILE: DockerfileB
.gitlab-ci.yml
include:
- 'common.yml'
- 'build_a.yml'
- 'build_b.yml'
The problem is that when I include these build jobs they have the same job name, and the first job (build_a) will be overwritten by the second job (build_b) in the resulting Yaml file.
Is there another way of doing this that I have missed in the documentation or other similar issues?

Answer 1

A way to solve the above issue is to use the extends keyword to extend the job configuration in the specific build files.
The below update will create 3 build jobs (.build, build_a and build_b), and the runner will exclude the job named ".build", so that only build_a and build_b will be executed.
common.yml
image:
name: docker:dind
services:
- docker:dind
stages:
- build
build.yml
.build:
stage: build
script:
- docker build -f $DOCKER_FILE
build_a.yml
include: 'build.yml'
build_a:
extends: .build
variables:
DOCKER_FILE: DockerfileA
build_b.yml
include: 'build.yml'
build_b:
extends: .build
variables:
DOCKER_FILE: DockerfileB
.gitlab-ci.yml
include:
- 'common.yml'
- 'build_a.yml'
- 'build_b.yml'